Family stuff

I've been missing from the boards lately, except for posting in the staff area as to why. I've had quite a shock/loss in my family. I found out that my brother had died. And then I found out how he died...suicide.

We were estranged because of his addiction to prescription narcotics, and the ramifications of that addiction, such as an extremely volatile temper and delusions. I, along with several other family members, including physicians and registered nurses, tried over many years to get him to get help. But, as addicts do, he refused to acknowledge that he had a drug problem. But he did. Big time.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that he's dead, and that his despair had reached such an unbearable point that taking his own life looked like the best or only way out.

He was 56.

 

Thanks, everyone. Damn, I love this place.

A few more details. I've spoken to the coroner and the police, and I have copies of the reports and his death certificate on their way to me. I also spoke to the person who actually found him, and he filled in a lot of details.

I've also contacted two reporters at the LA Times who've been working on an ongoing series of articles about prescription drug abuse. I know the name and location of the doctor who prescribed the *ENORMOUS* quantities of narcotics to my brother over many years. If the reporters don't want to pursue anything, I'll go to plan B, which will be taking matters into my own hands to see that the doctor and pharmacy are investigated.

 

We're all still trying to come to terms with this, and I vacillate between being extremely angry and extremely sad. The main thing I take from it is: what a waste. What an awful, unnecessary, tragic waste.