Have you ever loved someone battling addiction? I have.

In December of 2019 I learned that my daughter was an IV drug user. I was an emergency room/ICU RN in school for nurse practitioner. I dealt with addiction all day in my career, I knew I could handle anything and everything thrown at me. It wasn’t until my own adult child was struggling that I realized my world would never be the same.

It’s 2023 now, and I look back and recognize that I had zero clue at what I was doing and just how horrible addiction is. It was after her first relapse that I went on TikTok and started sharing my story of being the mother of an addict. Little did I know then just how many lives and families addicition touched. It was people in the recovery community that educated me more than any book. As my social media account continued to grow I realized just how alone others like me felt. The shame, the guilt, the blame…what could I have done differently? The phone anxiety! I still panic every time an unknown number calls me. Ambiguous grief which is the act of grieving someone who is still alive. My daughter has been to 7 treatment facilities in 3.5 years. As I am writing this…she is still in active addiction and I am still raising my grandson.

I have never been so disgusted by an industry like I am when it comes to addiction treatment. There is a huge lack of ethics, and the profit over patient is out of hand. You will see blog posts about this because as a provider I know how important ethics are and it just makes my blood boil.

I will be sharing more details about the things I enjoy and some of the stressors in my life other than my daughters addiction. Hopefully I can provide some of you with some tips on my worldly experience lol. Some things I love: Coffee, Costa Rica, the beach and reading.