Drugs - talk to someone!
Posted by Guest Writer on Thu, 30 Apr 2009.
You'll hear many stories in the press about the effects on people of taking drugs for a while, but you don't hear much about how it affects the people around them. Here is a story about how Mitch handled his brother, Harry, when he realised he was using drugs.
"Whenever I tried to talk to Harry about his drug use he would say that he had it under control, that it wasn't a problem and then walk away. The counsellor asked me to talk, when I did I realised that all I ever seemed to focus on was the drugs use, not how I was affected by it or why Harry might be doing it.
"I decided to try and change the way I talked about our problems. Harry told me about feeling depressed because he was unemployed and bored and how the drugs had become just something to pass the time and make him feel better. I realised that I'd been banging on about him getting help for his drug use when what he needed more was help to make his life more better. He said he also felt ashamed that I was earning all the money for us to live on which made him angry with me. I was fed up with him always being out of it so we never seemed to have any time together and I guess I also felt frustrated that I couldn't see how I could help him and was probably taking that frustration out on him. When we were able to talk about the problems we had it was so much easier to sort them out."
Talking about drug problems always helps. Talk to someone like a friend or family member, or visit the Talk to Frank website for more information about people and places that can help.