314: What Comes First Addiction or Mental Health With Stephanie Marquesano
Soberful
Veronica Valli & Chip Somers
4.8 • 611 Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of the Soberful podcast, Veronica Valli speaks with Stephanie Marquesano, founder of The Harris Project, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing co-occurring disorders. Stephanie shares her personal journey following the tragic loss of her son, Harris, to an accidental overdose. The conversation delves into the complexities of co-occurring disorders, the importance of prevention and education, and the need for integrated treatment approaches. Stephanie emphasizes the significance of empowering young people with knowledge about mental health and substance use, and the role of community in supporting families facing these challenges. To learn more, visit the show notes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I dreamt that you were twisting through seven suns of gold and the gypsy was insisting |
| 0:10.2 | that story must be told I came two in the morning but I took it as a warning that you might be a treasure I could touch but never hold. |
| 0:27.6 | Hello everybody and welcome to the Soberful podcast and today I am joined by Stephanie Marquistano. |
| 0:34.7 | Did I say that correctly? |
| 0:36.0 | Pretty close, yes. |
| 0:40.7 | Welcome, Stephanie. Now, Stephanie is, |
| 0:46.1 | well, has a lot of bunch of very interesting things to talk about. Stephanie is, are you the founder? |
| 0:50.8 | You're the founder of the Harris Project. I'm the founder and president. Why don't you tell us what the Harris Project is about? So let's just start by saying that in the United States, more than 21 million people have something |
| 0:58.0 | called co-occurring disorders, which is when you have both mental health challenges and |
| 1:02.3 | substance use issues. |
| 1:04.1 | When my 19-year-old son Harris died by accidental overdose in 2013, we had gone through a year |
| 1:10.6 | and a half of residential treatment programs for |
| 1:13.6 | inpatient to outpatient, each saying Harris has co-occurring disorders and each saying that they |
| 1:19.2 | treated it. So literally, the moment he was gone and everybody wanted to make donations and know what |
| 1:26.1 | they could do to support my family, |
| 1:28.5 | I just kept saying they all said he had this thing, they all said that they treated it, |
| 1:34.8 | and I am going to dedicate my life to figuring out co-occurring disorders. |
| 1:38.7 | So the Harris Project is still the only nonprofit in the nation dedicated to co-occurring disorders, prevention, |
| 1:46.0 | treatment, systems transformation, and really at the base, raising awareness, can't prevent |
| 1:51.9 | something you've never heard of. You can't demand access to better care if you don't know what's |
| 1:56.4 | missing. So that's my sort of call to action. I'm so sorry for your loss. |
| 2:01.5 | Is that a picture of him behind you there? |
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