One of my long time friends overdosed last week.

[Tobin S.]

He said he took 30 or 40 Xanax and then snorted some heroin on top of that. He lives with his mom. He said she told him he was walking out of the front door when he collapsed. He has no recollection of that. When the paramedics got there his heart was stopped and he wasn't breathing. They did something called a "save shot" to revive him. I think that's where they stick a syringe of adrenaline through your chest and into your heart to get it going again, but I'm not sure.

Believe it or not, that was an accidental overdose. He wasn't trying to kill himself. He's been abusing Xanax for a long time and has developed a big tolerance to it.

He called me last weekend and told me about it. The last time I had spoken to him he was going to outpatient addiction counseling. He had been clean for a couple of months.

I don't really know what to say to him. The guy is an absolute wreck and I don't know what I can do to help him.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. He has serious problems, beyond what any "normal" person can deal with.

He needs serious, ongoing help.

I think you mentioned him before. The waste of an intelligent human being always makes me sad.

[Tobin S.]

2. Yeah, two of my childhood friends that I'm still in touch with are really bad off.

The guy in my OP and another who stays drunk all the time. We used to get high and drunk together when we were younger. I stopped using drugs when I got my CDL and my livelihood depended on me being drug free. As a trucker you are subject to mandatory, random drug testing.

I guess I'm probably just lucky. Whatever it is that those guys have that makes them addicts is apparently not present in me.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I'm so glad you don't have whatever it is.

Alcoholism can have genetic roots. Maybe drug use can too.

[ZombieHorde]

3. Just be a friend.

If you openly judge a drug addict, or offer unsolicited help, you may just push him to be more isolated and secretive.

Just my uneducated opinion. I'm no stranger to addiction, and I wish you and your friend well.

[Tobin S.]

5. Thank you.

Given our history, I've certainly got no room to judge the guy and I don't. I used to drink heavily and I offered that experience as a way to try to relate. I drank as a way to try to cope with negative emotions. He says he does something like that, but I think it goes deeper than that with him.