Rehab revolution anyone?

[MattYorks :) :-)]

I'm sorry to all of the regulars that I have sort of deserted youse, but I am sure that you will all understand that I did or have had some problems and therefore do understand that my mind has being on other things and accept my appoligy's for the desertion. I have being focusing on my relationship and not the alliance.. But her I shall be back soon!

Right then.. Appoligys accepted and done with.. Today we have a story of another "Heroin mum" that went through it all with her addicted son that ended up loosing his life at 31 to the drug which he just had to surrender his life to.
 This lady is called Ann Richardson and she has gone threw it all with er son and has now set up a charity in memory of her son as she felt there was no-where she could turn for help, and did eventually get him arrested as she couldn't cope anymore... Famililar story..

It is here, It is not the same as the other I posted in the past and only listened to the last half hour but it is a griping story but I do think she is very nervous

Here on BBC Radio Leeds is Liz Green - one on one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00jxqk5/One_On_One_with_Liz_Green_Ann_Marie_Richardson/

[Anon33]

Yep ....they have started and the first thing to change already is an acronym PDU (Problematic drug user) to OCU (Opiate crack user) ( I guess this is so the outcomes can be measured)!!
 

[simon]

What vile tags to attach to a person

[sapphire]

What vile tags to attach to a person

I know, with all the "positive language" they are encouraged to use, why pick such stupid tags?

[derek d j]

Who's selling this opiate crack? An updated version of the old speedball, is it?

[froude]

Went on to listen to the women only got to the start,they couldnt even spell Heroin right so im not listening to some woman who has gone through a death of a loved one and the Radio cant even spell it properly.As for Opiate Crack,is it Crack with Opiates in or is it Opiates with Crack in or is it another name for a Snowball.They got a cheek Problamatic Drug Users,is that the new word they are gonna use instead of Prolific Offenders using Drugs ,all a load of shit.Have a good weekend everyone,All the best Froude

[sapphire]

Who's selling this opiate crack? An updated version of the old speedball, is it?

I don't know, I want some.

At my charming DSP we arw called PSM's (problematic substance misusers), what a load of old tosh.

[OP8S]

Yes, and in the name of sense should howl.

We deserve a better understanding of addiction realities and the psychology of addict/non-addict interface. It's hardly asking freedom for Tooting.

I & I'm sure each & everyone of us has regular interfaces with non-addicts. Daily, by the hour or by the minute! But they don't know anything about it & we can't really say to much about it to them because by listening to the majoritiy of people that I may have to spend time at work with, or even at an unrequested social occassion I have had to realise that so, so, many people have absolutely no idea that " we " may be around & talk of us a person who's obviously been a criminal at one point, holding little old ladies to ransom at night while through the day we hang about school gates, robbing the rich kids of their i-phones, pads, shuffles or whatever. Or their might be at best someone who's open about a friend or family members addiction problems, they're almost worse....Because they no that if it wasn't for those evil drugs then their cousin Johnny would never of been caught by police robbing old grannies blind...they know Johnny & he would never have done that, so it must have been the drugs!
It's so easy for them to blame something which is already illeagal, fact was that Johnny was a rotten wanker who would rather rob a granny than go threw withdrawls. It was his choice rather than go through the pain & discomfort. I've got a chequered past & done things I'd rather not of done, but I would never rob an old lady who lived alone & was blind. I wouldn't even of thought about it, just got me head down & tried to do the rattle. There was some sick wanker around my way did. Came from a good background, his mum & dad made a fortune running a family pub for years. A lot of family in the Masons, probably one himself ( once ! ).
When the court case came up their was very little done about it. His family paid all parties involved back their money ( & more ? ) before it came to court even & Johnny had agreed to go to some rehab, the place was just waitting for him should he not get any jail-time. Of course he will though, robbing of old ladies. That's bad in my books defo, being in possession of tools for supplying...not looking good at all. Then again bet he sang like a canary, I thought to myself, but jail-time for sure. Johnny got off with a tag for a goopd few years!!!
And anybody that knew Johnny know that it wasn't him that robbed the little old ladies, it was " the drugs!!! ", shock , horror! Johnny would never of done that.
Except the fuckr did.
So the vast majority we interface with a lot of the time & I interface with all sorts of different people all day, without a hitch may I add.
What would they think if even for a moment that I'm currently on drugs & that they or I may be talking to somebody on drugs also?
Their minds couldn't mesh the two ideas together, they are able to see drug users as people like Johnny ( & we know what drugs did to him! ) or see us as the media portray people who have addiction problems & we know what that's like. Pretty inaccurate, fuckd up shit & of course our new roads to recovery.  I'm building a roundabout just know   !
Those Mental Health posters that became quite common, you know the ones I mean ...." John's not mad, he's just depressed..." with a photo of a nurse, an office worker & a post-man or something. You had to work out which one was the most depressed out of the four. Suffering from a depressive illness myself, they actually made me really paranoid when they first got put up around my work, thought they were on to me? But over the course of a couple of years, their's been some right nutters coming out of the woodwork. People are talking about it & are verging on the sympathetic towards any person who has felt the need to be very open about their mental health issues. I prefer to keep my own privacy, so I grin & bare my moods at times & look forward to refuge once home. With the door locked.
 So maybe the D.O.H needs to do something along those lines..."one of these people is on class A drugs.?...." have somebody wearing a hoody, they would be picked automatically, a nurse, a postman & a elderly gent. The elderly gent would rarely be picked I imagine, unless by somebody from the pharmacy he uses. We need to be "sexed up", have a hug a junkie day!
The public need to be educated. It really is quite frightening, ridiculous & funny ideas people have about substance use.
At the same time that they say somebody has overdosed, they should also tell you the number of people that have had a successful & satisfying day. LOL!!
As I said " the nutters are coming out of the woodwork"!
Funny thing is how sane the people that would be considered total nutters if they spoke out, the ones that seek refuge in their homes with some consumables, seem to be the sanest by FAR!

[derek d j]

A good and thoughtful post, OP8. It can all become very tricky when those tasked to solve a 'problem' are in fact part of it.

Earlier tonight, I visited a 'vulnerable' woman in the local asylum. If it's not a full moon, it's close and the five ward attendants - all immigrants, like an ad for multiculturalism - had their hands full. Bedlam indeed. The woman I visited had let crackheads take over her apartment and make her effectively homeless. Her outreach workers said it was 'inappropriate' for them to help her get rid of her unwanted guests. Very unviolent and no danger to herself or others, to emphasise her plight, she went to an appointment after being up for 48 hours on the pipe. The following day she'd calmed down but permitted a combination of social and drug workers - who'd attributed her not sleeping to incipient insanity rather than chemicals - to persuade her into hospital. She thought it'd help. After a fortnight confined to a small area with a bunch of disturbed strangers, with nothing on offer besides the anti-psychotics, she's barking. Clearly needs to be in hospital. When they 'cure' what they precipitate, they'll still have to deal with her flat.

Reminded me of how the dsp, in their eagerness to 'help', gave people a problem by reducing their medications and then blandly assured users they were there to help with it. Some system. There's something about organisations, particularly the corporate ones, that can stamp individuals with an institutional credo and turn them into somebody they previously weren't. When 'helping' strangers is involved, things can get complicated. Types replace individuals and procedure halts individual initiative.They do things to people that, in another context, they wouldn't countenance. If pressed, they explain it's not them but the 'system'. If told they are the system and not helping, they become either pensive or vicious. I can't understand it; maybe it's why I'd never work for a corporation. But, were I king, I'd pay those who deal with the vulnerable top dollar to attract the best or else ban the word 'help' from any job description.

Rehabs slot neatly into this thick, upside-down society. Their defined task - to detoxify and maintain abstinence in others - is quite outside their remit. That's down to the addict, stupid. Incidentally, they can 'help' by rehabiliating users into someone like them. Sad and utterly unnecessary for drug users to pick up the tab for this blind foolishness like those vulnerable souls I saw earlier pay the price for an atrophied mental health treatment system. I wish everyone would wake up.

[OP8S]

I've spent my life wishing that people would wake up Derek & see the things I do, but most of them can't or are at least unwilling to see the world as it is, better off re-assuring themselves by use of the media as to how things are. Not just in the use of drugs, it's everywhere. I've even thought that it's me that needs to wake up as there must be something I'm missing ? But with the use of the net now , I can see that it's not just me that has this un-accepting view. Surely any DSP would inform the local housing association who would in turn inform the police to turf the emotional roller-coasting guests out the house. Letting the tenant with the help of her GP return to a more settled life, maybe even re-locating them for a fresh start. Sending somebody to a mental hospital, is just the same as improsining them for letting drug-use go on in the house, which even if you didn't take part you would still be nicked for. As it's your name on the tenancy.
Maybe it's just a clever way off, keeping it from going to court. Start entering users into the mental homes for a fixed period , saves going to court, expenses & the cost of carceration to HMP. Hold dependants to ransom until they will sign anything just to get their dope / script, then while you're they're a fast detox.
Of course leaving you a reformed member of society. Fuck I'm starting to scare myself!