DUST Search - Friend is becoming a ****** addict, what do i do?

BrotherofHavok wrote:

Addiction is a difficult subject for anyone. Personally I had a friend who was also an addict. As far as I know he took anything that could be found along the eastern seaboard of the US.

One of the biggest things I found to help was to keep him distracted. It took me and about a dozen others but we made sure that someone was with him pretty much every hour of the day. We started small at first, just a quick meal or a drink. We hung out, watched youtube clips and then moved up to full dvds. Eventually getting him to open up enough to go out to eat or see a movie. The more and more we kept him busy the less he seemed to take until eventually we had that intervention stuff. Thankfully we waited long enough to the point where he really was using so little that he recognized what he had become (a video camcorder helped record what he looked like before we started) and agreed that he needed to stop. Shortly after that he checked himself into a rehab center. Now he's been clean for about 3 years and he's starting to date again.

No matter what the advice you get from others and the internet, you have to take into consideration the long term effects and potential risks of anything you do. If you're as good a friend as you seem to be (been there for years) then you should be able to understand a little how he would react to anything you try. Use that to decide what to do.


Author	Thread Statistics \| Show CCP posts - 0 post(s)
1e 3peat Corrosive Synergy RISE of LEGION 37	Posted - 2015.03.13 23:15:00 - [1] - Quote BrotherofHavok wrote: Addiction is a difficult subject for anyone. Personally I had a friend who was also an addict. As far as I know he took anything that could be found along the eastern seaboard of the US. One of the biggest things I found to help was to keep him distracted. It took me and about a dozen others but we made sure that someone was with him pretty much every hour of the day. We started small at first, just a quick meal or a drink. We hung out, watched youtube clips and then moved up to full dvds. Eventually getting him to open up enough to go out to eat or see a movie. The more and more we kept him busy the less he seemed to take until eventually we had that intervention stuff. Thankfully we waited long enough to the point where he really was using so little that he recognized what he had become (a video camcorder helped record what he looked like before we started) and agreed that he needed to stop. Shortly after that he checked himself into a rehab center. Now he's been clean for about 3 years and he's starting to date again. No matter what the advice you get from others and the internet, you have to take into consideration the long term effects and potential risks of anything you do. If you're as good a friend as you seem to be (been there for years) then you should be able to understand a little how he would react to anything you try. Use that to decide what to do. THIS^ Recovered addicts are beautiful things. They are much nicer and understand much more than the average person. They can loose a lot but become humble with it, even when they succeed and get rich later. Mostly just distract him and give him reasons to not focus on the drugs or what is a hard life for him. He is probably doing this as a way of personal control when what he wants is a fresher life with more freedom from his mom and never had the support (obviously). I'm in my mid twenties and if I was still at home my parents would get me serious help! And not rehab, a life, a stable emotional state. No matter how YOU look at this his suffering is WAY far and beyond yours and he will want that understood, probably why he thinks you're calling him a jerk.
1e 3peat Corrosive Synergy RISE of LEGION 38	Posted - 2015.03.13 23:19:00 - [2] - Quote Proto Annihilator wrote: There is a rock bottom he will have to reach. For some it is death. You should stop associating with him. Change does not happen until we become disgusted with our behavior. Solitude speeds the process. This is the other side of it. And if you're a toxic friend group bringing him into his "madness" then you would do him a favor to get the **** out and get him away from his mom as well. Personally if I had a friend like Proto Annihilator and I was an addict I would break ties with him to assist my recovery. The choice is help him or leave him.
1e 3peat Eternal Beings RISE of LEGION 40	Posted - 2015.03.14 10:01:00 - [3] - Quote Toxic friend group. Okay, are you providing him drugs, is a friend from school days or a close friend providing him drugs? I don't know that you should intervene by manipulating rather get him a counselor that has experienced addictive behavior before this is important because you don't exactly understand what you're dealing with here mate. It's pretty horrible but to him it's help, he needs help in other ways so he can let go of his stone grip (and tunnel vision) on one of his invincibility granting stupors. What ever you do try and down play it from the mother's perspective, say it will help him get a job or whatever and let him keep his pride and dignity and don't tell her the main cause (the addiction). If you shred him like that with the mother you might make him beat her or worse so just try and get him resolved peacefuly. Talk with him about it. Distractions are only good if he's getting off of it btw. Use them to make him care about other stuff and just encourage him to back off it. If he slows down he has a chance of seeing his failure and want to correct that, right now he blocked that off and he wants to numb it that makes it seem worse than it is. Just unnumb him if that makes sense as friends normally do. Fighting probably gives him a release he's really just seeing and fighting himself everywhere.
1e 3peat Eternal Beings RISE of LEGION 40	Posted - 2015.03.14 10:04:00 - [4] - Quote And I guess if there is no warming him up and he's just cold it may be time for rehab. And also it may take years and years for rehab to properly work because it takes a lot of striving.
1e 3peat Eternal Beings RISE of LEGION 40	Posted - 2015.03.14 10:16:00 - [5] - Quote Someone with such heavyness and need to manup should probably have an ssri when they're off drugs for like 6 months. It's rough getting on those he might have weird drug using like initial side effects for the first month on it and should just chill out and try to mitigate those effects it's almost like the brain firing those receptors and rewriting them with "normal" life as he's living it. At that point he should know how to live life a little better, that's the key, and hope for a better year next year. Don't quote me scientifically on that ****. It's just I have a friend in rehab and some other life experience under my belt.
1e 3peat Eternal Beings RISE of LEGION 40	Posted - 2015.03.14 10:22:00 - [6] - Quote Also man up and tell him what to do, just make sure you don't get demanding. Tell him you're trying to be on his side.
1e 3peat Eternal Beings RISE of LEGION 40	Posted - 2015.03.14 10:47:00 - [7] - Quote I mean instigating, it's better to be straight up. He just doesn't want to be backed into a corner he might get violent. You won't "make" him do it. And I had to ask about the dealer because that's usually how it goes with friends and drugs and I have no evidence over the internet but your word so it's good you or a friend you could talk to isn't "assisting" him in obtaining that **. The other thing is that will make you dumb as **, just really slow. So he needs to be told his options and think very slowly about what to do about it. Tell him it's happening but don't say you will do it right then or start an argument.
1e 3peat Eternal Beings RISE of LEGION 40	Posted - 2015.03.14 10:55:00 - [8] - Quote Yep the lambic system controls all sorts of functions necessary for feeling things other than anger, anxiousness, and grey. Every addict learns to identify that grey. Once you imbalance it like that you get the grey. I'm Sure he knows about it from the ****** but doesn't unders what he needs to do and needs to think about it and do it all on his own. Tell him he can get a councillor but he's gotta just listen to himself, he doesn't want this he's just stone walled in his own little hell tiny paranoid ideas dancing in his head.
1e 3peat Eternal Beings RISE of LEGION 40	Posted - 2015.03.14 11:06:00 - [9] - Quote Yeah sorry man glad I could help a little.
1e 3peat Eternal Beings RISE of LEGION 40	Posted - 2015.03.14 11:09:00 - [10] - Quote tastzlike chicken wrote: That truly sucks. 1. Brutal Honesty. (This doesn't mean be-an-*******) Addicts are on their own time-table. Don't get worked up if it doesn't coincide with yours. Good luck.

1e 3peat Eternal Beings 51	Posted - 2015.03.18 07:37:00 - [11] - Quote I'm quite sure, in this case, it has something to do with his parents and friends.
1e 3peat Eternal Beings 51	Posted - 2015.03.18 07:38:00 - [12] - Quote TerranKnight87 wrote: Heimdallr69 wrote: I once oded back in highschool, well I pitched and had a ruptured tendon.. I guess my point is once you start it's really hard to quit, it's quite possible but no one will ever stop for themselves. If your friend is like me and feels all alone even though it's far from the truth then it'll get a bit messy. I've been clean for 2 years now, and I still get really strong temptations, that is something he'll have to live with for the rest of his life I'm not familiar with that term pitched. Do you mean taking performance enhancing drugs?. Pitched as in baseball pitch