How Do You Know If Your Child Has an Addiction? | Mark Rosman | Part 1How Do You Know If Your Child Has an Addiction? | Mark Rosman | Part 1
Addiction Talk
Hollywood director Mark Rosman talks with Joyce Sutton about the painful process of recognising his daughter’s addiction and turning that journey into the film *Keep Coming Back*. The conversation focuses on missed warning signs, the emotional toll on parents, and the idea that family members may need to change themselves to support a loved one’s recovery.
12:24•24 Jul 2026
A Director Dad Shares the Warning Signs He Almost Missed
Episode Overview
- Parents may miss early signs of addiction because behaviour can look like typical teenage issues until it becomes severe.
- Most films focus on the "wild ride" of the addict, but Mark Rosman chose to centre his story on the parent’s journey.
- Mark believes loved ones should examine their own behaviour, as their changes can create space for a child’s recovery.
- Writing and directing a film based on his family’s experience was emotionally intense yet cathartic for Mark.
- Ideas common in Al-Anon, such as family systems and self-focus, strongly influenced the themes of his film.
“"Parents and really anyone who has a loved one that's struggling with this disease needs to look at their own behavior, and once they start to change, that can often open the space for recovery in their loved one."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This part-one chat on *Addiction Talk* follows Hollywood director Mark Rosman as he shifts from light-hearted teen hits to one of the hardest stories a parent can face: realising a child has an addiction. Hosted by Joyce Sutton, the episode focuses less on celebrity gossip and more on what happens inside a family when drug use surfaces.
Mark talks about his well-known work on *Even Stevens*, *Lizzie McGuire* and *A Cinderella Story*, then explains how life events and his daughter’s struggles with drugs pushed him to write more personal material. He shares how most addiction films chase "the addict's wild ride" but he wanted something different for his new film, *Keep Coming Back*: a story centred on the parent.
That shift mirrors his realisation that, as he puts it, "parents and really anyone who has a loved one that's struggling with this disease needs to look at their own behavior, and once they start to change, that can often open the space for recovery in their loved one." Mark is honest about hitting his "emotional bottom", breaking down in his car during pre-production, and allowing himself to feel everything rather than push it away.
He talks about the relief and pain of turning private family moments into scenes, the choice to make his onscreen dad a widower, and how Al-Anon ideas shaped the film’s theme of family systems. This episode speaks directly to parents wondering if their teen’s mood swings and rule-breaking are typical or a red flag, and to anyone who loves someone with addiction and feels helpless.
It asks a gentle but challenging question: instead of trying to fix your loved one, what might change if you started with yourself?
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