The drug epidemic is claiming more lives than ever before. Last year more than 107,000 people died from a drug overdose.
Dealing with the loss can be difficult, as family and friends not only experience grief but other emotions that are hard to overcome.
Anne and her twin brother Patrick shared the same passion for soccer, school and friends.
“He was kind of a silly guy,” said Anne Stephens.
But in many ways, the twins were so different.
“He would push back or kind of test boundaries in ways that I just didn’t,” she said.
In high school, an accident changed everything.
“He tore his meniscus, and he received some prescription pain medication,” she recalled.
Then in college, Patrick turned to heroin. Patrick overdosed when he was just 26 years old.
“I wish the shame would disappear,” Anne said.
“You know, my family member died of this disease that most people don’t accept as a disease,” said Elizabeth F. Howell, MD, a psychiatrist at Huntsman Mental Health Institute at the University of Utah.