Overcomers Approach
Nichol Ellis-McGregor
Podcast
Episodes
Listen, download, subscribe
A Mother Faces Child Loss After Opioid Addiction
Send us fan mail. We love to hear from you! Grief doesn’t just hurt emotionally. Sometimes it moves into the body, changes your appetite, steals your breath, and makes ordinary errands feel impossible. I’m joined by Katie Rizzo, who shares the story of losing her firstborn son, Nicholas, to opioid addiction and the metaphor that helped her survive: grief unfolding like the trimesters of pregnancy. She walks us through the nausea and shock of early loss, the numb stretch where everyone else seems to “move on,” and the moment she needs the world to know her son existed and mattered. We also get honest about the opioid epidemic, overdose deaths, and why so many addiction treatment systems fail families. Katie and I talk about stigma, shame, and the lie that addiction is a simple willpower problem. We connect the dots between relapse, isolation, jail, foster care, and the community-level cost of treating people as disposable. Along the way, we name privilege and disparities that show up in who gets punished and who gets supported, and why “all kids are our kids” has to be more than a slogan. Katie shares what actually helps: Al-Anon, finding grief support groups with lived experience, and using creativity to keep breathing. Poetry becomes her way of speaking to Nicholas, and her husband turns to music, proving that art can be a real tool for coping with complicated grief. We close with hard-won practices for the darkest days, including choosing freedom over blame and learning to let grief sit beside you without letting it take over.The takeaway is not that loss becomes okay, but that meaning and even moments of joy can coexist with sorrow. For anyone facing child loss, addiction loss, or complicated grief, this is a empathetic map toward truth-telling, support, and a freer way to live. If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find support. More on Katie Rizzo at https://www.katierizzo.com/ Information and resources regarding this matter in the U.S. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/cm/opioid-addiction-resource-directory https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/helplines/national-helpline https://al-anon.org/ helplinehttps://988lifeline.org/ https://nida.nih.gov/ https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/index.html Thank you for listening! Support the show Nichol Ellis-McGregor, MHS | LinkedIn Facebook Mrs. Nichol (@mrs.nichol_7) | TikTok Nichol Ellis-McGregor (@mrs_nichol) • Instagram photos and videos HOME | Nichol-Empowerment Life Coach (nicholkellis-mcgregor.com) Thank you for listening!
Overcomers Approach RSS Feed
