Kevin Barhydt on Growing Through Adoption

Grow Through It: Adoption, Child Abuse, Substance Abuse, Opiod

Kevin Barhydt, author of Dear Stephen Michael’s Mother, describes the primal wound he experienced being adopted when he was born. He recounts being molested as a child, raped as a teen, and becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol as a young person. It was not until years later that he came to terms with feeling abandoned, not wanted, and understood the effect the adoption had on his self-worth. “An adoptee alone is in bad company,” he says, and attributes turning his life around to therapy, 12-step programs, and a community of adoptees, birth mothers, and adoptive families. His advice: “Do not do this alone.”

Jim Brown, Recovered Alcoholic, on Growing Through Addiction

Grow Through It: Substance Abuse and Opioid Crisis

Jim Brown describes his journey from narcotics addiction to alcoholism to recovery. Over the years, he experimented with therapy, medication, hypnosis, and even a 12-step program to stop drinking. After he took his last drink, he stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated back to life and put on a ventilator for several days. After bottoming out, he committed to a 12-step fellowship program. He says sobriety is hard work and he credits his daily work with his recovery program, his “Team Jim” that supports him every step of the way, and his relationship with a higher power.