Has anyone experience of a drug addict in their family?

[Redandpink]

Has anyone experienced a drug addict in their family? What was life like? Did you addict ever get help? Did they recover? Or did they continue on the path of being and addict and a life of destruction.

I saw my brother who was once hardworking go from being a hard worker to a drugged up lay about.

The realisation of him using drugs was a slow. It started off from some bad spells from him. It wasn't a normal type of drunkenness. He was tripping. Accompanied with crashes lasting days. A complete personality change. He was once fun and humourous to be around now it's something different. He's moody, hardly talks and just obnoxious. To some degree I find it somewhat hurtful and I think 'is there something that I have done wrong' because he comes to life when it comes to seeing his friends.

I didn't know what drugs he was taking. I definitely spell weed from his room. I think he is using other drugs and just yes somebody guided me towards speed and oh my goodness. What I read online about speed. It was literally spelling out his name. So much clicked into place. Days and nights of energy during usage, with bad comedowns. Then there's a complete personality shift. It was also said to me that speed it cheap so it wouldnt cause too much financial stress and an addiction could be maintained on the dole, which is in on.

I rang a drugs helpline this morning to get some advice. I chatted for ages. Basically they said there's two issues.

1. the brother who is abusing drugs
2. the mother who is enabling him

I have other worries kow too after reading up more about drugs in that, he is going to fuck up his body so much that he's going to seriously damage it or kill himself. I read that liver issues can happen and I read other problems like rotting teeth.

What are other peoples experiences? Do enabling parents ever see the damage that they are causing?

My partner is/was addicted to weed although has taken a lot of other things in the past. It took him physically attacking me after he’d been spiked with ecstasy while out for him to seek help. The police were involved and we all believed he’d meant to attack me and was just on weed and drunk until we found he hadn’t chosen to take ecstasy and he wasn’t actually drunk. The fact we all thought that of him without question opened his eyes.

He wouldn’t have got help otherwise. He had to come to it himself.

You were lucky your partner saw sense and got help.

There were issues at home for issues with his mood and personality change and other issues and it's coming to a head for me now. I tried to be friends with him but he's a user and layabout and lowlife.

I rang a drugs helpline this morning and they said my mother is enabling him. This is hard. He has no reason to change.

I was lucky. It came at a price though and I’m still paying it. Things will never be quite the same. Thankfully I wasn’t really hurt, just bruising.

He had to come to the decision himself that changing was better than staying as he was. No one could have made him and if they had then I doubt he would have had the will to stick with it.

No personal family experience, but work in healthcare and see it all the time. Rad this book a few years ago and it really opened my eyes to the evils of addiction and how whole families get sucked in. I'd highly recommend it.
Mum can you lend me twenty quid? by Elizabeth Burton-Phillips