Heroin Support Blog

Our goal here is to provide our readers with the latest information about the signs substance abuse disorder, support groups, treatment options, life in recovery, prevention & advocacy in our communities, and how to deal with the grief of a lost loved one. If you have ideas or suggestions that you wish to share with us here please use our "Contact Us" page at the very bottom of this page to email us. You can click on our Memorial Map to add your loved ones tribute to the map and then a few days later we will add them to our memorial blog.

We Are the Parents of a Child Lost to Heroin

gretchen funeral

We are brought together by the unspeakable, forced into a group (www.HeroinMemorial.org) no one wants to join. Membership is permanent and there is no escape. Once you join this group, life as you know it stops. It will never be the same again. Your circumstances have changed and you must find a way to adjust. You were not prepared for this, you feel like you are on a raft in uncharted waters, lost, in the dark and all alone. How do you adjust to the unbearable emptiness , the anger, the fear? How are you supposed to live the rest of your life when a large part of you has died? How do you keep yourself from bursting into tears in the checkout line because of some trigger no one would understand? How do you stop looking to see if he is there waiting for you to get off work? How do you stop checking your phone for messages or texts? There are so many questions...and no answers. We are left to fend for ourselves, tending our wounds that no one sees.

MemorialDamageDone

 (Click the image above to share your own memorial tribute on our page)

Losing a child to a drug overdose carries with it a special kind of pain. We continuously torture ourselves as we sift through each and every decision we have ever made as a parent. We carry the overwhelming guilt that we failed as a parent. We failed our child, and now our child is dead. And if that isn't enough, society tells us it is our child's fault for trying drugs in the first place. Our child could quit if they really wanted to stop using. Our child is labeled a junkie, a waste. No one witnessed the horrifying effects of detoxing. No one cleaned up the vomit and helplessly listened to the excruciating crying for relief, holding them as muscle spasms took control of their legs, believing heartfelt promises they would never do heroin again.

We go to counseling, we join support groups and we brave a fake smile when someone asks us how we are doing. Inside, we are grasping at any explanation of this travesty that we think will help us feel better. Why did my child die when there are such evil people in the world? Why was it my child that succumbed to his demons when others go on using for years and years? But deep down inside, we really don't care about the answers, we just want our child back. We would give everything we had including our lives just for five more minutes...

We are the parents of a child lost to heroin.

- Gretchen Miller-Addison, mother who lost her son Tyler, 21, on November 3rd, 2014 to heroin.

You can read his memorial tribute by clicking here.

 #AskMeAboutMyAngel   #HeroinMemorial   #GoneToSoon

tyler

 

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Heroin Memorial - 2012/08/01 - Victoria Crispin - Cleveland, Ohio 44119

Torie1

Submitted By: Lorie VanTIlburg - parent

Victoria Crispin

Cleveland, Ohio 44119
Date of Birth: 10-14-1990 
Date of Passing: 08-01-2012

Tell Us About Them
Victoria was my youngest. She always wanted to be affectionate. She wanted to make sure everyone was happy.

Addiction Struggles 
It started with the pain meds her Dr. prescribed after the epidural they gave here when her son was born. THey did something wrong and she would get migraines. She started to abuse the pills and someone introduced her to heroin. And within a year she was addicted and lost her life.

What Made Them Smile
Her son Calob

What Do You Miss
That high pitched whiney voice she would get when she didn't get her way.  

Torie2

View this online Memorial Tribute Map by clicking here.

Submit you own online Memorial Tribute for our map and blog by clicking here.

View our entire online Memorial Tribute Map by clicking here.

 

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