Since making the tough decision to open up and write about our family almost losing H to the drug overdose and beating, I’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness and support of friends and strangers alike. I plan to write more about that support later, as I have time. But today, I gotta admit that the highly critical comments (of me) following yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle’s blog post about of my decision to discuss this issue publicly are kind of hard to see/read.
Ouch.
The three primary criticisms seem to be:
A – That I had no right to share publicly that my son’s current critical injuries are the direct result of drug addiction (Was I supposed to make something up? Maybe something like, “My kid is on life support because he encountered an IED in Downtown Knoxville” or perhaps “My son has a major brain injury after being attacked by a bear while hiking the Appalachian Trail.” ?????)
B – That early experimentation with mind-altering substances (H started at 13-14) have no impact on whether or not someone eventually ends up with a true addiction.
C – That drug addiction is not a disease and that treating it as one only makes the problem worse.
Again, I plan to address all of these specific criticisms in some depth in an upcoming blog post, but for now, I’d like to hear your thoughts on these criticisms, here at this blog. Heck, if folks are gonna talk about this, I’d rather it be here…
Let me wrap up by saying again how much every single kind word and supportive message I’ve received since “coming out” has meant to me. And just to be clear, I have let H know that I’ve begun discussing this issue publicly and that I intend to continue doing so in an attempt to lessen the shame and stigma for other families (after all, people whose children have brain tumors talk about it publicly without shame), and to help raise awareness. I told him that keeping the secret about his illness has not helped him, our family or anyone else. In fact, he’s gotten progressively worse. And we’ve kept it a secret for several years now, only talking openly for the first time after it landed him in the intensive care unit with what has now been diagnosed with a hypoxic brain injury that will require intense inpatient physical and neurological rehabilitation after he’s released from the hospital.
But anyway, let’s talk about it – in the comments below.
Namaste – Katie












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