David Sheff Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

We deny the severity of our loved one's problem not because we are naive, but because we can't know.

David Sheff
When I transformed my random and raw words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into chapters, a semblance of order and sanity appeared where there had been only chaos and insanity.

David Sheff
Along with the joy of parenthood, with every child comes a piercing vulnerability. It is at once sublime and terrifying

David Sheff
I'm not sure if I know any 'functional' families, if functional means a family without difficult times and members who don't have a full range of problems.

David Sheff
I am becoming used to an overwhelming, grinding mixture of anger and worry...

David Sheff
It's like if the music is loud enough I won't be able to listen to my own thoughts.

David Sheff
Wherever you be, wherever you may, seek the truth, strive for the beautiful, achieve the good.

David Sheff
How can both Nics, the loving and considerate and generous one, and the self-obsessed and self-destructive one, be the same person?

David Sheff
At my worst, I even resented Nic because an addict, at least when high, has a momentary respite from his suffering. There is no similar relief for parents or children or husbands or wives or others who love them.

David Sheff
Anyone who has lived through it, or those who are now living through it, knows that caring about an addict is as complex and fraught and debilitating as addiction itself.

David Sheff
Here's a note to the parents of addicted children: Choose your music carefully...There are millions of treacherous moments.

David Sheff
Through Nic's drug addiction, I have learned that parents can bear almost anything....I shock myself with my ability to rationalize and tolerate things once unthinkable. The rationalizations escalate....It's only marijuana. He gets high only on weekends. At least he's not using hard drugs....

David Sheff
If you subscribe to the idea that # addiction is a disease, it is startling to see how many of these children - paranoid, anxious, bruised, tremulous, withered, in some cases psychotic - are seriously ill, slowly dying. We'd never allow such a scene if these kids had any other disease. They would be in a hospital, not on the streets.

David Sheff
And though I have done many shameful things, I am not ashamed of who I am. I am not ashamed of who I am because I know who I am. I have tried to rip myself open and expose everything inside - accepting my weaknesses and strengths - not trying to be anyone else. 'Cause that never works, does it?So my challenge is to be authentic. An I believe I am today. I believe I am.

David Sheff