When a person is in the grips of active drug addiction, they will find themselves isolated, helpless and completely guilt ridden yet willing to do anything to get their drug of choice. This is a complicated disease and addiction can and will take your life in one way or another if you do not get help.
It is as simple as asking for help.
Sometimes a person has to literally reach a point of complete desperation before the words “help me” can even develop in his/her subconscious mind, let alone speaking those words out loud.
Sometimes addicts can ask for help before things reach breaking point as they still have the foresight to know that things can only get worse. And in many cases, help has to be forced upon the person by those who are outside of their addiction. The main point here is that asking for help or sometimes, having ‘help’ forced upon you (by a court of law or by family members) is essential to recovery.
If a person acknowledges that he or she needs help than essentially they have acknowledged that they are in fact, an addict. Addiction is a disease of denial and once this denial has been broken apart, recovery is possible.
Once it has been decided that a person wants help (or needs help because of an intervention) all options of recovery must be looked into. Look into rehabilitation or treatment centres that will best suit your needs.
Medical aid usually covers treatment facilities and what is a few weeks of an addicts life spent healing than a life spent in the gutters of life – a life spent dying instead of living? If a treatment centre is not possible then get yourself (or the person in question) to an NA meeting, find a drug counsellor in your area who you can speak to regularly or get a therapist to help you through the psychology of it all.
Narcotic Anonymous (or NA) is a fellowship that brings addicts together in an environment of recovery. There are NA meetings all over the world and they offer support and friendship to any suffering addict in or out of addiction. NA also offers a 12 step Programme which can improve the life of the person immensely. This is a Programme of strict anonymity and is a safe place to share your experience and listen to the experience, strength and hope of other recovering addicts. Attend these meetings regularly, become involved in the fellowship and meet people who will not and cannot judge you (because they come from the exact same pace as you) and meet people who are free of addiction just for today… all this will help you on your path of recovery and help in keeping you clean. We all need support from those who understand us… NA offers just this to addicts.
There is help for drug addiction and recovery at Relapse Prevention. It is about wanting to recover and the choice to never pick up again.
Remember that for any addict ‘one is too many and a thousand never enough,’ addiction is a disorder that can be arrested and a new life… one without self annihilation… is possible.