This is Planet Money from NPR.
About a year ago, I got an email from a guy named Phil, an email that really stuck with me.
He wanted to tell me about a drug that saved his life and how then that drug was suddenly taken away and ultimately how far he was willing to go to get it back.
Phil is a chemistry teacher.
He is a lot of things, actually.
He is a dad.
He's a trivia buff.
He loves spending time on Reddit.
Okay.
All right.
I'm recording.
Perfect.
He's someone who, for most of his life, has struggled with addiction.
It started with prescription painkillers.
He got through that.
And then COVID hit, so I started drinking pretty much on a nightly basis.
And if it wasn't that, it was food.
And so I was pretty numb at that point.
I mean, 300 pounds, drinking alcohol every night.
Phil says when you're in the grip of addiction, it's like there's this person.