Hi everyone,
I hope that things are going okay with your sons. My last few weeks have been up and down. My son reached out to the local addiction services, at the end of June, which was amazing. I went on holiday for a week and came back to him being on more heroin that he has for ages, having had one appointment where he just filled in forms. He had his second appointment yesterday and filled out more forms, had a urine test and was sent home with some sheets of paper with the days of the week printed on so that he can write down what is triggering his drug use. Sorry, but you have to laugh, the idea of someone on heroin not losing the piece of paper, managing to have a pen as well, and actually bothering to write something and keep it, is all a bit preposterous but there you go, its what you have to do to get an appointment with anyone who can actually help. The person he saw yesterday looked like the tea boy and my son had to explain to him how the various treatment options actually work, as he seemed to be working from the ladybird book of heroin recovery.
I don’t see an end to this but I hope I am wrong, my son actually said yesterday that he used to have the best life of anyone in his friendship group, lovely girlfriend, flat, well paid job. I think he is starting to accept that he has to take responsibility for this, even if there are other contributing factors. I remember speaking to an addiction counsellor a year or so ago and he said that until they take responsibility for the whole mess they won’t be able to get themselves out of it. But when you have nothing left, other than a horrible mess or a room in your mum’s house, I guess its hard to find enough of a future to pick yourself up and carry on for. On the plus side, my son’s room got so full of flies because of the heatwave and the mess that he has now started to clean it.
I’d love to hear how everyone else is doing, I think about you all so much.
Kate – I think of you every day.
Jackie