Showing Up When it Feels Impossible: Combating Grief with Hope and Compassion
Brianna Mangano |
TEDxEasthamptonWomen
• December 2018
Two weeks after Brianna’s wedding in 2016, her brother overdosed from a lethal mix of heroin and fentanyl. Her talk discusses the challenge, and the power, of showing up while grieving, for others but also for oneself. Now a graduate student in social work, Brianna has both professional and personal experience of the costs of the opioid epidemic. Since 2013, nearly 9,000 people in Massachusetts have died from opioid addiction. This talk combats the intense stigma that surrounds substance users and their families, and offers an alternative to grieving silently, by showing up for one another.