27 Comments
User's avatar
Phillip Slater's avatar

Inspiring and valuable. I lost my brother to addiction. Other people I’ve been close to have also struggled. I don’t partake now but know I got lucky.

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

My heart hurts for you Phillip. I lost my best friend to heroin, so I get it. I am just feeling so lucky to have made it out of that world alive. I'm glad you're alive... and here. Thank you for sharing.

Expand full comment
Phillip Slater's avatar

Same to you and sorry for your loss.

Expand full comment
Ava's avatar

I could not possibly agree more. What starts out as fun or escape takes over your life and carves out your guts until you're something you never dreamed you could be. Glad you're still here 🖤

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

It all felt great… until it didn’t. Thank you. Glad to still be here.

Expand full comment
Sheryl Hutton's avatar

Poignant beautifully written. The part about Caleb broke my heart.

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

Thank you Sheryl. It still breaks my heart to this day and always will.

Expand full comment
Sarah - The Artist Becoming's avatar

This is what courage sounds like <3

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

Thank you, Sarah. It was all worth it if I can help one human being not feel the way I felt when I hit rock bottom and lost everything.

Expand full comment
Mia Vega-Ayala's avatar

🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼

Expand full comment
Outtamydamnmind's avatar

I white knuckled it , because I did in the moment I didn’t think that it had a cool name. I honestly didn’t even think people would believe I once was addict bc I didn’t ever visit a rehab I didn’t ever do AA or any 12 step program. Honestly my family didn’t even know. They had no clue I came home every night bug eyes open on coke and then would swallow a Xanax and hope speedballing wouldn’t take my life. I was exactly what people thought I was , a good kid. Never in any trouble never been arrested. No one ever talked bad about me no one ever noticed me.

See I was never seen no one knew addiction was taking over my life. So when I decided to move 1000 miles away no one thought it was to get sober everyone thought it was to heal a broken heart 💔

I look forward to speaking with you in July I truly do 🫶🏼

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

We have walked a very similar road. Very similar. I look forward to it as well.

Expand full comment
Outtamydamnmind's avatar

I’m glad our roads have finally crossed paths 🫶🏼

Expand full comment
Bougie Hippie's avatar

Hi Mike, from one addict to another - your story hits home.

🖤 restacking this line it's so good...

"Drug abuse isn’t a joke.

It’s not edgy. It’s not rebellious. It’s a con. A seductive lie that always begins with “this is fun” and ends somewhere dark and hollow."

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

A brutal truth everyone needs to know. Thanks for sharing.

Expand full comment
Bougie Hippie's avatar

sober tribe here. x

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

Someday I will drop story about how myself and my obliviously disrespectful friends sat at 4 days worth of Grateful Dead shows smoking giant spleefs directly by the Wharf Rats table in Autzen Stadium. True and shameful story.

Expand full comment
Bougie Hippie's avatar

id like to read that story.

Big Grateful Dead fan.

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

The shows were great. We were not.

Expand full comment
Bougie Hippie's avatar

i can only imagine

Expand full comment
The Therapist Who Came Undone's avatar

You are brave. Thank you for sharing. I swear, you could change the details (replace drug addict with anorexic) and we could be telling the same story. Looking forward to learning more about your story.

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

I am happy to share, especially if it helps someone else learn what I learned at such great cost. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Hustle and Heel's avatar

I’m proud of you for sharing this. I know it’s not easy to be this honest and vulnerable especially about something so heavy. As someone out here trying to do the same, I just want to say… I see you. And I’m proud of us.

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

My goal in life is to be brutally compassionate, and refreshingly honest. I appreciate everything you have to say because it reaffirms and validates that attitude for me.

Expand full comment
Hustle and Heel's avatar

Same…and you’ve been incredibly supportive to me. I hope you know how much I appreciate it. You honestly feel like an old friend.

Expand full comment
Bear Wiseman's avatar

There's something so deeply magical to come here with a story in my heart involving substance abuse and an adoptive son. It is nothing like my story. It is so utterly different. Yet your pain and the depth of your love and storytelling speak back to me. Through these stories, we feel understood and it can be very healing. Thank you so much for writing about this 💞

Expand full comment
The Weight of Almost's avatar

The full story is in my memoir, Almost - A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Women Who Changed Me, but of course in the end it is my subjective experiences. There is a universal truth though that you touched on. Addiction robs us, every one of us, of the most precious things. And much of the time we have to be stripped of everything we care about before we finally make positive change. Sharing is part of healing.

Expand full comment