EP 137 After 30+ Treatment Attempts, She Never Stopped Believing Guest Sheree StilwellEP 137 After 30+ Treatment Attempts, She Never Stopped Believing Guest Sheree Stilwell
Living With Your Child's Addiction
Heather Ross talks with Sheree Stilwell about her son’s 20-year struggle with substance use, more than 30 treatment attempts, and the choice to follow her heart instead of tough love. The conversation centres on CRAFT, harm reduction, and staying connected while caring for her own mental health and raising her grandson.
45:55•22 Jul 2026
She Never Stopped Believing: Sheree Stilwell on 30+ Treatments and Still Holding Hope
Episode Overview
- Tough love and shaming approaches left Sheree feeling blamed and disconnected, pushing her to seek a different path that matched her heart.
- Learning CRAFT, Invitation to Change, and motivational interviewing helped her focus on her own wellbeing and respectful communication.
- Sheree shifted conversations with her son away from his use and towards everyday life, which increased contact and rebuilt trust.
- Embracing harm reduction and medication-assisted treatment allowed her to prioritise her son staying alive over demanding total abstinence.
- She encourages parents to keep communication open, hold on to hope while caring for themselves, and aim for relationships they won’t regret, even if recovery looks different than expected.
“"Is he still breathing? Then there's still hope."”
What drives someone to seek a life without giving up on their child, even after 30-plus failed treatment attempts? This conversation between Heather Ross and guest Sheree Stilwell centres on exactly that question, offering a raw yet hopeful look at parenting through a son’s decades-long substance use disorder.
You’ll hear Sheree describe the early days, starting with that first phone call from school when her son was caught with weed at 14, and how things escalated far beyond what she ever imagined. She talks about sitting in a hospital teen programme, listening to boys explain that their parents had "given up" and praying, "God, please don't ever let me give up on him." That promise became the backbone of her journey.
Sheree walks through years of trying what she was told to try: Al‑Anon, 12‑step‑heavy support groups where leaders shouted "You're killing your son", and tough love advice that went completely against her heart. Exhausted and consumed by worry, she eventually found CRAFT, Invitation to Change, and motivational interviewing, trained with leading clinicians, and realised, "This is for me.
I have to live and I have to change how I'm living because this is killing me." The episode highlights how Sheree shifted from constant conflict and guilt to connection and boundaries that were respectful to both her son and herself.
She shares the impact of harm reduction, including accepting medication-assisted treatment and focusing on the simple truth that "he is alive." Her son later told her, "Mom, through everything, you are the only person that I knew would always be there," and she answers, "I'm not going anywhere." This is for parents who feel stuck between tough love messages and their own instincts, and who fear hope is slipping away.
It asks a quiet but powerful question: if your child never fits the perfect recovery picture, how do you live with no regrets while keeping the relationship alive?
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