"Looking back on the situation you realize that it really wasn’t your brother that you were fighting with, it was more of the drugs."

Description

Taylor: Who was the person misusing drugs in your family?
Stacey: My older brother.
Taylor: I think this one might be a little bit hard to ask ...
Stacey: No go ahead.
Taylor: But do you believe that drugs did have a direct or had/did have some relation to his
death in any way?
Stacey: Um, yeah I do. I think it was a lot of different factors. Um, with it being drugs, you know,
the surrounding situationthat he puts himself, that people put themselves in, um you know, their
comfort zone, uh reaching that high that you want to go to. Would you thnk that it did have an
effect.
Taylor: Did they ever lie about their addiction to any of the family members?
Stacey: Yes, for a very long period of time they did.
Taylor:Did you or anyone elsein your family see them misuse drugs?
Stacey: Physically see, no but there were indicators that they were using drugs.
Taylor: Did they ever steal from the family to get money for their addiction?
Stacey: Yes, um, they did.
Taylor: Did their addiction affect your family?
Stacey: Yes, it affected all of us, um, each in our own individual way.But overall, we were all
affected by it.
Taylor: How did their addiction affect your relationship with them?
Stacey: Um, me and my brother we used to have a really good relationship. Um, when he
started to use drugs we drifted apartand everything. I shut him out a lot about a lot of things, I
wanted nothing to do with him. Uh, right before he passedaway though, we did start to rebuild
our relationship back together and build through it, to make things stronger.
Taylor: How did you cope with the situation?
Stacey: When...well I can talk about, it’s probably easier for me to talk about after he uh passed
away. Um, I used his… passing away just to really help me figure out what I wanna do with my
life. Um, I took it in a positive, I tried to take it as positive, um, as I could, and that I wanted to
help people, and it helped me understand other peoples’ addiction problems and their family. It
really opened my eyes, so I kind of coped with it in that way.
Taylor: Did they ever get into any fights or arguments with family members?
Stacey: Oh yeah. Me and my used to fight all the time. Screaming, yelling, arguing, physical,
just... uh you know, looking back on the situation you realize that it really wasn’t your brother that you were fighting with, it was more of the drugs.
Taylor: Did anyone try to help them with their addiction?
Stacey: Yes. Um, multiple people did, uh, family members, non-family members, uh, people in the community, you know came together but all in all, when it comes to addiction it has to be the person that wants to change, um, you can put them in all the rehabs all the treatment facilities,
and spend millions and millions of dollars but if the person doesn’t want to change, they’re no going to change.
Taylor: Was their anything or anyone who helped you deal with the situation?
Stacey: My best friend Sam. She is my outlet for everything. Um, I could call her and not even
say anything and just cry and she understood everything. Um, I could talk to her about anything with no judgement, you know, not have to put a mask on for anybody. She’s probably the only person that really knows, like, all of my feelings through the whole entire thing, and it helped me
a lot.
Taylor: Would you or your family ever help them again?
Stacey: Of course, of course. You knowlooking back on the situation maybe tried different
outlets and stuff that we haven’t tried before, but...
Taylor: Is their anything you wish you could go back and change?
Stacey: Um, I wish that I’d kept a stronger relationship with him. I was a lot younger when it all
happened, uh now that I’m older and now that I work in the field with people that um, do have
substance abuse issues, I wish that I wasn’t so hard on me, and so hard on him and I wish that
um, you know, I was just more open about this situation.

Participants

• Stacey Olsen
  
• Taylor Cooke
  

Interview By

• Taylor Cooke