Frownland

Damn. Sorry to hear that dude.

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[MERIT]

Thank you. She was only 28 when she died.

When she was 15, she started acting out [like most teenagers do]. My mom took her to the doctor and he put her on an SSRI antidepressant. That quickly turned into a slew of prescription drugs, which seriously fucked her up. It was all downhill from there.

When she legally became an adult, she began doctor shopping. Antidepressants, opiods, benzos. She was a walking pharmacy for a decade. She had 2 plastic containers [probably the size of a 24-pack of soda/beer] that were full of pills at all times. She also drank while medicated, which was super dangerous.

She had to have a hysterectomy. Her insurance only covered 1 day of recovery, so the doctors sent her home before her pain was under control. She refused to stay with family while she recovered.

She went home, self-medicated, accidentally overdosed and passed away. Her kids were only ~ 5, 6, 8 & 10 at the time. Horrible all around.

Justthefacts

I understand the pain my friend. My brother died from opioids too almost 4 years ago. It's rough the first couple years but slowly gets better. Although he died from an infection that slowly killed him over time. Drugs are fucking bad and I try to help anybody that's addicted the best I can. At least the children have you guys to look up too.

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[MERIT]

Didn't mean to over-share like Chula.

I'm truly sorry to hear about your brother. Losing a sibling is never easy.

I honestly think that the U.S. [and other countries] should take Portugal's lead and legalize ALL drugs, treating addiction as a health problem, rather than a criminal issue. The U.S. states that have legalized recreational cannabis have had nothing but great results [fewer people incarcerated = less strain on tax payers, revenue from taxation of the cannabis funds infrastructure, decreased drug crime rates, etc.]. Though, I will say that the taxes on recreational cannabis can be egregious [Washington's is like 37%].

On a side note, I was thinking the other day. Don't remember what the medium was, but it was something about somebody cutting themself to relieve stress [self-harm]. And It got me to thinking, should addiction be classified as self-harm?

Justthefacts

Yes. As much as people can't control themselves, they willingly know that doing drugs could kill them at any point. Although cutting yourself while not under the influence I guess could be a different type of discussion.

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Key

Sorry to hear for both JTF and Merit. I as well have an older brother that will either die from a drug overdose or prison. Not implying you guys lost someone to drugs specifically. I haven't really known my older brother for 10+ years. I know it's not even close to the same thing as losing him entirely but I feel like it could happen any day. Haven't actually talked to him in that same amount of time.

Chula Vista

My wife's cousin lost her son to opioids about a year ago. He went to bed the night before and never woke up. Just a teenager.

It's become a major epidemic back in New Hampshire.

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and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Key

I don't have a lot of care for my older brother at this point since he chose his path, but for my parents sake, i do feel like I'll wake up one morning to find out my brother died. He's been in and out of jail more times than I can count and he tends to call the street 'home'. It's a shame that this happens to people.

I hope I'm not coming off as not giving a **** but my brother burned so many bridges that it would take several years for him to fix the brother relationship we are supposed to have. It's tough to even call him my brother but by blood, we are.

Justthefacts

True. It's hard to love someone that has an addiction, God knows it was difficult for me to love my brother when he was off the rails but at the same time I couldn't blame him because it wasn't technically him, it was this lifeless slog of a shell he was trapped in. The last two weeks were great though cause he was sober. And then he died.

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Key

You were at least fortunate enough to see him sober. I haven't seen my brother sober in a very long time. It's extremely unfortunate you had to lose him though, and I send my sympathies. I don't really know how I'll react if the day comes that I find out he died from an overdose.