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Drug Addiction and Families: A Q&A

Mary and John are close siblings.* Mary has struggled with her brother John’s drug addiction for years. I spoke to her about how drug addiction affects families, and what can be done to help them.
Q: When did you first start noticing problems with your brother and drugs?
A: I think I noticed problems with my brother being troubled a lot sooner than I was able to identify the cause being drugs. I know that he started doing things like smoking pot from about Year Five onwards. So he was very, very young. Before that he was struggling in school and things like that, and I guess if it’s in front of you getting involved in stuff like that is inevitable if you don’t feel like you’re succeeding at all in the things that you’re expected to be doing.
Q: Was there a particular moment for you when you realised that John had a serious problem?
A: It’s hard to say when it came to a head…there have just been so many instances where I have gone ‘that’s rock bottom’ and then it just keeps going from there. I don’t know when it’s going to stop, or whether the whole thing has climaxed yet or not.

Outside the Alcohol and Drug Services building at the Canberra Hospital. Photo Credit: Hannah Egan
Outside the Alcohol and Drug Services building at the Canberra Hospital. Photo Credit: Hannah Egan

Q: How has your brother’s drug addiction affected your family?
A: It almost becomes the centre of everything…my parents would never deliberately be doing this, but on a subconscious level it put a lot of extra pressure on me and my other brother to make whatever we were doing perfect, because we could see how badly it was affecting Mum and Dad. Even their relationship at times was, I think, pretty strained by what John was doing.
Q: Do you believe drug addiction should be treated as a health problem, rather than a criminal problem?
A: Yes, I do… I think drug addiction is the result of making bad decisions initially, but what it becomes is a health problem and it is best dealt with like that.
Q: You mentioned to me earlier that John has been in and out of rehab. Do you think rehab has helped him in the long term?
A: No. The trouble is, I think, rehab is designed to help people that want to be helped… But I think that when John has gone in there, he hasn’t really believed that he needed help as badly as he did, and I don’t think that he believed that they could help him.
Q: Do you think the government does enough to help people with drug addiction and their families?
A: I think that looking at John and how John has ended up, obviously he is not a case that would support ‘yes’, but there are probably a lot more resources available to people who actually want help…I think there are things that could be done differently though, like treating it more like a health problem than a criminal issue…somewhere between John* getting arrested for the first time, and where he is now, something should have been done differently.
Information on drug and alcohol addiction services in the ACT is available here.
*The names Mary & John have been changed.
 

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