Tonight, at 7pm EST, WBIR-TV in Knoxville, TN will premiere “Henry’s Story,” a 30 minute, commercial free special. The program tells the story of my son Henry’s life, struggle with addiction and his death from drugs on May 31, 2010. Henry was only 18 years old.
The WBIR special features interviews with many of the people who loved and knew Henry best, although obviously, it wasn’t possible to interview every single person who was important in Henry’s life. There are lots of people – grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, teachers, friends and counselors who don’t actually appear in the show, but who loved Henry a lot and who were loved a lot in return.
I have watched the special in advance of its premiere tonight, and I think it’s beautifully done. One point it manages to make very well is that for Henry, particularly by the last 18 months of his life (9 months of which were spent in inpatient addiction treatment), there was nothing “fun” or happy about his drug abuse. It was no longer a situation where a teenage boy was partying with his friends or just looking to have some fun in a dangerous way.
By the last year or two of his short life – after Henry became involved with the prescription drugs that eventually killed him – Henry was physically and mentally addicted. Every day for him became a painful, depressing, terrible struggle to find a way to procure enough of the chemicals that day that would keep him from becoming very sick with withdrawal. He told me that once he started using the pills, he woke up every morning determined not to use that day, but went to sleep every night feeling like a complete failure.
I hope that viewers come away from watching Henry’s Story tonight understanding that drug addiction – real drug addiction like that which tormented my teenage son – is not a “lifestyle choice” that ANYONE would make. No teenage boy with a loving family, a good education and all the opportunity in the world ahead of him is CHOOSING to hang around outside of homeless shelters in the afternoons, trying to score a fix from other homeless people because that’s a fun thing to do. That “lifestyle” is not some sort of careless teenage partying (which is where his addiction started).
No, in fact Henry’s life as a drug addict was – for him – depressing, dangerous, humiliating, painful and ultimately, fatal. My teenager’s addiction pulled him away from everything he had known – loving parents and siblings, a comfortable home, good schools, family travel, music and community – and launched him into a frightening underworld of dangerous, cruel people and places who were able to prey on my child because he was both naive and desperate. He was sick. That’s all there was to it; Henry was very, very sick.
Please watch Henrys Story with your family tonight. It will air both on TV (WBIR Channel 10 in Knoxville) and also online (livestreamed at WBIR.com) starting TONIGHT at 7:00 pm EST. Because it’s going to be simulcast online at WBIR.com, that means you can watch it wherever you are in the world at the very same time those of us in the Knoxville area will be able to watch on TV.
I hope that Henry’s Story will inspire a new dialogue around the epidemic of prescription drug abuse and deaths in this community and across the country. The dialogue is the beginning; action comes next.
Thank you. Let me know in the comments below whether you plan to watch on TV or online, and PLEASE spread the word to everyone you know to join our family in viewing Henry’s Story tonight.
-Katie
I was able to watch online later in the evening. I thought you all did a wonderful job telling Henry's (and your) story. It is important to realize that no one is immune from addiction and sometimes, no matter how great the resources brought to bear, the monster just takes over. Addiction affects everyone. It's a social and societal problem and needs to be dealt with on that level. You are doing so much good by talking and pushing. Never give up!
RHF is right. It may seem heartless, but this family needs to hear these things so that they can begin to heal. A central tenet of recovery is to put principles over personality. The documentary and the mother's blog posts spend a great deal of time on his personality. This focus on all of his good qualities reveals an attitude of exceptionalism with regard to the young man, to the point that canonization is the only logical conclusion. It is all very tragic.
I have blogged about Henry's Story and am sharing it on Facebook and Twitter. Here is the link to my blog post:
http://angiemax.blogspot.com/2010/10/lifes-curveb…
I went to St. John's Episcopal Church years ago and haven't seen Chris in more than 25 years, but new instantly when I heard the name "Granju" who it was. My heart is heavy. Peace be with you.
My husband, son and I watched Henry's Story and cried. My son was a friend of Henry's and is still deeply saddened by his death. I and so sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing with us. I hope that by bringing light to the ever growing problem of drug abuse and especially addiction in our young people will give parents the knowledge they need to see their own children through the turbulant teenage years.
Strength and peace. I tried to thank WBIR for airing the show twice, but had trouble registering to comment. Your work is a tremendous public service highlighting the problem of Rx drug abuse. God bless, and Henry is always with you – you carry him in your heart.
Such a sad story. And happening all the time to too many people.
One thing: after you talked about H trying pot for the first time and then using it more regularly, there was a woman who came on to talk about H and friends playing guitar on her porch. Did she say they would all be high? I thought she did and in such a casual off-hand manner that I did a double-take. But I think maybe I misheard?
I have a degree of understand about your pain and journey. My son also came from a good home with both biological parents who loved him. He fell into the wrong crowd and began smoking marajuana and drinking and mixing it with pills. It became so bad at our house that my husband and I were being split apart by things our son was doing. We dealt with him at home with a counselor for 2 years until we could not anymore. With the help of our counselor, we found a wonderful outdoor program, called Three Springs Duck River. Their headquarters are in Huntsville, AL. They had a different name now, but can be found by googling Three Springs. This is a therapuetic outdoor treatment program that is based on statuses and privaledges and responsibilities. One goes to school there at a fully accredited school. My son was there for 16 months. He turned 18 while he was there and could have checked himself out. However, we highly discouraged him to do that. He graduated from that program and is now a junior in college. There ARE wonderful places out there and wonderful, caring counselors who give their lives to helping our troubled children. Someone in another comment stated, "he was just another druggie." What does that mean?? You never know how and why someone falls into that lifestyle until you dig a little deeper. My son is ok now, only by the grace of God. I feel for Katie and cannot imagine her pain. Maybe Henry's death will not be in vain but can be a wake up call for so many, many troubled youth out there crying for help. Sending my son away was the hardest thing I have ever done, but also the thing I can be most proud of. I was unwilling to stand by and take a chance that my son would turn ok. He may not have. God Speed