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On July 16, 2015, two New Canaan police officers knocked on the door of our house at 25 Heather Drive, to tell my wife and I that my Evan from Heaven, that funny family comedian, had died of an overdose the previous day. That young man, who lighted up the room when he walked in, had passed alone in his

I remember lying awake in my bedroom at my stepmother’s house on Christmas Eve 2015, thinking not about the usual festivities with Rudolph and Santa, but about whether I’d make it another year to witness my nephew Wyatt’s first birthday. He had been born just hours before that evening.  Given the direction I was going, I wasn’t entirely sure I

Taken from talks that Pema Chödrön gave in the 1990s, When Things Fall Apart is a treasury of wisdomfor going on living when we are overcome by pain and difficulties. An America-born Tibetan Buddhist, Pema draws from traditional Buddhist wisdom to offer a way to rethink our lives and lean into discomfort and struggles in order to live a more

On Tuesday, June 3, I attended and was honored at Liberation Program’s Spirit of Hope Gala. With a theme of “Celebrating Resilience”, the event recognized both John Maxwell and me as individuals who have had “extraordinary impact on families and communities across our region” through their “dedication to saving lives and building a safer, more compassionate world.” In receiving the

Starting with our 7th Annual Vigil, NCPSG adopted a tagline very relevant to our group: “Families Empower Recovery”. From personal experience with my son Evan, I understood that the entire family system is impacted when a loved on is struggling with addiction. Not only was it a matter of the father and mother being impacted, but Evan’s three siblings as

I was born in Queens and moved to Roslyn, Long Island when I was in the 4th grade. That is when my depression began. We moved to an upper-middle-class town, where fathers wore suits, moms played tennis, and my peers had nannies. I felt so out of place and just wanted what they all had. I would come home from

Laura Stack more than met my lofty expectations when she presented to parents and concerned citizens at NCPSG’s May 7, 2025 Zoom Pathway Session. The session intermingled her son Johnny’s story of cannabis use in Colorado with the latest findings on the impact of THC on the brain and body. Her son Johnny, who died at age 19 by taking

I had just been released from detox and was starting an outpatient addiction treatment program for the ninth time. “One day at a time”, that saying in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, still sounded corny to me, just like it had 8 times before. I was afraid. I was 22 years old, sitting in my childhood room on my twin

This book was inspired by the author’s success helping his brother Henry, who had schizophrenia, accept treatment. Dr. Xavier Amador shares his own personal experience with specific tips and recommendations based on LEAP (Listen, Empathize, Agree, Partner). He designed LEAP to help family members with loved ones who don’t recognize they have a severe mental health condition like schizophrenia. The

On Tuesday, April 22, 2025, we hosted an informative Pathway Session on how Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) could successfully help struggling families in CT. The reason for the session was that several NCPSG parents have been impacted by a loved one’s serious mental illness, specifically schizophrenia caused by high-potency THC. This is quickly becoming an epidemic in our state. As