When my brother was using heroin it was a very sad time for my whole family. We saw an intelligent, thoughtful and loving young guy, successful in his career, with lots of friends, a girlfriend and a seemingly happy life turn into a stereotypical ‘junkie’, with slicked back hair, pinned eyes, and an old sports bag filled with appliances like toasters and stereos, on his way to the pawn shop.
What can you do when someone turns their back on life? How can you help them? What can you say that will make the slightest bit of difference when they can’t stop what they’re doing, no matter how hard they try? Everything you do to help or fix or manage the situation fails. And this beautiful person, who is now a complete stranger to you, breaks your heart and lets you down again and again.
When you realise you’ve tried everything you can think of to help and nothing’s working, it fills you with all kinds of feelings that you’re not used to experiencing – anger, sadness, depression and despair. But even in these dark times, you need to try to focus on something positive, take each day as it comes and accept that for now, things are far from ideal, but it might change tomorrow, next week, next month or next year.
