Tag Archives: intervention

My brother and I met up again and here’s what happened

By H. Swan, co-author, A Night in Jail Part 2 of a 3-Part Series. Read Part 1, Originally published on Momsstrong.org

As per the agreement with the intervention, we cut off contact with him. Tough love they call it. We didn’t know what else to do. K’s brain was obviously fried from all the drugs. Surely, he would die doing drugs and we couldn’t be part of it. We couldn’t have our own lives ruined because of his choices.

Looking back, he tells me he didn’t feel like anything was wrong with him. He was just a guy who chose to live the party life. He wasn’t going to be confined by “the nine-to-five job with a wife and kids.” He was born in the 60’s and wanted to live the footloose and fancy-free life. Continue reading My brother and I met up again and here’s what happened

Years of pot, drug addiction and homelessness

By H. Swan, co-author, A Night in Jail

Part 1 of a 3 Part Series. This article first appeared on MomsStrong.org

K started getting high at a young age. He smoked just a little bit, almost every day, through junior high, high school, college and graduate school. To him, it seemed like harmless fun. But within a few years after completing his higher education, he became a homeless drug addict and dealer with schizophrenia. He went to jail eighteen times. Relative to so many others, K’s story ends well. He is alive, out of jail, off the streets, and is sober. He is receiving psychiatric care. He lives in a group home where his meals and transportation are provided, and his psychiatric medications are dispensed. He is alive to tell his harrowing story. To warn teenagers that what seems like harmless fun can actually ruin their lives, K and I wrote a book which is inspired by his experiences.

Continue reading Years of pot, drug addiction and homelessness

A Father’s Grieving Tale: “A Life Half Lived”

A Life Half Lived is wonderful biography and memoir by a father who lost his son in a tragic car accident. Darryl Rodgers’s love for his son Chase shines through on every page of this book.  Chase made some bad choices about substance abuse, the company he kept and the final decision about getting into the car with an impaired driver.

As the father explains, Chase packed forty years of life into twenty years.  The book is so engaging that the reader doesn’t want to stop. When Darryl wrote the book, it appears he was trying to figure out where he went wrong, or what Continue reading A Father’s Grieving Tale: “A Life Half Lived”