I agree with all you say, except for this, which is a very important point. Very often the drugs start off as “simply” a social / pleasurable /, inclusive activity.
The mental / emotial disturbance joys follow later.
Not too surprised. In NA, fent is cut with 3% H and H cant be had in many areas. In this doc I was watching about Vancouver, 12 deaths a night on 1 street didn’t seem unusual.
Not my experience.
The thing that fucks you up has been there a long time, you find your thing, the ‘cure’ that takes that away, could be alcohol, could be drugs, could be gambling, could be sex, could be self harming, could be shopping. For a while, sometimes a long while, it works. Then you find you are addicted to the ‘cure’ but the thing has never gone away.
You need help to stop doing the physically/ mentally addictive stuff because it is going to kill you, and then you find that if you haven’t got that in your life every coping mechanism you have ever developed fails you,
You need some serious help with the '‘thing’ and start to get some self esteem coming back you then have to learn new ways of thinking and coping with everthing in life because all the old methods you used to use fucked you up.
This is really hard and the reason so many relapse without some very strong support.
None of this can be done without funding and skilled people .
20 years ago I was in a residential rehab for for 9 months funded by my local authority after having had a 2 week stay in a mental hospital for a medical detox.
After I left the rehab I still needed help and support, I was on housing benefit, signed off sick for nearly two years and also got grants for furniture etc.
Eventually I got back into employment somehere around three years after I first went into hospital (Can’t remember exact dates)
Very little of the support and funding that I got still exists.
I found an old photo recently of 12 of us in the garden at the rehab.
5 relapsed and are dead, one eventually died from liver cancers after having Hep C,one commited suicide and one is in prison for life, one I couldn’t give a shit about and have no idea what happened to him and the other two are amazing people doing amazing things and I keep in touch.
I have been clean and sober since Jan 8th 2002 (my other birthday)
If I was starting on that journey now I don’t think the odds would be very good
This.
When it comes to homelessness (very much connected), the experience of the people working here that we know is that people generally need a few trips round the cycle of support before something sticks.
One of the major problems with current policy is that it starts at the wrong point. It should start with the ultimate aim of minimising harm from drug use. Is it realistic for the minimum of that to be zero (the current aim)? Quite possibly not.
I too can only speak from personal experience but, unfortunately, I would have to 100% agree with this.
What an inspiring story and it’s great that you made it out. On the other hand, it’s clear that twelve years of Tory neglect has made such a journey virtually impossible for so many that have suffered similarly in recent years. Countless lives lost at the altar of Tory callousness and indifference.
Still I’m sure the threat of confiscation of passport and driving licence will make everything better. Braverman really is a rancid cunt.
If the Pope were forced to use half a gram of Heroin a day for two weeks he would experience withdrawal if he stopped abruptly - To this end he would have a physical dependency - He would not be an addict in the true sense. As can be seen in people who use opioids for pain etc if tapered off there would be no phenomenon of craving associated with the the individual.
What an Addict ‘is’ is not the drug, it is all the psychological ‘holes’ the drugs / drink fills for the user. (Pervasive Fears / Lack of acceptance / Lack of Love / Lack of worth / emotional maturity / Trauma / cognitive perspective etc) These things existed before and the chemical was the ‘solution’ (Of course the ‘cure’ becomes the curse and these things exacerbate) Consider the word ‘disease’ as Dis - ease such people are uncomfortable in their own, skin the solution is to get out of it. This type of person becomes dependent very quickly, they have found what they are looking for, the answer to all their problems. Viewed this way an addict is an escape artist. The crutch for living unfortunately becomes the stick that beats them further. Criminalizing them is just another beating along the path.
Topical….
Nice work if you can get it…
Ha! Wot a cunt!
Pandemic Diarrhea because of shit Covid policy.
Yep. Bunch of cunts.
I think it is hilarious that this granny killing cunt ever thought he could sell books or have a career in show business. Fuck off mate.