Heather Ellison happily married her husband, started her own family and became part of a new family. She never imagined she would have to explain to her little children that their uncles died from prescription drug abuse.
For the past ten years, Heather Ellison watched from the outside as her husband’s family struggled with the battles of substance abuse. Three members lost the battle with prescription drug abuse in this short amount of time. She has witnessed the devastating proceedings throughout her family’s journey.
“In my situation, they (the family) don’t want to deal with it; they want fate to work it out; they want time to work it out,” said Heather, “They think just loving them is going to work it out.”
Heather’s brother-in-law started using painkillers after he had an accident. The pills then migrated to his siblings, cousins, spouses, friends and so on until a web of drug abuse was spun.
Secrecy and down-playing permeated the family as the substance abuse continued and escalated. The situation was taboo to talk about. Once, Heather went to stop her brother-in-law from driving while high with his little daughter in the backseat when her in-laws said not to interfere because it was not her business. Even with the loss of the one’s husband and the loss of their brother, two of the sister-in-laws are still addicted and Heather finds it difficult to be heard.
“They love their daughters but they don’t know how to love them to help them,” said Heather.
Dealing with the effects of prescription drug abuse has been a struggle for the whole family. Heather’s story is just one of the hundreds of families in Utah County alone affected by the growing influence of substance abuse.
“We’ve had a whole family…just completely destroyed,” said an emotional Heather.
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