Olivia Flowers is opening up about her brother Conner Flowers‘ unexpected death.
According to the Southern Charm star, the coroner ruled that her 32-year-old sibling died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl on Jan. 30, years after being prescribed opioids to treat chronic pain stemming from his longtime battle with Lyme disease.
“My brother hated talking about his illness,” she told People in an interview published Nov. 1. “So many people, even in his close circle, didn’t know about his Lyme.”
Lyme disease is an illness caused by the borrelia bacteria that is commonly transmitted through the bite of an infected tick, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms range from fever, headache and fatigue to serious infections in the heart and nervous system if left untreated.
Olivia said “debilitating” symptoms of Conner’s Lyme disease first surfaced when he was 15. Though the family quickly sought help from various medical professionals, she recalled that “Conner was just told over and over, ‘It’s all in your head, you’re fine'” and was given painkillers and medicine for his associated anxiety instead.
“He started depending, at a very young age, on this prescription medicine to feel normal,” Olivia remembered. “And we as a family started to see this toll it took on his body.”
