When I finally entered recovery, I started writing letters. Not to clients. Not to colleagues. But to a dear friend—another therapist—who also struggled with substance use.
She had a different path than mine.
A harder one.
A quieter one.

These letters became a lifeline. They helped me make sense of my past, my pain, and the patterns I hadn’t known how to name. They helped me understand addiction in a new way—from the inside out.

Those letters became a book: The Road I Never Meant to Take—a story told in 52 parts, full of hard truths, healing science, and a surprising kind of hope.
The absence of the friend I wrote to is never directly explained… until it is.
And by then, it’s not just their story—it’s ours.