What I Learned from my Son
written by Sue Bream
My son, Scott, died of a heroin overdose at age
27. One day he’s a newborn baby, light of my
life, next he’s struggling with addiction issues.
We tried to help our son, but he could not stay
away from drugs and alcohol. Research shows
addiction is a disease, not a choice. When
Scott was 3 years old, he was diagnosed with
ADHD and Tourette’s Syndrome, then treated
with medication. Taking drugs to feel “normal”
was a part of his identity, he grew up doing it.
In school he had oppositional, focusing and
impulse control issues. He had a flair for art,
played trumpet, was in Boy Scouts and a brown
belt in Tae Kwando. He was very social, he
always made friends. Scott’s teen years started
with high hopes, his Bar Mitzvah was one of the
proudest moments of our lives. Then he lost
interest in activities, got in trouble at school
and experimented with drugs. By high school,
he was in Juvenile Detention, then jail, a group
home, and continuing to experiment with
drugs. After a break-up with his girlfriend of 5
years, his use of heroin and meth increased, he
was living in a homeless camp. Last time we
saw him, he came home after being gone for a
month. We hugged, cried and he promised to
be safe before leaving. According to National
Institute on Drug Abuse, nearly 35,000 people
in the U.S. died of heroin or opioids in 2015.
Heroin can be laced with fentanyl, a deadly
synthetic opioid up to 100 times stronger
6 || BEND HEALTH GUIDE || WINTER 2017
photo by: Matt Crowley
Heroin can be laced with fentanyl, a deadly
synthetic opioid up to 100 times stronger
than heroin. Fentanyl can cause overdose in
seconds, as it did with our son.
than heroin. Fentanyl can cause overdose in
seconds, as it did with our son.
My Advice Pay Attention, warning signs are
there: skipping school, drug paraphernalia,
apathy and lethargy. Communicate, Scott had
open conversations with his Dad until he got into
heroin. Love unconditionally, but don’t enable,
don’t allow bad behavior under your roof. Seek
help, we tried Alcoholics Anonymous (AA),
Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and counselors
but he did not want to do the work. We hung
onto a glimmer of hope that he would change.
Learn about addiction, some brains are “wired”
for addictions (National Geographic, 9/17
Science of Addiction). Don’t let yourselves be
dragged down, Scott had many opportunities
to turn his life around, but he made destructive
choices. As painful as that was, we had to keep
on living our lives, knowing we tried our best.
Thank you for reading our story. I hope it gives
insight about how addiction effects family. We
always told him we loved him and would be
there for him, he died with that knowledge.
This story was edited, read the full story @
bendhealthguide.com