addiction

Artwork: Tess Emily Rodriguez

Ask Erin: I'm Newly Sober—Will I Ever Feel Normal Again?

I know it doesn’t happen overnight, but I feel so uncomfortable all the time. There is no relief.  Read...
From the author's mother's modeling dossier, courtesy of Elizabeth Kadetsky.

The Memory Eaters: A Q&A With Author Elizabeth Kadetsky

At turns lyrical, poignant, and alluring, The Memory Eaters tells the story of a family’s cyclical and intergenerational incidents of trauma, secret-keeping, and forgetting in the context of the 1970s and 1980s New York City. Read...
My wife has a gambling addiction — and that night, it came to a head.

Can My Marriage Survive My Partner’s Gambling Addiction?

My wife told me that she lost the entire mortgage gambling. She has a gambling addiction — and that night, it came to a head.

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Artwork: Tess Emily Rodriguez

Ask Erin: I'm Ashamed I'm An Addict

I need to help myself. I don’t know if you will read this, but inside I’m screaming for someone to hear me. I’m really ashamed to say that I am an addict—I don’t think I have ever said that before.  Read...
Artwork: Tess Emily Rodriguez

Ask Erin: Gambling Addiction Is Destroying My Family

He keeps promising to get better and then relapses — and continually lies to me about it.  Read...
(Artwork: Tess Emily Rodriguez)

Ask Erin: How Do I Tell My Sister That Her Husband Relapsed? 

I'm fairly certain my brother-in-law relapsed on heroin, and I don't know how to tell my sister that her husband relapsed.

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Artwork: Tess Emily Rodriguez

Ask Erin: How Do I Handle My Husband's Addiction?

How do I handle this? Should I just stay out of his life for a while?  Read...
Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

On Enabling: I Was Addicted To My Son's Addiction

There’s a big difference between helping your child and enabling their behaviors. When I discovered my son had an alcohol addiction, I was a single parent of two teenaged children.

The first time I saw my son Brian drunk, he was 14 years old. 

We had just moved from Missouri to New York State after my second divorce. I felt ill-equipped to deal with the painful reality that my son was repeating the cycle of his father, whom I had left due to his alcohol addiction.

When I ask myself how I became an enabler to his addiction, I reflect on my background. I grew up the oldest child in a family of four children. As the eldest, I was called on to be the caretaker of my younger siblings. The caretaking role felt comfortable and validating. When I left home at 18, I chose to pursue a career in nursing, further reinforcing my role as a caretaker.

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