Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Well, addiction does start with a choice.
After a hellish decade, my son got and stayed sober.
There are many things I wish I could redo as a parent.
I didn't cause it. I can't control it. I can't cure it.
No, I don't believe in tough love. I just believe in love.
There isn't just one way to get healthy and sober and to stop using.
I was ashamed. My son is a drug addict. What does this mean about me?
Nic was a lovely child, though of course I'm prejudiced. I'm his father.
I am becoming used to an overwhelming, grinding mixture of anger and worry.
How innocent we are of our mistakes and how we responsible we are for them.
Everyone's generation probably feels like they're parenting in a better way.
When change takes place gradually, it's difficult to comprehend its meaning.
Elvis Presley's music said, 'Free your body.' The Beatles said, 'Free your mind.'
Few adults realize what a huge force video games have become in children's lives.
To try to help somebody who doesn't want to be helped is ludicrous. It doesn't work.
Kids love the 'Mario Brothers' games, which are whimsical, inventive and lots of fun.
At some point, parents may become inured to a child's self-destruction, but I never did.
Many doctors are stuck in the idea that addiction is a choice, and they don't treat that.
So many times in the middle of an interview I've had people say, 'Can we go off the record?'
A world of contradictions, wherein everything is gray and almost nothing is black and white.
Wherever you be, wherever you may, seek the truth, strive for the beautiful, achieve the good.
I spent years searching for effective programs that would lower drug use and prevent addiction.
Addiction is a disease like anything else. It's like cancer, like heart disease, like diabetes.
We deny the severity of our loved one's problem not because we are naive, but because we can't know.
Every relapse is dangerous, but often it takes multiple relapses before someone finally gets sober for good.
Like so many of us, I'm brokenhearted about the death of the remarkably talented actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Though addiction is a disease - a brain disease that's often progressive - addicts who relapse are often blamed.
I don't object to AA at all - only the programs that insist that it's the only way to get clean and to stay clean.
An alcoholic will steal your wallet and lie to you. A drug addict will steal your wallet and then help you look for it.
Along with the joy of parenthood, with every child comes a piercing vulnerability. It is at once sublime and terrifying
When he was on the streets, I was consumed with Nic. I was obsessed with him to the point that I could barely function.
The tragic fact is that with addiction, like many other illnesses, sometimes you can do everything right and people die.
Here's a note to the parents of addicted children: Choose your music carefully...There are millions of treacherous moments.
You know, we think about addiction as a morally reprehensible choice, but addicts act crazy because, in a way, that they are.
Openness is the first step toward recovery... addiction remains a secret because of the overwhelming shame associated with it.
I came to understand that Nic on drugs was not the Nic I knew and trusted. Nic on drugs was somebody else. We were afraid of him.
So often we have this image of what drug addiction looks like, and it's not fun. Our loved ones who go down that path are in pain.
How can both Nics, the loving and considerate and generous one, and the self-obsessed and self-destructive one, be the same person?
The motivations for using drugs, often it's pretty obvious and common: you know, peer pressure. You know, kids are struggling growing up.
If a child had another disease, we'd be open about what we were going through, but addiction is stigmatised and comes with shame and guilt.
That's the difference between even the best video game and what's going on in books. Video games can inspire a reaction, but not the emotions.
Nick's mother and I were attentive, probably overly attentive - part of the first wave of parents obsessed with our children in a self-conscious way.
David Hockney is best known for his work with paint and canvas, but he has also worked in media as diverse as Polaroid-photo collage and fax painting.
I have my limited skills as a journalist and a father, and the journalist part is really part of my mindset, to use my skills to try to solve problems.
Relapse is very dangerous. However, relapse can be a symptom of the disease. Sometimes there are multiple relapses before you get sober and stay sober.
I'm not sure if I know any 'functional' families, if functional means a family without difficult times and members who don't have a full range of problems.
My son is living proof that those like him can not only be treated, but can live lives free of the pain that plagued them and the disease that controlled them.
One of my dearest friends is alive only because of AA. But it doesn't help a lot of people. And everyone is different, and everyone needs different kinds of treatments.
Everybody tells you over and over again that addiction is a disease. But when I read Nic's book I understood not just that this is a disease, but what the disease means.
Anyone who has lived through it, or those who are now living through it, knows that caring about an addict is as complex and fraught and debilitating as addiction itself.