Do you know someone struggling with addiction?
Helena Paivinen, a reformed addict, pens a regular Kamloops This Week column on the subject.
Her comments are directed to the substance abuser but as friends/family of an addict, how do we get through to the person? Or is it a case of them having to hit rock bottom to see a way out?
Your thoughts?
“Some react to the 12 steps by mistakenly thinking it is religious, which is a huge mistaken.”
“Our literature claims those with addiction issues are egomaniacs with an inferiority complex — a dangerous combination when not adequately addressed. We run on our own will, thinking we know it all. For me, this was certainly true when I was sick with my disease.”
“Without recovery, without deliberately changing my brain via creating new neural pathways, the sick, disturbed, deluded addiction pathways remained, even after substance use ended.”
We often read of the addiction of the homeless but there are thousands of working addicts who make it from day to day with the help of narcotics.
And it is possible an addict will never be cured.
I've seen this first hand as have many of you. The fellow I know, actually it is Elisabeth who helped him, had turned to drugs and alcohol after losing his job. There was no common sense to his actions other than drowning his sorrows. He had a partner and three children and continually assaulted his wife.
Elisabeth helped him see the error of his ways when she went to his home to remove this family and the guy attacked Elisabeth.
The embarrassment of being knocked down in front of his children apparently humiliated him to the degree that he cleaned up his act.
It will be months, maybe longer, before his partner will trust him again, if she ever will but he got into an apprentice program thanks to Elisabeth and may make something of his life.
Great post!