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In this article, we tell a story which we entitle "A Close Call with Death", as a means of demonstrating how an addict's impulsive behaviour can lead him unknowingly into situations that could result in his death.

Further, we discuss how this addict's mom, through no fault of her own, wasn't able to recognize the early warning signs of an addiction in the making, and therefore served as his enabler for years before he bottomed out.

1. When you're an addict, you act out of impulse, without regard to the consequences to yourself or others. The impulse is almost invariably about feeding the addiction with more of what gets you and keeps you high.
2. Before you know it, you may end up in situations that could get you killed, and if not that, get thrown in jail for being party to a major crime. You, the addict, wonder how a man like yourself with a degree from an Ivy League school could ever end up this way.
3. There were signposts on the way to this kind of hell, but Oliver's mom didn't or wouldn't recognize them, and if she did, nothing was done to intervene early when it would have mattered the most. As a loving mother, she did what she thought was right at the time.
4. What this story of a Close Call with Death tells us is that Oliver could keep up appearances of normalcy while hiding how he felt about himself and what he was actually doing in his so-called leisure time. In this respect, Oliver is no different than other addicts and alcoholics.