A son reflects on how his father’s opioid addiction impacted him and his family.
As a child, Dillon always knew that there was something different about his dad, but it was never fully discussed. Growing up was fraught with challenges. “Dad was always hard to live with,” he explains. “He had trouble communicating and was quick to anger—over the smallest things too. He once blew up because I put cheese on my hot dogs.”
Before Dillon was born, his father was involved in a serious road accident. OxyContin was prescribed as part of his recovery. To this day—for more than three decades—Dillon’s father remains addicted to opioids.
Things got worse: his parents divorced, and a few years later, his mother passed away. Dillon and his younger brother alternated living with his father and his grandparents. As teenagers, living with their dad had some appeal, as there were fewer rules and little supervision.
Dillon suspects his father was selling his pills and involved in other illegal activities. Often, utilities would be cut for days at a time as cash went to support his opioid misuse. Perhaps the scariest incident came through a well-meaning gesture. In denial about his addiction, Dillon’s father came to believe that his pills were cure-alls: they made him feel great, so they should do the same for his children. Dillon remembers being offered—and taking—opioids for symptoms of a common cold. Luckily, after a few days he refused the “medicine” because it made him feel strange.
With the help of his grandparents and resilience he attributes to his late mother, Dillon managed to avoid his father’s fate. Reflecting on the topic of addiction, he says,
I don’t think people necessarily set out to end up that way. But it’s like… you just get into a car accident and then your whole life is now on this path that could lead to ruin. My dad always had a really big heart—but anybody can start down that path.
Today, Dillon leads a happy and productive life: a wonderful marriage, a healthy toddler, a creative and rewarding job. He knows he’s lucky—not just because of these things, but because of the past he escaped.