Yerson's family has never been particularly good at expressing their emotions. When things got hard for Yerson, he felt like he needed to deal with it silently and he started using substances to cope.

Over time, Yerson learned that healing happens when people communicate—and now he's sharing his knowledge with his parents. He's teaching them skills about opening up and expressing yourself. Growth and connection can happen within a family at any point, and it starts with speaking up.

If you want to start a conversation in your family about substance use disorder (SUD), take a look at: https://www.samhsa.gov/families