State of Mind
room. Our concern intensi ed, and we sought more help. By the time Austin was 16, he was using opioids. e next three years were a blur of therapists, interventions, wilderness programs, therapeutic boarding schools, and ER visits. ree years later, Austin was doing great. He went o to college with newfound determination and optimism. But in the middle of sophomore year he was struggling again. He took time o and entered an intensive outpatient program. He completed that program, got a great job, and everything was looking up again. Until those 48 hours that I will never be able to understand or reconstruct. Until the phone call came that would bring any parent to his or her knees. Until he lost his battle and I lost my son. Someone said losing a child is the greatest pain we will ever face. ey were right. Looking back, I wondered why it was so di cult to help Austin. Why was it he saw or went to 18 di erent people or places for help? Why was there no roadmap? Why did I feel like we were lurking in shadows the entire time? Was this our journey, alone? I soon came to understand our family’s journey was far from unique. But even inWestport, CT, society wants to pretend addiction is not the horri c problem it is. Addiction is devastating our country and stealing our youth. With 21 million people currently su ering and 23 million in long-term recovery, addiction to alcohol and other drugs impacts one in three American households. Addiction a ects as many people as diabetes, and 1 1/2 times as many as all cancers combined. Someone, usually a young adult, dies from alcohol or other drugs every four minutes – a jumbo jet falling from the sky every day…with no survivors. Addiction and accidental overdose are now the leading killer of people under 35 years of age, and addiction costs our country $500B a year. Where is the outrage? For decades, our country has done little to combat the scourge of addiction, and so it continues to get worse, striking an ever-younger audience every year. Why? Because the stigma, shame, and hopelessness surrounding addiction have kept this issue in the shadows, with those su ering (and society) silently ignoring the inconvenient truth that addiction was, and is, ravaging our country. As a result – astonishingly – there has never been a well-funded equivalent of the American Cancer Society or American Heart Association to battle the addiction crisis. is is why I le my career and, with others whose lives have also been forever changed by this crisis, created Facing Addiction to develop a We Can End America's Addiction Crisis... But Only Together By JimHood, Co-Founder and CEO of Facing Addiction
I had a horrible feeling that late October Friday in 2012. God knows, I’d been in that situation many times before – wondering if Austin was OK. But this time felt di erent. at Wednesday, he le voicemails that sounded confused – from a friend’s phone, because Austin had misplaced his, again. On ursday, Austin sent texts from that same phone. Something wasn’t right. I called the friend I didn’t know and told him I was concerned about my son, and asked him to have Austin call me. Several hours later the friend called to say he went to Austin’s apartment but no one was home. I thought about getting on a plane to New Orleans to make sure everything was all right. I don’t know why this time seemed so di erent; I just knew it was. A few hours later I received a blocked call. I couldn’t answer in time, and there was no message. ree minutes later a call came in with a New Orleans area code. It was the coroner saying my beautiful boy was found slumped over his kitchen table, dead from an opioid overdose. Austin’s journey was over; mine was just beginning. Like every son or daughter, Austinwas a wonderful person. He had his issues, but mostly he was just a kid trying to grow up in a world that throws endless challenges at all of us – some we understand, some we don’t; some we share, some we keep hidden deep within. A loving boy with a huge heart, incredible mind, and amazing sense of humor. He was on his way to becoming a world-class guitarist. Austin loved John Mayer and was nearly as good. But at age 14, we discovered Austin was drinking. We were deeply concerned and sought help. By 15, we found pipes andmarijuana in his
ABOVE: WE CAN PREVENT OVERDOSE – “SUPPORTERS AT FACING ADDICTION’S RALLY ON THE NATIONAL MALL”
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