“No family is immune.”
It’s a message Tina Comeau-Surette wants to share far and wide.
In January, her son, Justin Surette, died from an accidental overdose at the age of 21 after a hard-fought battle with addiction.
Through it all, Comeau-Surette said they never gave up hope and never stopped fighting.
“Justin always said no child grows up hoping to be an addict, and it’s so true,” she said, adding that he was “not a bad person.”
“He was just somebody who, unfortunately, when he was very young, got himself into a position that for him became a lifelong struggle.”
To coincide with International Overdose Awareness Day, Justin’s family released a video this past weekend to share his story — in their words, and in his.
Justin was only 14 when he tried cocaine for the first time. What followed, his mother said, was a seven-year addiction that included crack cocaine and pills.
“Justin made the initial choice to use drugs and pills but then his body took his choices away. I hated addiction, but I loved Justin. And so we battled this beast together,” she declared in the video.
Justin went to rehab four times over the years, and was 98 days free from cocaine when he died of an accidental overdose of pills.
Comeau-Surette said she would sometimes record her son’s voice when he wanted to share his thoughts. Those recordings are now especially cherished by the family, and offer a glimpse into Justin’s struggle.
“I wake up and it’s just a big nightmare that I can’t escape,” he said in a recording in the video.
“It’s so hard to explain. I’m so attached to these pills because it alters my mind I can have some peace for a little bit and makes things a little bit more enjoyable.”
‘This can happen to anyone’
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The Yarmouth, N.S., family had always been open about addictions as they went through highs and lows over the years.
Justin himself would post inspirational messages on social media to others fighting the same battle.
“I was extremely vocal about addiction because I wanted people to know that this can happen to any family. And people were really rooting for Justin throughout those years because they just adored him,” Comeau-Surette said.
“So when he died, it was just such a tragedy in our family’s lives. But I felt it was a tragedy overall because one day Justin wanted to be a counsellor and he wanted to help other people who were struggling with addiction, and he wasn’t going to have that opportunity.”
Comeau-Surette said she decided to “still give him that opportunity” to help others, and asked her older son, Jacob — who works as a videographer — to collaborate on the seven-minute video with her.
Comeau-Surette said they arrived at the theme “No family is immune” to highlight just how easily the disease of addiction can overtake lives.
“I always talked to them about the dangers of drugs, but to be honest, I didn’t even know about the dangers until it really came into our family,” she said.
“We never ever thought addiction would enter our lives, and we never thought it would enter Justin’s life.”
Throughout the video, the family shares smiling snapshots of their lives: a family that enjoyed camping, played soccer, loved hockey and supported each other through the years.
“As a family, I thought we had done everything — I hate to use the word — right. But that’s how I felt,” she said.
Jacob, who always strove to be a role model for his little brother, echoes that sentiment.
“Until you’ve experienced it first-hand, you really never know who it’s truly going to affect,” he said.
“If you would have looked at my family growing up, I’m sure no one would have suspected this. And I’m sure when my brother was 14 years old, the choices that he made then, you would never suspect that it would affect him.”
That’s why it’s so important, he said, for families to sit down and discuss these topics frankly. Jacob hopes that their video will not only serve as a warning but also remind others that people with addictions “are human, at the end of the day.”
“(Justin) knew what our family went through and he felt sorry about it every single day. I don’t think people really, truly realize that,” Jacob said.
“With this film, we wanted to show that it doesn’t matter where you start from, it doesn’t matter who you are or who you’ve been. This can happen to anyone. No one aspires for this to happen in their life. And I think we really wanted to make sure that people feel OK asking for help.”
For Comeau-Surette, sharing her family’s story is now her calling.
Since the video was posted, she’s received hundreds of messages from people describing how Justin’s story has resonated with them.
“I have teachers telling me they want to use the video in their classroom. I have people struggling with addiction telling me that they feel that we are speaking to them,” she said.
In the future, she’d like to visit schools to speak with students, and is advocating for more resources and services, especially in rural communities.
She is also working on a book to be published next year.
In some ways, Justin’s dreams of becoming a counsellor may very well come true in some form.
“I want to keep sharing Justin’s story. It is the promise I made to him on the day he died,” she said.
“His legacy — this is it — and I feel like his voice will continue to be heard and appreciated for many, many years to come. I hope for my lifetime.”
— with a file from Global News’ Skye Bryden-Blom
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