On December 5, 2016, we found our son, Aaron Pearce, dead in his bed with no apparent cause. As the family worked through the shock and heartache of attending to the death of our loved one, we silently wondered what had happened to this 46-year-old devoted father of two.

Aaron had fought a 20+ year battle with severe anxiety and depression attributed to Bipolar Type II disorder. Many years of counseling and prescription drugs allowed him to manage his condition…not a perfect solution, but meds helped him maintain. As anyone who has a loved one or knows someone who has spent a lifetime controlling a chemical imbalance, they know there are no easy answers or solutions; just trial and error and constant monitoring.

Fortunately, in the past few years, mental illness and chemical imbalances have been brought to public attention by many famous people, young and old, announcing their battles with anxiety and depression, helping to dispel the stigma around mental health issues, encouraging people to speak more openly about their difficulties. Some sufferers are lucky to be helped by counseling only…others must take the road of medications. And a rocky road it can be. Nightly T.V. commercials bombard us with Abilify, Paxil and other brand names that have become as common as M & M’s, Coke and Big Mac. Anti-psychotic and antidepressant meds have become an accepted way of American life.

Our family finally received the much awaited medical examiner’s report. Aaron died of acute renal failure. We were perplexed by the diagnosis and confused by medical terms so we requested a meeting with the medical examiner to get clearer answers. We were to learn that his kidneys failed due to Rhabdomyolysis (RHABDO), a condition that causes the breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue, releasing a damaging protein into the blood stream which clogs the kidneys’ filtering system. The medical examiner explained that RHABDO is not common and to die from it is unusual. After ruling out the causes of this condition: very high body temperature, extreme muscle strain or compression, metabolic disorders such as diabetes and certain diseases of the muscle, the medical examiner was left to conclude that Aaron probably died from a combination of prescribed anti-psychotic (Abilify) and antidepressant (Paxil) medications. There were no illegal or non-prescribed drugs or alcohol in his system. The medical examiner expressed that Aaron must have felt very ill, went to bed, fell unconscious, and died as his body shut down.

Aaron had been having muscle aches and weakness as well as tendon issues for some time. He recently had surgery to reattach his forearm tendon to his elbow and was scheduled to have his other arm done this summer. We were concerned with these maladies but got no answers as to the cause, just a suggestion that perhaps his years as an urchin diver had put abnormal wear and tear on his elbow joints. His lab tests ten months prior to his death assured him of a clean bill of health. None of us had ever heard of the condition Rhabdomyolysis.

With the awareness and acceptance of medications to aid the chemically imbalanced, we must also be aware of the side effects of these drugs. One cannot depend solely on health care providers to monitor side effects, for their profession is sadly over-worked. It’s necessary to self-educate as well as self-advocate and constantly be aware of the possible hazards of medications. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) are great websites to begin a search for information and science news on medications.

We miss our son terribly and the realization that we’ll never see him again is heart wrenching. As more of our youth and young adults are prescribed with anti-psychotic and antidepressant medication, we can’t help but wonder if RHABDO will become more common over time. If this letter has enlightened just one person who is on a mixture of these medications of the possible side effect called Rhabdomyolysis, then perhaps Aaron’s death will not have been in vain.

Please…be aware.

In closing, we would like to thank all who sent us cards, made phone calls, visited, dropped off food, flowers and reading material, and made charitable donations in Aaron’s name. Your kind acts are greatly appreciated.