The opioid epidemic in this country is no secret. However, to hear a play-by-play personal account of Mike Majlak's descent into addiction in suburban Connecticut is chilling. The Fifth Vital illustrates the fallout of drug-dependence first-hand.
In 1995 OxyContin was released to treat what medical professionals called the fifth vital. Vitals include temperature, pulse, respiration, and blood pressure. The fifth is pain. Thanks to Purdue Pharma, OxyContin found its way into not only hospitals but high schools and households. With profound consequences.
When fifteen-year-old Majlak has a basketball accident and lands in the hospital, he is given OxyContin and morphine for the first time. The taste of Oxy and the feeling it gives him stick with Mike and another unfortunate skiing accident which results in a broken femur reminds him just how powerful Oxy is. Thus begins his harrowing account of how he went from a sporty, well-liked teenager to an addict almost living on the streets.
After Mike's parents' divorce, they have to switch him to a public school out of financial necessity. The school he attends in Milford, Connecticut is notoriously rough. Mike is a natural class clown, and he falls into the wrong crowd and into selling weed. He learns upsell tactics and before long dealing becomes his full-time profession. Mike goes from weed, to OxyContin, Fentanyl, Molly, heroin, and then crack cocaine. He becomes unreachable, despite his loving family's best intentions. At seventeen, Mike is addicted to narcotics.
As explained in the book, the saturation and overall ease of obtaining Oxy differs from the heroin epidemic of the 70s and the crack cocaine problems of the 80s. Meant to be a slow-release pain reliever (or so Purdue claims), kids quickly learned to suck off the coating on the pill, crush it, and snort it. Kids of the nineties had been taught never do drugs, but not what it would feel like to desperately need a drug with no hope of stopping.
Thanks to a caring parole officer, Mike is given an ultimatum and therefore comes to a fork in the road: prison or detox. Now in his twenties, Mike decides to get clean. He describes withdrawal as the worst kind of hell and the author's account takes us through it. The book points out that addiction and other traumas are never healed completely. The wound is always there, no matter how old.
The frequent use of psychedelic drugs did irreparable harm to Mike and kids like him. They will never be the same. Their relationships with family members and the time they lost are collateral damage. Mike describes friends from his hometown who were lost forever to Oxy and heroin. These were intelligent, promising young adults. Each chapter of The Fifth Vital hurtles us through the years as opioid deaths keep ratcheting up. The fact that Oxy was handed out freely, to children no less, is frustrating to say the least.
In spite of his now success, the anguish Mike feels over what he did to himself and his loved ones is palpable. It's also clear that recovery is never complete. Heart-felt letters from people in Mike's life as well as moving words of wisdom and encouragement from Mike to other addicts conclude this powerful memoir. This is a riveting work of non-fiction, and it gets a 5/5 from this reader.
Such a good book!