Borderline Personality Disorder,  Substance Abuse

Methadone: A mother’s search for answers

Bonnie also struggled with mental illness, including borderline personality disorder, which is marked by unstable moods and difficulty controlling emotions.

Methadone: A mother’s search for answers

By Ella Nilsen

Outside the Keene Metro Treatment Center on Route 10 in Swanzey, Kathy White of Fitzwilliam shook her head and steeled herself against the brisk winter air. Before getting back into the car, she took a quick puff on a cigarette to calm her nerves.

It was early March, nearly eight months after Kathy, 58, first requested her daughter Bonnie White’s medical records from the clinic, which dispenses methadone to people who say they want to get clean from opiates, including heroin and OxyContin.

Kathy had shown up in person to try to get the records several times. Each time, she was turned away empty-handed.

Bonnie, a former patient at Keene Metro, died of a drug overdose on June 13 at age 35. The N.H. Medical Examiner’s Office attributed her death to methadone.

It wasn’t Bonnie’s first overdose on methadone. She started attending the clinic on April 24, unbeknownst to her doctors or family. A week later, emergency responders found her unresponsive on the floor of her Keene cabin, vomit in her hair.

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