The dark side of winning the lottery: My parents won $37million - we went from being poor to having everything we wanted but our family fell apart

A young man has revealed how he went from growing up poor to living a life of luxury after his parents won a $37million lottery jackpot - but their fortune ultimately came at a devastating cost.

The man said his dad was gifted the life-changing lottery ticket by a family friend, who he later split the winnings with as a thank you.  

'It was pretty cool as a kid - we got everything we wanted for the most part and had lots of fun family trips. My sisters and I grew up very privileged and definitely feel the benefits of it as we are adults. We had a good childhood education,' he explained. 

'I will say that going through a humbling experience - from growing up pretty poor to having everything we wanted, and then ultimately almost being homeless as a family when I was 19, has given me a lot of wisdom and life experience.'

He believed he wouldn't be working in the IT industry if it weren't for the win, as he was fortunate enough to have access to the coolest tech gadgets growing up.

'As far as how that changed us, it's tough to say if it changed us kids in the family since we were at such formative stages of life,' he said.

His mum was working as a nurse while his dad was a landscaper but they both quit their jobs after becoming multi-millionaires.

'My mother tried different business ventures and all of them pretty much failed. They invested in different things without a ton of success,' the son explained. 

A man has revealed how he went from growing up poor to living a life of luxury after his parents won a $37million - but their fortune ultimately came at a devastating cost (file image)

He noticed his mum's weight eventually spiralled out of control to the point where she needed gastric bypass surgery to overcome her bad eating habits. 

The man watched helplessly as his parents' drinking habits worsened.

'My mother's gastric bypass contributed to her alcoholism,' he recalled. 

As his parents struggled behind closed doors, they still spent time with 'a lot of the same friends they had prior to winning'. 

'We helped out a lot of our family and friends with their own financial situations,' the young man said.

About 14 years after winning the jackpot, his parents declared bankruptcy. 

'By that time, my mother was suffering from depression and severe alcoholism. A lot of it was tied into guilt from feeling responsible about our financial situation,' he said.

'A lot of it was also tied into trying to fill an empty void that money could never fill.'

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His mum eventually died from chronic liver disease as a result of alcohol abuse. 

'Looking back, it felt like a domino effect: having access to more money contributed to really unhealthy eating habits, which eventually led to my mother getting gastric bypass surgery,' he said. 

'After that, her drinking became much worse. Alcohol problems can become more serious after gastric bypass, and unfortunately that was the case for her. Eventually the alcoholism took her life.

'Obviously I can't know for certain how everything would have turned out if we had never won, but it's hard not to wonder.'

After seeing first-hand how sudden wealth completely tore his family apart, the man said one of the biggest lessons he learned was his relationship with money.

'I grew up seeing both extremes - what it was like to have almost anything we wanted, and then what it was like to lose that security completely,' he explained. 

'It made me realise pretty young that having a lot of money doesn't necessarily mean you're financially secure forever, and it definitely doesn't fix the problems people already have. 

'As an adult, I think I'm much more aware of how quickly circumstances can change and probably value stability more because of it.'

The man said his dad was gifted the life-changing lottery ticket by a family friend, who he later split the winnings with as a thank you (file image)

The man said he never knew the exact amount of money his parents walked away with after sharing the winnings with the family friend - but he knew it was enough for them to live a wealthy life. 

'They used some of the money right away to pay off debt, take out life insurance policies, and handle other expenses,' he recalled.

Speaking about what happened to the family friend after the unexpected windfall, the man said their lives 'didn't turn out great either'. 

'The mother in that family passed away from the same disease as my mum,' he said.

Looking back on his life, the son said if he could go back 20 years, he would give up the winning lottery ticket to keep his family together. 

'I feel like winning brought more problems into my family than it solved,' he said.

'And part of me feels like I might still have my mother if things had gone differently.'