My Alcohol Problem & Life Stories From the Road.
This is my story of how alcohol has impacted my family
I spent weeks wondering whether I was imagining things.
Wondering whether I’d become overly suspicious. Wondering whether I’d lost touch with reality.
Then the truth arrived all at once.
It’s a relief, in a way, to discover you weren’t wrong.
But I would rather have been wrong.
This isn’t really about labels. Labels are just the visible part. Product labels tell you the important things. The part that says, publicly and without apology: This product carries risk. For years, blinded by alcohol culture, I smoothed over information. Even as a cancer survivor, I smoothed over the cancer warnings. I’d see headlines saying…
After my son was found passed out behind a beer store, I found myself thinking about a social media comment that blamed parents for alcohol use disorder. The reality is far more complicated. Genetics, ADHD, emotional pain, life experiences, alcohol itself, and countless other factors shape vulnerability to addiction. This is a reflection on relapse, grief, and why blame rarely helps anyone.
Just when I start to believe everything might be OK, I find evidence suggesting I should have waited a little longer. Living with a loved one’s AUD means learning to navigate the space between hope and fear, while imagining a future where alcohol is no longer woven into every social expectation.
There’s usually a lot to unpack in a product label. Sometimes, such as when the product is a drug or supplement, there isn’t enough room on the label to list all the side effects and interactions so it spills over into a little pamphlet with tiny writing that you have to magnify to understand. Alcohol,…
The Roller Coaster I Never Chose One of the hardest things I have ever had to learn is that there is a difference between loving a person and participating in their crisis. For a long time, I didn’t know that difference. When someone you love has severe alcohol use disorder, every day can feel like…
From Life Support to Gritty Hope Ok. I really had to think about writing this post. I had to think about thinking about writing this post. In the end – here I am, writing this post. I don’t like to think too much about hope. Not here. I can hope for nice weather for my…
When you live close to addiction, you start to notice the gaps. Not just in treatment or support—but in the way we talk about the substance itself. Or more often, the way we don’t.
I thought I had Done the Work As far as I can tell, My Guy is holding his own.He’s communicating with me—and with some others that really surprised me. People he hasn’t reached out to in a long time. When he told me, I said he must be feeling pretty good to take that step.He…
The Trauma of AUD He called. Exhale. Deep Breath in and hold. I’m quite tired of having conversations in which I spend the entire time double thinking. The first is simple: listening to my son. Engaging. Being present. The second is exhausting:analyzing tone, sentence structure, fact checking,watching the needle on my bullshit detector. And I…