Feature obituary: Maggie Brown, 25, smart, adventurous young woman who struggled with addiction

[mahatmakanejeeves]

FEATURE OBITUARY Posted 9:38 AM Updated 40 mins ago

Feature obituary: Maggie Brown, 25, smart, adventurous young woman who struggled with addiction

She loved the ocean and animals, and was passionate about music, reading and writing, her family says.

BY MELANIE CREAMER STAFF WRITER

Maggie Brown was an intelligent, adventurous and vivacious young woman who fought desperately to overcome her struggles with mental illness and substance use disorder. ... Ms. Brown died on March 29 of a drug overdose at her mother’s home in South Portland, her family said. Monday would have been her 26th birthday. ... “I have a mixture of relief and grief,” her mother, Susan Joyce, said Friday. “I’ve been trying to save my daughter for 12 years. I’m trying to figure out what my new normal is.”
....

Ms. Brown attended schools in Portland and Falmouth. After her parents’ divorce, she went to live with her mother on North Street in Portland. She attended Casco Bay High School but didn’t finish. She eventually earned her GED through Falmouth High School. ... Anna Brown spoke openly about her sister’s yearslong struggle with anxiety, depression, ADHD and bipolar disorder. She was put on medication at a young age and went to therapy, her sister said.
....

Ms. Brown was incarcerated last August and served the bulk of her sentence at Maine Correctional Center in Windham. Her family said she didn’t receive Suboxone or any other medication to treat her opioid addiction during her time there. ... Ms. Brown was released on March 21, the first day of spring. She died from a drug overdose eight days later. Her mother administered CPR until the paramedics arrived. They were unsuccessful in reviving her.

Ms. Brown had plans to fly to Phoenix on April 4 to spend time with her sister. From there, she planned to travel to Seattle to live with a childhood friend and start a new life. Her dream was to continue school to become a veterinary technician and work with animals. ... Her mother said her only comfort is knowing there was nothing left unsaid between them.

[mr_lebowski]

1. Not to bag on mom, but any parent with a kid struggling w/opioid addiction should have some naloxone

on hand.

It's esp. dangerous when addicts first get out of jail or rehab where they were forced to get clean/stay off opioids for a good period of time. A lot of them don't realize just how low their tolerance has dropped (6 months basically returns you to very close to opioid-naive, like you've never taken them), whereas in one's 'using days' many can take 5-10, even 50 times more dope than an opioid-naive person can handle.

Sad story, but all too common.