I am a person in long-term recovery. What that means for me is that I have not used any type of mood altering substance in over eight years. Recovery has allowed me to become a positive and contributing member of my family and community and to serve my state and our country in a...

When I got clean and sober there was something that came along with completing 12 steps and living a life in recovery. Like a prize at the end of the game or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They told me I would get “a life beyond my wildest dreams.” I am here to tell...

Every 15 minutes, someone in the United States dies of a drug overdose. Our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers are being lost at a record rate. What are we actually doing about it? I run a large jail and I saw the need to move beyond talk to action...

My name is Ryan Grose and I was born into this disease. Substance abuse runs in my family. My grandfather died of it, and my father lives with it as well. As anyone who’s a child of an addict knows, it can really affect you. For me, my family’s issues with addiction affected my...

Who am I? A woman. An activist, believer in women’s empowerment, Jamerican. Progressive. I’m also a two-time breast cancer survivor. That last one is the most important to me. I want people to know me as a survivor. The road from discovery to recovery for me was not easy, but...

For those of you that don't know my story, here is a glimpse of the hell I went through. It took me a long time just to see the light that was there all along. When I look back on my life, sometimes I get disappointed, sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry. I was an award-winning...

I have a soulful, creative, loving, beautiful and kind 19 year old daughter. She is still alive, still in recovery, and still in treatment—her fifth one since she was 15. Any parent who has been through this knows the silent pain we face and can only image the silent pain our...

My name is Randy Anderson and I’m a person in long term recovery. What that means to me is I haven’t had to use drugs or alcohol or any mind or mood altering substance since January 9, 2005. Because of my recovery I’m able to be a husband, a son, an uncle, a brother. I’m able to...

I got drunk for the first time at age 13 at a teenage drinking party in Avalon, NJ. There was a large punch bowl filled with grain alcohol jungle juice and I was eager to try alcohol, as it was a constant in our household growing up. I wanted to be cool and fit in – feel a part...