Hope Was Like Oxygen: A Journey Through Love, Loss, and Rediscovering Joy

An unflinching memoir about loving a child you cannot save-and finding joy after unimaginable loss.No parent wants to imagine watching a child suffer from severe depression and addiction. Fewer still can comprehend the years spent searching for answers, navigating a fractured mental health system, and loving someone whose pain cannot be relieved by devotion alone.In Hope Was Like Oxygen, Jeff Ewing shares the story of his son Alex-the bright, funny, compassionate young man behind the illness-and of a family that never stopped hoping something might help. When medications, hospitalizations, therapy, and other interventions failed to ease Alex's suffering, he turned to substances in an attempt to quiet the torment of his depression.Through hope, heartbreak, and devastating loss, Jeff and his wife, Kathy, confront the realities of mental illness, substance abuse, and a system that too often leaves families searching for answers on their own.Hope Was Like Oxygen is an intimate account of a family's yearslong journey through depression, addiction, hope, and heartbreak. It is a testament to enduring love and the possibility of finding meaning, connection, and even joy after profound loss.