Smacked : a story of white-collar ambition, addiction, and tragedy
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages [227]-246).

Eilene Zimmerman's ex-husband, Peter, had it all: He was a partner at a prestigious law firm, lived in a $2 million house by the beach, and had two great kids. Maintaining a friendly relationship, Eilene and Peter talked and saw each other frequently. But a few years after their divorce she started noticing erratic behavior: absenteeism, weight loss, constant exhaustion and sickness. Peter explained it away as stress from the pressures of his job, but Eilene couldn't shake the feeling that something else was wrong. Months later, when she finds him dead, she goes on a journey to investigate how a man she thought she knew had become a drug addict. Zimmerman also takes a wider look at other cases of white-collar drug use and the devastation it leaves behind, showing that addiction can strike anyone. The result is a moving, intimate, and revealing look at both Peter's downward spiral and the drug epidemic among high-powered professionals, its impact on his family, and how a woman reconceives her life in the wake of loss.