SHESPEAKS Your Power to Influence

In an effort to raise awareness about drug addiction and the struggles many families face, one Ohio mom, Eva Holland, posted a very unusual photograph to her Facebook. The picture, which has since gone viral, shows both she and her two children standing in front of the open casket of her recently deceased husband who succumbed to a long battle with a heroin and prescription pill addiction.

CBS News reports about the photograph and how Holland hopes the image will drive home the reality of what this type of addiction can do. Holland is aware that the photo is probably controversial and won’t sit well with some. She writes in the caption, “I'm sure this photo makes a lot of people uncomfortable it may even piss a few people off but the main reason I took it was to show the reality of addiction.” She adds, “I know a lot of people may be upset I'm putting it out in the open like This but hiding the facts is only going to keep this epidemic going. The cold hard truth is heroin kills. You may think it will never happen to you but guess what that's what Mike thought too.”

Holland goes on to explain how her husband, Mike’s, heroin addiction began the way it does for many people, after becoming addicted to prescription pain pills. And though he was successful at staying sober for a while after a stint in rehab, he fell off the wagon a couple of months ago after taking a single pain pill for a toothache and began using again. She hopes that by being so open and letting people see just what this does to families will help to at least get a dialogue going.

Unfortunately, Mike’s story is not at all unique and the CDC reports that in the last decade heroin addiction has doubled in the 18 - 25 age group. And what’s even more typical of Mike’s story is that it all started with a prescription pain pill addiction which reportedly makes a person 40% more likely to become addicted to heroin.

What do you think of the photograph that this grieving widow posted to her Facebook?

Do you think it will send a message about the reality of drug addiction within families?