IT WASN’T DRUGS! –
Dec. 19, 2025 – Unlike other diseases where a treatment can reliably keep someone stable, it’s difficult to know what will work with drug addiction. There are a variety of approaches and no simple one-size-fits-all solutions, said Dr. Kimberly Kirby. And the things the family goes through, it’s just heartbreak. It’s not just the heartbreak of seeing a child in trouble but laying out thousands of dollars, depleting retirement funds trying to save their child.”
The deaths of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his producer wife, Michele, set off waves of tributes and memorials, but for some families, it stopped them cold.
Nick Reiner, the couple’s 32-year-old son, has been charged in their deaths. He has been open about his drug addiction and several stints in rehab, and his parents had spoken about trying to do everything they could to help him.
Although few details about the Reiners’ deaths have been released, their history feels especially familiar to parents of people with addiction problems.
“We’ve been pretty much glued to the news about it, and it’s been kind of tough. Far too often, bad things happen in families when there’s someone addicted to drugs,” said Ron Grover of Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.
His son’s drug abuse took over not just his life, but the entire family’s life, for years.
“This is not a disease that affects just one person. It’s a family disease,” said Grover, who said his son is now sober.
And while many people think this couldn’t happen to their child or their loved one, drug addiction cuts across race and class, and it is a problem in a wide variety of communities, even if stigma often keeps people from openly talking about it. More than 48.4 million Americans have a substance use disorder, according to government statistics, and many millions more family members are trying to find the best way to help their loved one.
