When the doctor said it was okay, I assumed it was okay.

I'm CEO of a company in the pharmaceutical business.

I've been in healthcare on the payer side of things my entire career.

How ironic is it that my child develops

an addiction to a prescription drug?

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My son was 19 years old when he tore his kidney.

He went into the ICU and was prescribed opioids.

What I didn't know was that even when they stopped

prescribing it for him that he'd continue to use.

Then it turned from use to abuse to addiction, full-blown addiction.

Trying to pick yourself up every day and just get

dressed and walk into the office was difficult

when you know that your child's health

and well-being is kind of hanging in the balance.

Moms want to fix things for their kids, and I couldn't fix them.

I didn't have the answers, and I didn't

have anyone to talk to about it.

My employees didn't know I was suffering from it either and nor

did my son's co-workers know that he was going through it.

I think it's the best-kept secret

and businesses want to close their eyes to it.

You have somebody who's dealing with cancer and comes

in and they're in remission, we're celebrating that.

We're celebrating in the lunchroom, we're asking

them when we see them, "How are you doing?

How are you feeling?"

Yet when you're dealing with that, either as a patient of substance

use disorder or as a loved one, no one is talking to you about it.

Just think about how much more productive those people

would be if they actually had that support system there.

I'm happy to report that my son is

in recovery and the reality is, I respect

him probably more than I respect almost anybody I've met in my life.

The strength that he had to pull from to get through this and knowing

that every single day it's still a struggle, he's taught me a lot.

Just the fact that it's out in the open and that

people like myself are sharing without shame,

provides me some hope that maybe we can start

treating substance use disorder differently.