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I just got home from downtown Los Angeles, where I spent the day with my brother. The traffic-filled ride home took nearly an hour and forty minutes, and I spent most of that time crying. Downtown Los Angeles triggers me. I see mentally ill, drug-addicted people sleeping on sidewalks, in doorways, and doing drugs, while regular people walk past or around them. This isn’t even Skid Row. I have been to Skid Row looking for my son. It was a traumatic experience I wouldn’t wish o

The Great American Recovery Initiative Misses the Mark   The first batch of funding released under the Great American Recovery Initiative has been framed as a bold shift in America’s response to substance use disorder. At Prevention Day, the largest government sponsored gathering dedicated to advancing substance use prevention and hosted by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a $100 million investment intended to correct

Bill Williams with his son William Recently, I was discussing the substance use epidemic with a friend who works in addiction advocacy. We were talking about the obstacles, hurdles, and pitfalls my son William encountered in his struggle with and eventual death from heroin.  In a flippant moment, I described his experience and that of many like him as a game of “Chutes and Ladders” where the board only contained chutes. That remark is, in fact, my dismal assessment of the pos

It’s been just over two years since our family was in the struggle for our kids lives. For over six years with our two kids in active addiction, there were over twenty treatment stints, relapses, ER visits, car accidents, overdoses and even periods of homelessness. So much of that time was gnarly. But there were also times where we could see a glimmer of hope - sobriety, clarity - but then, hope would slip away as quickly as it appeared. The journey was exhausting, discouragi

A Mom's Journey Key reflections: Much of this may seem obvious but took me years to truly understand and accept. ·      My being happy...

Megan and Ravi Addiction was my adversary in my marriage. I loved a man with alcoholism. I was in a tug of war with a disease for sixteen...