Broken mind, broken hearts

GHB is best known as "the date rape drug."

But for Will Hollingsworth, and many young athletes like him, GHB was "a magical elixir that promised to build muscles and enhance performance. No one told them what it could do to their brains."

Will's mother recounts her son's tragic experience -- an important and emotionally moving story that needs to be shared:

BRANDON - The young wrestler was sitting on the kitchen floor, his bloody face illuminated by the early-morning light that streamed through a nearby window.

In other parts of the world, the shadow of the moon was edging across the rising sun, marking the beginning of a dramatic and well-publicized total eclipse.

Will Hollingsworth had talked of little else for the past four days: the last eclipse of the millennium and the apocalypse some believed would follow.

He had not slept in more than 100 hours, holed up in his room, paging restlessly through a Bible, his television tuned to news of the eclipse.

It was a peculiar obsession for a 20-year-old college student who spent most of his time training to be a world-class athlete.

Will didn’t appear intoxicated. To the contrary, he was alert, engaging and philosophical, though strangely fixated on current events.

Now this.

[ . . . . ]

Will’s descent into madness was swift and seemingly irreversible.

His father and I were mystified. Will seemed as bewildered as we were.

“I keep making mistakes, and I don’t know why,” he said.

He never made the connection between the potion he bought at the local health food store and the bizarre things that happened when he stopped using it.

We didn’t know he was using GHB. There were a lot of things we didn’t know.

The Will we knew was exceptionally bright, responsible, hardworking and honest. A good student, a loyal friend and — most striking — a gifted athlete with a passionate dream to be the best of the best — at something.

[ . . . . ]

• Please read the rest of Will's story, and view the multimedia report . . . A Broken Mind