Originally published in The Albuquerque Journal on May 18, 2025.
I vividly remember growing up and my grandmother warning me to be careful with alcohol — because addiction “runs in our family.” She wasn’t wrong. For generations, both sides of my family struggled with harmful alcohol use. As a child, I witnessed heavy drinking, explosive fights and relatives joking that I was being raised “street smart” by being around their substance use. No one in my family has ever received formal treatment and this continues to impact current generations.
These experiences shaped much of my life. I have dealt with the lasting impacts throughout most of my adult life, including facing my own problems with alcohol use.
With determination to change the narrative for other families like mine, I went on to study addiction for over a decade. I pursued a career as an addiction scientist while raising three young kids, driven by the motivation to ensure people had access to the help my family never did.