'It’s not a matter of willpower; it’s a matter of life and death.'
He was two months shy of his 24th birthday and had just come out of a successful stay in a youth recovery program where he had been off drugs for four months.
He was a straight-A student but struggled with being in the school system and turned to drugs to cope with his feelings of anxiety. Eventually, he dropped out at the end of Grade 10. The family’s story also shows how people are dying from the stigma and shame that society puts on those who struggle with substance abuse.
"It was just so awful," she said, adding, “It goes against every motherhood instinct — to tell your child they can't come home.” While he was nervous at first, when he was able to call his parents, they felt like they had their son back.He started working out, gained weight — went from about 140 pounds to 190 pounds of muscle by the time he came out of the recovery program, she said. “And he was feeling very positive.”
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