Laura Bradfield Overdosed & Died December 21, 2017

Before you read this, understand that this will not be an easy article to look at right before Christmas, so save it for later if you need to.

Yesterday at 1:00 PM EST, my beautiful daughter Laura left this world after years of struggle with depression and addiction. Tragically she overdosed and the person she was with, also on drugs, failed to render aid in time.

Laura is no longer here to tell her story, connect with others, make an impact, so that has fallen to me, her mother. I look at this as my “position of privilege”. Benjamin Franklin had the famous quote: “The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and expecting a different result.”

We are going to have to change our perspective, the conversation and the strategy; otherwise, deaths from drug overdoses will exceed cancer and heart attacks as the primary killer of Americans, both young and not so young. Overdose deaths are already #3 on the list and have increased 21% from 2015-2016.

I don’t have a complete perspective on what this change looks like, but trust me I will and when I do, I’m going to be in your LinkedIn, your email inbox, and on your Facebook pages looking for you to be a part of this movement and change.

After all, it’s now all of our positions of privilege.