Dear Prudie,
My 27-year-old cousin "Joe" struggled with back pain after playing
football in college, and in the last several years he has developed an
addiction to prescription painkillers. When he attended family functions, we noticed he had lost a significant amount of weight, had
sunken-in eyes, was very depressed, and had lost his job. On the Fourth
of July this year, Joe came to a family barbecue completely high. He
stumbled around, slurred his words, wished me a happy engagement (I am
not engaged), and when he ate lunch, had food all over his face. I was
very upset to see him like this. Joe's parents, my aunt and uncle, are
wonderful people, but he lives in their home in this condition. He did
go to rehab once, but checked himself out after a day and they brought
him home. After the party, I spoke to my parents about how we can help.
My dad has spoken to his brother about this, but doesn't want to get
involved again because it breaks his heart too much to see Joe's parents
enable Joe. Is there anything we could do to convince Joe's parents to
act? I don't want our family to lose our cousin.