An Ephemeral Experience of Permanence by Amanda St Claire
The epoch of tiramisu in bed on a Saturday morning. Of sharing soap, of rituals, what it means to live a thousand lifetimes within a year, knowing your mother w...
Category: Addiction
Trigger warning/Make Me Cry/7 Minute Read/ACEs/Addiction/Adversity/Escape/Featured/Family/Fathers/Literature/Loss/Memoir/Mental Illness/nonfiction/Relationships/Survival/trauma
Drowning by Natasha Williams
He was disheveled and smelled like cooked grease and cigarettes. It was an odor I associated with his being poor and hemmed in. There was so much about our life...
3 Minute Read/ACEs/Addiction/Adversity/Childhood/Escape/Featured/Fathers/Grief/Loss/Memoir/nonfiction/trauma
Frankenstein’s Daughter by Sherry Shahan
Maybe I should tell her that Daddy drives with his knees while poking triangle holes in beer cans? Or that he once fell out his car door while rounding a corner...
Trigger warning/5 Minute Read/Addiction/Adversity/Anorexia/Being Body/Escape/Featured/Girls & Women/Identity/Man in The Mirror/Mental Health/nonfiction/PTSD/Race Matters/Sexism/Society/trauma
One Token Is Always Enough by Jen Shin
My body has changed like my surroundings, too. Instead of the 15-year-old I was when I went to sleep, I am now the 18 year-old-version of myself that I will wor...
5 Minute Read/Addiction/Childhood/Family/Fathers/Grief/Loss/Love/nonfiction/Parenting/personal essay/Regret/Relationships/war
King’s X and Cabbadoni by Marguerite Welch
Life with Dad was an endless game. We shot candles out of Mother's silver candelabra on the picnic table. I learned to drive racing the jeep around hay bales in...
Ned by Author Madison Welborne
An audio memoir exploring anorexia. Madison is not gaining weight and must be subjected to the tube.
A Week Among the Rest by Thomas Kirk
“Have you taken anything or had a drink in the last twenty four hours?” Tim, the intake nurse asked. “We’re going to take a sample, so no need to lie.” I lied a...
1 minute Read/Addiction/Art/Audible/Audio Visual/Black Memoirs Matter/Incarceration/Institutions/nonfiction/Society/Survival/trauma
A Poem in Prison: A film by Daniel Cantagallo (and Etheridge Knight)
Sometimes a voice stops you in your tracks. For me, such was the case with Etheridge Knight. During the past few years, I have been remixing old footage and aud...
#Recovery Runner Up/12 minute read/ACEs/Addiction/Childhood/Faith/Fathers/Inspirational/nonfiction/Recovery/Survival
Father Figured by Laura Carey
This flex-time rehab had been recommended to me by the same doctor who’d prescribed 100 Vicodin every two weeks for fibromyalgia. After a couple of years under ...
The Understory by Buffy Barfoot
*Featured Artwork by Mali Fischer The word understory was gifted to me by a dear friend, as many good things are. Its meaning can be assumed, because all humans...
20 Minute Read/Addiction/Family/Grief/Institutions/Literature/Loss/Mental Illness/nonfiction/Recovery/Survival
Please Survive by Catharine Lucas
For years, I believed I could FIX my son, control, restrict, protect him, by sheer force of will. When that didn’t work, I’d throw up my hands in despair and tr...
12 minute read/Addiction/Funny/Inspirational/Man in The Mirror/nonfiction/On Memory/personal essay/Recovery/Society/2018 Recovery Essay Award Winners
Being the Lie by R.J. Roberts
Everyone in rehab has a very serious neck injury. It’s the hardest injury for doctors to accurately diagnose, even with modern MRIs and cat scans, the neck is ...
Fifty Miles by Sheryl St. Germain
If I were a religious person, I would say something blessed me that day. But I’m not a religious person. Perhaps some part of me believed, as I still do, in the...
Recovery Essay Contest
[su_note]A big shout out to everyone who has had the courage to write and submit their recovery story. The Finalists have been selected and will be announced on...
Addicted to Love: 38 Special By Tanner Ballengee
* Featured Artwork: By Michelle Nguyen Addicted to Love: 38 Special By Tanner Ballengee “I woke up this morning with a piece of past caught in my throat, ...
The Truth Tale: A Love Story By Pia Rabin
I sit out in the chill wet evening, all the roses are dead on the bushes, waiting and hoping and knowing, here we are at last and so soon.
Dear People Who are Not Opioid Addicts By Margaret Weeks
The first time I took a Vicodin, I didn’t nod out; quite the contrary, I was imbued with positive energy and became quite industrious and efficient. All my rese...