Anyone watching mum, heroine and me?

[Pawslikepaddington]

It's depressing me so much I may turn it off, but do you really think moving house can lead to your child becoming a heroine addict? It's giving me second thoughts about my life plans now!

So, what do you suggest notnowbernard?

so what do you suggest expatinscottland? By the way i've never said the alternative is to fund her addiction. Not way.

what is there to suggest? the mother had done and was doing all she could.

the daughter still wanted to use. the daughter even said, 'heroin comes first'.

I mean if she was your daugther

she's not, though, so why spend time speculating on it? it's a documentary.

I thought the mother in this docu was incredibly strong actually. The alternative was for her daughter to have no one looking out for her at all. She had to accept the addiction and the boyfriend to keep the door open with her daughter.

I actually think she hit the nail on the head on prescribing heroin for long term addicts. Heroin is actually very cheap and the cost to society of addicts having to steal and beg is much larger. 80% of crime in Brighton is drug related.

Access to clean needles and regular doses of heroin would actually allow people to re-build their lives/hold down a job rather than live in deprivation, despair and filth.

I really hope rehab works for her. Like an y addiction (cigarettes, food, biting nails) it only works if you want it.

I thought her mother was incredibly brave, selfless and admirable.

Yes that's right, finger crossed it will never happened to us..

A european country ( I forget which one, but somewhere like Sweden/Norway) has managed to lower its number of IV drug users simply by opening 'shooting galleries'. It has made drug taking appear more 'medicalised' to the addicts and as a consequence, they are becoming clean.

interesting reading

Very interesting tiredemma. I also found it interesting that Hannah thought she had progressed from cannabis. I always thought what nonsense when I read that...

and here also

My ex (my kids dad) was on heroin when i met him in 2002, he had just finished 6 months inside clean, came straight back out and used again. He finally gave it up 3 months after meeting me and went cold turkey, it wasn't nice He always said and still does that it started with him smoking cannabis at 13 and just kept progressing to harder and hgarder drugs.
That girl was not ready to give it up and there's no point doing rehab until she is, she'll come straight back out and use again, i've seen it happen to so many people through my ex. Thankfully he has been clean for almost 5 years now, and is a fantastic daddy, i have don't think he will ever use again and thankfully as all his old 'friends' out of his life.

my uncle died from an overdose it was so awful and sad and a waste of a great life

I do agree that the whole prescribing thing would be a good idea. Would take the whole drug thing out of the underground.

But the thing with 'safe' prescribing and 'shooting galleries' is that although they may stabilise someone to some extent, they do not address the core reasons why that person is addicted

Don't forget, the person is using because 'normal' life, feelings, emotions, are intolerable to them... yes, being prescibed heroin may make their using safer and more accessible but they will STILL be searching for oblivion from somewhere . And a 'safe' maintenance dose of prescibed heroin will not provide that

And the market is saturated with substitute prescriptions as it is. I have met countless people who are addicted to Methadone who have never even been prescribed it

When I worked at the drugs clinic, the most common word that addicts used when asked why they continued to 'use' alongside Methadone/Subutex is because they found themselves 'Bored'. Their life revolves around getting money for a fix, getting a fix, preparing for a fix- so when they have medication to help stop the addiction, they no longer have to find money for drugs, find the drugs and prepare the drugs.

Which in essence gives them nothing to do.

I was amazed at how many people described this.

wow tiredmama what an eye opener

addicted to more than the chemical - in essence you are saying it is a lifestyle

Well you guys have said just about everything that I would have said. But I needed to hop on and add that it is nearly 7years to the day that I got clean from heroin(e) (lol) forever. Yay me!
I stopped smoking 3years ago.
Have gone from size 6 (heroin induced) to size 18 (cake induced) down to size 10 (gym induced)
But I'll be damned if I can leave those chocolate raisins alone!

You have to WANT it... or rather NOT want whatever it is you're addicted to.

But there is always hope for a happy ending.

Well done LadyBabo. But not well done for making me think about chocolate raisins

I just watched it and I felt so sad watching both of them, the mum seemed so resigned.

I was shocked when she paid for her to go and buy some gear but I think she was just desparate to have a nice normal day with her daughter - same as buying the duvet cover, thats what my mum did for me when I was 21 and moved into my first house.

When I had an addictions placement one of the workers said to me that heroin stops time for many people, they go into this fog of drugs at 16 and when they do eventually come out of it the find themselves 10+ years older but still exactly where they were at 16. I could really see this for the girl.

Even having met many addicts I still cannot get my head around how addictive it is, it really does destroy lives. And so many of the addicts are so incredibly sad and resigned to their 'fate'

Tis very true, smurfgirl. I ended up at 25 with a mental age of 18! Took a few years of very quick growing up to even it out!

Am thinking of retraining as a drugs worker, but I am concerned that I would find it too depressing. Very difficult client group to work with (I used to work with sex offenders!)