On Sept. 6, I posted a Google review of Resolutions, the Santa Monica, California, sober house where I lived for three months and eventually relapsed last December. I'd been sitting on it for a while, afraid my critique would come across as too emotional. Fourteen days later, Presley Gerber, the son of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, died there.
Police suspect an overdose, but the Los Angeles County medical examiner has deferred the cause of death pending toxicology. I am a privileged 49-year-old white woman in Los Angeles who was sober and relatively happy for over 18 years until around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. My hormones and sleep tanked, and I got hooked on sleeping pills and benzodiazepines.
Yet none of them worked for long because I developed a dependence. In February 2025, I went to rehab to get sober. When I left the program, I still needed structure and support as I transitioned back to the real world, this time without benzos.
And that's how I ended up at Resolutions Living. It wasn’t a lockdown facility but a supportive living house where I could come and go as I wanted, as long as I was back by the 10 p.m. curfew. In those early days of my recovery, I needed to be protected from myself, but that place did not keep me safe.
I had my own suite with a bathtub for $17,000 a month that my parents willingly paid in addition to the rent on my Santa Monica apartment. I realize now that, just like the Gerbers, families do anything they can to keep their children alive. The staff, most of whom were in early recovery and aspiring to be therapists, made sure I had the wild-caught salmon, Japanese sweet potatoes (please), gluten-free chips and miso dressing I liked.
But they were much too lax for an addict like me. My med box, which contained various antidepressants and sleeping aids, was locked in a cabinet. The only person between me and any pill I wanted in my box, from supplements to pharmaceuticals, had no clinical training.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
