I will start at the beginning. I am the eldest of four children and the only girl, the brother closest in age to me, started using injectable methadone at the age of 15. I knew he had tried it as we have always been really close and he told me, thinking that he was really cool!, I was shocked, shouted and ranted at him and he promised never to take it again. Forward two years, I had left home and got a phone call from my Mum saying that my brother had been caught trying to break into a chemist through the roof and had fallen through the ceiling! As he was young and it was his first offence, he did not go to a detention centre. At about the same time, my Mum found him lying on his bed with a needle in his arm, as a family we were devastated and my parents had no idea about drugs or what to do. Mum was so upset and anxious that she went to her doctor and was prescribed lorazepam, an anti anxiety medication, and so began her lifelong addiction to tranquillisers.
Again, he said that he wasn’t an addict and would stop, which we believed, he had started a good job and seemed well.
These things happened a long time ago, so I am struggling to put them in order!
Anyway, fast forward a few years, I am living abroad and get a phone call from my Mum saying that she thinks that my brother is using again and would I come home for a bit to try and help. I fly back and talk to my brother who again assures me that he hasn’t got a problem. However, while I am home I look at my youngest brother and instantly know that he is now taking drugs. I confront him and he admits that he has used cocaine and that my brother had turned him on to injectable methadone and heroin. We talked and both went to see his GP who was hopeless and just told him to stop! He as well had a good job, which took him abroad a lot and I hoped that going away again would help him to kick the habit. I will continue soon, I am afraid that it doesn’t get any better.