To try and save my friend?

[IamaRevenant]

My friend and former housemate has become entirely controlled by a pimp. I knew she had mental health and addiction issues (lots of abuse and severe family tragedy in her past) and is very vulnerable a result but she was always so vibrant, happy, dancing all the time - she's only in her 20s. He's feeding her smack and pimping her out. We've done a call for welfare but she pretended to the police everything was fine (he was there). Mutual friends have only seen her begging in recent months, she's not allowed to hang out with them and she won't talk to them properly even when she sees them. He's taken her phone. Apparently she looks and acts nothing like the person I knew.

Some of the aforementioned mutual friends want to stage an intervention - ie go and rescue her.

How far would you go to save a friend? I want to destroy this man tbh.

She has to be ready to leave.
Contact women's aid for advice.
Guidance is to keep lines of communication open so if/when she wants to leave she feels she has somewhere to go.

Keeps the door open for her to talk to you, reach out but she has to want to leave. It's really hard seeing your friend like this.

As above keep communication open and make sure she knows she can come to you. Don’t give ultimatums or force her to choose, she may go back even if you “rescue” her and you need her to know that even if she does that she hasn’t burnt her bridges.
Contact adult safeguarding, women’s aid, police again to make sure she’s on their radar.

Also you sound like a lovely friend, look after yourself and don’t take it personally if she can’t leave at the moment and the pull of the drugs and him is too strong.

What are you going to do with her when you've got her? She'd addicted to heroin. Have you got a detox/rehab place? If so have you explained that your friend will be brought there against her will? Realistically you can't do that, and I'm not sure what you plan to do with a heroin addicted woman that won't risk her health and your wellbeing.

You can rescue her, but that may not stop her running back to him. Don’t be disappointed if she does this.

If she’s addicted to heroin, how do you propose to handle that when you ‘rescue’ her?

I’m pleased that your friend has people who care about her and want to help her out of this horrific ordeal, but I don’t think this is the simple solution they think it is, especially given that she’s an adult.

Can her family stage an intervention and have her sectioned under the mental health act?

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/legal-rights/sectioning/about-sectioning/#:~:text=You%20can%20be%20detained%20under,the%20protection%20of%20other%20people.

Thanks everyone. Realistically I know you're right and it has to be her choice. Just hard knowing she's in this situation 😔

When she was living with me she had problems with alcohol and self harm and had a place at a residential rehab, which she didn't take up after meeting this man but I don't know if she'd still have that option. I assume she'd need methadone or something (I have limited understanding of heroin).

The man apparently has six kids with six different women and I'm worried that's going to be the next step for my friend. She deserves so much more than this.

Thanks, I'll suggest this to her remaining sibling x