| To
the Editor,
I first met and listened to Tony Trimingham at a seminar
that I attended on Criminal Activity and Addiction.
Due to the nature of my professional work, I come
into contact with the addicts that have offended.
I am sorry to say that as a mother of two fine young
men whom I adore, I naively never saw the drug problem
as being anyway close to me, however, it has been
some time now that I have suspected that my young
son who is now 22 years of age was using, but always
hoping that he would come through it, or wake up to
himself as I used to always say. The money trail,
lies and deceit just seemed to be getting worse.
It was at this stage that reality started to sink
in that this scene is happening to me, my family and
more importantly to my beautiful son. He lost his
employment, physical well-being, health and self-esteem,
but still always told us it was OK, he was going to
stop. This brings me to the issue of my sense of frustration
of not being able to access any agencies who would
or could help `the family' to understand what was
happening and how best to handle the situation.
Once Tony started to talk, my thoughts were those
of finally here is someone, unfortunately, who had
to experience such heartache, who could identify with
the needs of the family.
Since that seminar and having some contact with the
Help Line, I am more able to understand what is happening
to my son and handle it most of the time in a compassionate
and supportive manner. I am happy to say that after
hearing and reading heaps of literature, I know that
my son is certainly on the wrong road, but I feel
there is plenty of hope still to play with.
The best part at this point of time is that my son
has taken the step to enter into a methadone program,
which I am listening to the pros and cons about, but
from a mother's pain (mine), I am hoping that the
behaviour will stop in the short term and he will
be able to control his life to the point of total
abstinence.
To us there is no better option at this point as he
himself has made the decision that IT WILL work for
him. To this we can only trust and support him on
this journey. I am now looking at my son as sick and
not `on drugs' and have enormous empathy for him.
Finally, my anger is to all the dealers and so-called
other players who are party to destroying my son and
his family's lives, and many many more.
A
Hoping Mum
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