Roy Halladay story
 

Anybody else read this? It's a long piece, but wow - very revealing...

https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/07/17/ro...lphia-phillies

The last flight of his life, on November 7, 2017, lasted 17 minutes. He crashed in the Gulf of Mexico about 20 miles northwest of his home in Odessa, Fla., a suburb of Tampa. Telemetry data suggests that he was performing maneuvers you might see at an airshow: rocketing up, then shooting back down. He flew as close as 75 feet to nearby houses. Halladay was not certified in what is known as aerobatics, and he violated FAA regulations requiring a minimum distance of 500 feet from “any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.” The toxicology report shocked the public. It did not shock his family. It revealed high levels of zolpidem—a sedative sometimes known as Ambien—amphetamines and morphine in his system. There were also traces of tobacco; hydromorphone, a narcotic often marketed as Dilaudid; and fluoxetine, an antidepressant sometimes sold under the name Prozac. The medical examiner could not determine the source of these substances or when he took them, but the FAA prohibits pilots from flying under the influence of most of them. If he had survived, he could have been prosecuted.

What the hell was he thinking?

And now his wife and children are without a father.

That's some mix of drugs. Damm. Sounds like he was self medicating some very serious problems.

Just a theory - but I remember Halladay retiring due to crippling back pain. I wouldn't be surprised if he was on those drugs on a daily basis to deal with chronic pain. Very sad.

Thinking the same Yaz. I remember when it happened and the drugs were disclosed. He was introduced and using for a reason, and I don’t just think there was not an underlying problem.

I am sure a lot of players have a difficult time adjusting to retirement. They go from a very regimented life where they have a set schedule for 8-9 months a year where they never really need to think about what they are supposed do and when to do it. Then they retire at absurdly young ages as opposed to the rest of society (retire when kids are in elementary school) and they have a lot of time to fill in a day all of a sudden. Then layer on top of that many of these guys are loaded with millions. If you don't have the skills to regulate yourself properly and don't have a Plan b its probably for many a recipe for disaster. I know a lot of guys who would be dead within 3 years under that scenario.
I took a year off once. It was very weird staring out the window all of a sudden watching the world go by without you.

If your lifestyle is that you regularly fly airplanes, and because of severe back pain you regularly take meds to deal with the pain (and back pain I've been told is one of the worst,) then it seems almost inevitable. One day when your meds have kicked in, dulling the pain and judgement, the idea of taking the plane up might sound like fun............