15 Things Moms Who Have Lost a Child to Overdose Need you to Know.

Recently, while attending a funeral for a young man that I had worked with, several conversations were struck up. The conversations were a familiar theme of navigating past trauma and loss, particularly of children. Sharing and being present for the loss of another parent’s loss, has a unique way of unlocking personal loss all over again. This pain can also be more intense since a person might have started to let down their guard down.

Through the rollercoaster of a child’s addiction, parents become accustomed to pain and chaos. After their death, the pain and chaos transform into something new and unfamiliar. There are many misconceptions about the loss of a child to an overdose.

There is nothing more unnatural than the loss of a child. The expectation is that parents are to be buried by their children, not the other way around. Each year in the United States, 70,000 people die as a result of an overdose. For this series, I asked three amazing women to share pieces of their children with me. Also, they share 15 things that people should understand about parents who have lost children to overdose.