I know of one family that has been torn apart by the addiction of their now adult son. As a kid he was a national class ski racer who earned a scholarship to BYU. After BYU he tried to get into medical school, but his ego got in the way and the only medical schools that he applied to rejected him. While he was trying to decide what he was going to do with his life, he had a car accident, injured his back, and started down the long road of addiction to oxycontin. For the past 13 years he has alternately embraced and fought his addiction. He lost a wife and several girl friends along the way and nearly drove his parents to divorce. His addiction has damaged his life and ruined most of his relationships. Both his father and his mother have told me that they worry that they're going to get a call in the middle of the night, telling them that their son is dead. They also told me that the anticipation of his death is so bad that they wish that he'd kill himself, so that they could get on with their lives.
