My name is Emily Rowland, and I’m writing this because my brother, Sebastian, needs your help. He’s been through so much, and he deserves a chance to recover — but we need your support to make that happen.
Our story begins with a life shaped by addiction. Our mother has struggled with drugs for as long as I can remember, and that left both of us without the love and guidance we desperately needed. My brother and I grew up without the mother we deserved, and I’ve watched him try so hard not to follow down the same path. He swore he would never turn to drugs — and for a long time, he didn’t. But things changed.
In 2016, my brother fell in love with someone who had a history of substance abuse. For most of their relationship, my brother stayed away from drugs, despite his boyfriend’s struggles. He believed that his love could help them both stay clean. But as his boyfriend’s mental health worsened, so did his addiction. In a moment of trying to keep his boyfriend happy, right before his death, my brother gave in and tried drugs with him for the first time.
Then, in September of 2019, tragedy struck. His boyfriend took his own life, and my brother was the one who found him. I can’t imagine how devastating that moment must have been for him. To make things worse, his boyfriend had written a letter asking for help, but my brother didn’t see it in time because they were fighting. He’s carried that guilt ever since, blaming himself for not being there when his boyfriend needed him the most.
Just a few months later, COVID hit. My brother, still reeling from his loss, was suddenly locked down and alone with his grief. There was no one to turn to, and in his pain, he turned to drugs. It numbed him, helped him push the pain away, and in his mind, it kept him from breaking down. But the truth is, it was only destroying him. I watched as the drugs took over his life and shattered everything he had worked so hard to hold together.
Now, my brother is losing everything — his job, his health, his hope, and now his home. He’s on the verge of being evicted from his apartment with nowhere to go. As a result of his addiction, he contracted HIV, and that has only made his fight even harder. He needs specialized treatment that addresses not only his substance abuse but also his mental health and his HIV diagnosis. The rehabs he could go to now won’t treat all of his issues — they’re like prisons, and he needs more than that. He needs a rehab that can give him the care, compassion, and medical attention that can truly save his life.
This is why I’m asking for your help. My brother needs to go to a rehab that offers holistic treatment, one that can address all of his challenges — his addiction, his mental health, and his medical condition. He’s not asking for luxury for the sake of comfort — he needs specialized care from top-notch doctors and therapists who understand the complexity of what he’s dealing with. Without your support, I’m afraid I’ll lose my brother. I know he can beat this if he gets the right help. He’s ready to fight for his life, but he needs a place that will treat him like a whole person, not just another patient. Please, if you can, help me get him into a rehab that will give him the best chance at recovery.
Any donation, no matter how small, will bring us closer to saving him. I love my brother, and I want to see him heal. Thank you for reading our story and for any help you can give. The saddest part of all of this is that after waiting my whole life for our mother to be clean, now that she’s been sober for three years, it’s my brother who is trapped in addiction. It’s the cruelest irony that when we finally got her back, I’m afraid of losing him.
