Two Moms with Two Dead Kids: When Your Child Dies From a Drug Overdose
Join two moms who talk about what it's like when your child dies from a drug overdose, and what life is like after a drug overdose death.
Warning: Conversations may contain triggering material, dark and irreverent humor, and possible cursing.
Want to contact us with a thought or topic for discussion? Send us an email at: twomomswithtwodeadkids@gmail.com.
Episodes
38 episodes
A Chance Encounter
A chance encounter can rock your world. Astrid talks about a recent encounter she had at the grocery store with the mother of the girl her son loved.
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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25:07
What's In a Name? Introducing: Prolonged Grief Disorder
After a few minutes of the last dregs of Christmas talk, Astrid and DeAnne discuss the fact that what has been known to us as Complicated Grief has undergone a name change to Prolonged Grief Disorder. Are we disordered? When your c...
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Season 1
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Episode 37
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29:56
A Post Holiday Review
Each holiday season will be different. This year, both of us experienced Christmas differently than we had before. It was "better," a shift had occurred, and at the same time letting go of loss is hard.
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Season 1
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Episode 36
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22:02
Waking Up
At some point, we begin to wake up to our present surroundings. Maybe we realize we want a new top, or want to change the way our furniture is arranged. When we wake up to our surroundings, is it a sign of re-entry into the world? An acknowledg...
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Season 1
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Episode 35
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27:59
Lightening the Load of Grief
What are some things we can do to lighten the load of grief after a death by overdose? We talk about some of the experiences that have helped us shift our response to our children's deaths. Getting unstuck is an adjustment. We beco...
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Season 1
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Episode 34
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28:51
A Thanksgiving Review
DeAnne and Astrid discuss how their Thanksgivings went. A theme that came up - how do you know when it's time to make a change? We get so ingrained in our habits that sometimes it doesn't occur to us that we can stop doing the thin...
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Season 1
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Episode 33
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27:28
Friends
When you experience a devastating loss, friendships can change. Sometimes for the worse, and sometimes for the better. In this episode, Astrid brings her friend Stacey on to talk about how their friendship has changed since the death of her son...
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Season 1
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Episode 32
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26:40
Searching for That Connection
One of the things I miss most is my sense of connection to my son. I lost it when he died, and now I'm always looking for ways to reconnect. Do you, too? In this episode, Astrid and Kevin discuss different means of connecting to th...
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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28:49
My Ayahuasca Experience - as the Parent of a Child Who Died of a Drug Overdose
The title says it all.
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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18:44
Giving In
In this episode, we discuss the benefits of "giving in." Giving in to how we feel. Giving in to the moment. Letting go of the need to get things done.Sometimes, after trauma, we go through a process of redefining what's important in our...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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29:31
The Power of Writing It Down
Neither of us is a journaler, although DeAnne recently bought a journal with good intentions. What we can attest to, though, is the power of spontaneous writing exercises to help us understand and see ourselves in different ways. D...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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29:05
Why Aren't We Divorced?
Kevin and Astrid continue their conversation while DeAnne is away. Kevin talks about the different ways he deals with grief, which doesn't currently include therapy. Why is that and what does he do in its place? We talk about our c...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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27:36
A Husband. A Father. Introducing Kevin, Garrett's Dad.
DeAnne is out of town, so Astrid invites her husband Kevin, Garrett's dad, to sit in. What are some of the differences in how two parents can grieve the same child? Do we see the same events differently? Kevin gives his take on the...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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22:16
Does Your Mother Know Where You Are?
DeAnne and Astrid discuss an interview Astrid watched with a mother whose son committed suicide. It prompted them to touch on whether their own children's deaths were accidental, or not. How do you know if an overdose death was accidental? Does...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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26:12
Let's Talk Gabor Maté
Gabor Maté is a Canadian physician and addiction expert. (In our conversation I called him a psychologist - sorry.) In this episode we discuss his book, The Myth of Normal, and what we took away from it. One of DeAnne's biggest imp...
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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23:41
The List
Here we visit The List - topics that have come up for us in our grief journeys that we feel would be worth discussion. What's on the list? What are the things we have faced or continue to face in the process of coming to terms with a death by o...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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30:03
An Accidental Conversation About Animals - the Pets We Love
In this conversation, we start out discussing the rituals and habits we form to get us through the day. and what happens when these get disrupted. It's interesting to think about how we rebuild ourselves and our days after the deaths of our chi...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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25:14
Why Not You?
In this episode, we start out by talking about triggers - the things that bring up old feelings of helplessness and anxiety. Neither of us ever really felt that our children would die. But they did. And that brings up the old sayin...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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30:46
Signs
How many of us have wished for a sign from our loved one? Did you get one? A lot? None?In this episode we discuss some of our experiences with signs.
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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25:33
There's the Shock, and Then There's the Realization That They Are Not Coming Back
In today's episode, we welcome our friend Beth, who also lost a child to a drug overdose. We talk about coming out of the shock of experiencing the death of a child, into the realization that they are not coming back. We can be so ...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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28:00
Reopening to Life
When your child dies from an overdose, many of us harden to life. We become frozen, paralyzed, and turn to stone. In this episode, we discuss practicing going from hard to soft. Frozen to unfrozen. We also talk about where we find support in th...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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28:28
What Are We Doing? Are We Supposed To Be Doing Something?
In this episode, we discuss how the ways in which we care for ourselves have changed. This discussion leads into a conversation about finding meaning. Is it out there to find?
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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27:08
What Does it Mean to Heal?
In this episode we discuss what it means to heal. Is there a definition for it? Is it possible to heal from grief? Or is grief a chronic condition - something to be endured but never truly healed? Interwoven into the conversation is the questio...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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28:21
Holidays and All the Stuff That Goes With It
Holidays. When your child dies, what do you do about holidays? Do patterns change or stay the same? Cling to the old ways, or make new ones? We've pretty much decided that you can do whatever the hell you want to do. And you can make a change a...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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36:18