SLICING THE SERPENT: FOUR FAMILIES AND THEIR STRUGGLES WITH CHRONIC PAIN AND OPIOID ADDICTION

Abstract

Maggie Rush-Miller, “Slicing the Serpent: Four Families and Their Struggles With Chronic Painand Opioid Addiction” Honors Thesis University of Arizona, Aug 2020This excerpt, from a book length project, follows the lives of four families, beginning in the late1990s, as the fathers/husbands slowly become addicted to the opioids Oxychotin and Oxycodoneprescribed by their doctors for chronic pain. These stories coincide with the over-prescribing ofopioids on a national level initiated by the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma. As othercompanies follow suit, a national epidemic ensues manifesting in over half a million deaths dueto the overdose of pain-killers and heroin. This excerpt is told in the first person through theexperiences of myself and the three other mothers/wives as we attempted to contain the slowdecline of our spouses and their physical and mental health--loss of careers, marriages, and inone case, life, is the final outcome as these insidious drugs take over. Interviews of the eightchildren, friends, physicians, and addiction counselors are also utilized. Combined withadditional research, areas such as: pain, suicide, self-harm, addiction, healing, the medicalcommunity, politics, and the history of opium are covered within this body of work.