Addiction

I've always felt sorry for people who suffer from addiction, so to speak with someone who is still and addict but turned his life around was a revelation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Hi there, this is Julie Finch Scally with you once again with a world at war with itself. Lovely to have you with me. Today we are following on the category most people never discuss, but as they are part of many people's lives, maybe we should find out more about the subjects. Today is addiction and how it affects many people. I have in the studio with me Douglas, who has been involved with assisting many people suffering from addiction for several years. Thank you, Douglas, for joining me today. Thank you for having me. During my life I have met people with addictions, some bad, some controllable. But over the years I started to realise that during many of these people's lives, things have happened to them that have had a strong impact. Is it usually something they feel ashamed of or want to forget? Would this always be the case?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yes, I think there's generally some kind of trauma c stemming from childhood, but I don't know that it's always the case.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

No one expects to become addicted when they start using a substance. What happens to the body so it becomes addicted?

SPEAKER_00 1:36

My understanding of addiction is that it's the inability to stop doing something to ourselves that's causing harm. So there's a massive dopamine release. If drugs didn't feel good, it feels good. If it didn't feel good, people wouldn't do it. People are coming from a really hurt, broken space, and unable to sit with themselves, unable to accept themselves, a self-loathing, their perception of the world is warped and they're just in a in a really low, dark place. Using drugs gives them that high, which is a false high, it's a temporary high. There's a mass release of dopamine and people feel better, they feel more at ease, and then there's the crash and we have to rinse and repeat. From a bit of lived experience, that the use is a symptom of the disease of addiction. I think the disease of addiction, I'd see it as a health issue, as is centered in the mind and how our inability to regulate our emotions.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Obviously, with such things as smoking, it starts with peer pressure. Surely the use of heavier substance can be started the same way?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

It could be. I think experimenting recreational, however you want to refer to it, or just being young, is quite normal and socially accepted as part of growing up. I think for people that grow into addiction, where everyone else kind of, I don't know, grows out of it in inverted commas, addicts grow into it. Peer pressure, we we're growing up, everyone's smoking, we we want to be cool, yeah. And then we go, this is silly, and and stop. This isn't good for our health, this costs too much money. All my friends are stopping and getting married and having kids, and but we just keep going and then go harder. It does something for us. It it helps us be in the world. Again, that's a false sense of security, which is only going to end causing harm. If you are an addict, I I believe people can use recreationally and then there's harm minimization. For me, I just need to be completely abstinent.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yeah, you're talking about those recreation drugs. Lots of younger people do it and they say it makes the evening more fun and their stamina increases and they can enjoy that fun for longer. How dangerous is this?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Well, you don't know what's in them, for one. If you're not drinking water. I it's it's dangerous, but like I I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. It's dangerous. If people can use it and then get up on Monday morning and go to work, like good luck to them. Uh the people that I work with uh uh can't. They use it and it's like clear the calendar for the next week.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

And you mentioned that you don't know what's inside the drugs. I mean they're doing tests nowadays, so if you go to events, you can have the drug tested. People are selling them these drugs. Surely they know what's in it, and obviously they don't care.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

No, they don't know what's in it. The pill testing stuff is great and I'm I'm a advocate for that. If I'm running around wanting to have a shot of ice or heroin or or whatever it might be, take a pill. I'm not going to be driving 20 minutes to go and get it checked out and like I'm I'm having it as soon as possible. That's addiction. And I think that's the difference between addiction and people that are going to go to the music festival and take ecstasy and sleep all Sunday and then go to work Monday. The addict is just going to use it straight away, as quick as possible, get it into you. So, yes, while the pill testing is great and I'm an advocate for it and I'm sure it's saved lives. I think that's recreational use as a flip side to addiction because an addict's not gonna wait.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

No. I've actually never taken drugs, and I say I tried smoking and didn't like it, so I thought it was a bit of a waste of time. But the younger people who go when they go dancing and doing all that physical activity, it would cause them to perspire. Does it help to remove the drug from their body, or once it's in the system, does it stay for a certain period of time?

SPEAKER_00 5:24

So there's a shelf life, depending on the drug, I'm not sure of the time frames, but there is a shelf life. Perspire is going to help.

unknown 5:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

It's also going to be dangerous because your temperature's rising.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

What would you consider to be the worst cause of addiction? Drugs, alcohol, or smoking?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Statistically, alcohol, but I think it it depends.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah. Well, more people drink alcohol than those who take drugs. I guess smoking comes up to the level of the alcoholic as well, but it's not quite the same, is it?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

It depends on your circumstances. Like, how much are cigarettes today? Through the roof. Drastically expensive. If you're a parent on one income or who could afford to smoke? Are the children gonna go without are your bills not gonna get paid because you need cigarettes? Probably cheaper to use heroin to put a smoke if you're gonna do it. Then they smoke, yeah. So I think it depends on your circumstances. Yeah. But the desperation is gonna be like you're not gonna go and do the crimes you would commit to get heroin.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

You actually mentioned the family in that case. And the the problem is not only with the person who is addicted, it does affect the members of family. In what ways?

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Taking your children to uh safe environments, yeah. Sitting out in car parks sitting in the middle of the night waiting to score, parents being put into prison or arrested, houses being raided by the police, having the house turned upside down, families being ripped apart, domestic and family violence, neglect, sexual abuse. It's endless. I'm not a a drug and alcohol worker, I work in community, so I mine's more of a general stuff. Mental health and and parents ending up in uh mental health units.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yeah, it it does affect other people as well. There's no two ways about that, yeah. Do you believe that recreational drugs are they a good thing or are they something that can lead to addiction?

SPEAKER_00 7:15

They are something that can lead to addiction. I know people can use recreationally. I personally don't believe in recreational use because for me I'm off.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Like I said, yeah, wipe out the calendar. Yeah, I can't see how drug use is good in any form.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

It's because you said it affects you differently to what can with other people. Did it have to do with each person's makeup? They're everybody completely different, and sometimes a drug can have an effect on one person but not on another.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

I'd say there'd be some genetics there. I don't think a a well-balanced, stable, for want of a better term, well-rounded individual sees the need to use drugs regularly.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

But people are using drugs as a form of self-medicating.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

And escapism Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

That's a symptom of what's really going on.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

You said you help people who are suffering from alcoholism or even drug addiction. Is it really a case of once an addict, always an addict?

SPEAKER_00 8:13

When we're talking about addiction, I believe so. Again, that might be controversial and and listeners might disagree. But for me, disease is an addiction and the the using of drugs is a symptom of the disease, of what's really going on for me. And for me, that's like the self-loathing, the the inability to be able to regulate my emotions, the the OCD type behaviours, it might be uh other mental conditions for other people. Really, really happy, really, really angry, like it's hard to just be in that that sweet spot. Yeah, I've noticed it since getting clean, which has been six years now. Well done. Some of the yeah, some of the behaviours have been quite uh quite intense that I didn't realise I was doing until I until I stopped using drugs.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

But do you know you see it in other people when you're helping them?

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

But does that upset you or do you feel that you're glad you know what you've d gone through so you can be of assistance?

SPEAKER_00 9:15

I I'm glad I know what I've been through because I've done a lot of work, a lot of self-work, self-development around this stuff. I'm continually learning and going to groups. I feel for the families. I know my parents actually spoke to me more when I was in prison than what than what I do and they live literally five minutes away. I feel for the families, the individual who's living the in the addiction, they're doing the best they can with what they've got and as long as they're not overdosing it, it might be what's just keeping them self-harming or or worse. It's just powerlessness. I I really the the powerlessness. I I can be available, I can do what I can for you now, but if if you're not willing or ready to change what caused you to make you change So I was in and out of prison all my adult life and the last relapse I had I was overdosed twice in two weeks and we I I'm gonna die. If I keep going like this isn't sustainable, basically I'm gonna die and I don't want to or the best I'm gonna end up with, and I'm not knocking rehab, but I've done plenty of rehabs, about four years worth, like rehab's as good as that's the best outcome I could have. Yeah. Recovery's been amazing to me.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Well well done. Congratulations. I know there are certain things you all strive for, and and if you can keep going and get the motivation to do it, that's the best thing for you. Now, everywhere in the world I've been going over the past five years, people are glued at looking to their mobiles. Surely this is also an addiction.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yes. I believe so. Well, try, stop. Don't look at your phone today. Yeah, see if you can do it. And the social media stuff, the likes, the little love heart emojis, uh the the comments and people agreeing with you. It's dopamine.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Yeah, that's it's that's the reason why it's addictive, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

It's no different to no different to drug use.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

I think people now are telling everybody that this is the case, but I still don't think if you are addicted to looking at your mobile phone that you're believing it. We've got to go through a generation of people who now have got to learn that it's not the best thing for you.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

I think because your phone is like does everything for you. Well it does now. It is hard to to not have like I don't know how people could not have one, but social media as opposed to doing your banking, I think there's a bit of a difference.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

There is, yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

But yeah, just try.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

One thought, and I'm not sure whether you can answer this anyway, but if people do learn to switch off and not be so attached to their phones, do you think there will still be the desire to turn on of that phone just for one small check?

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Definitely. Without a doubt. I personally try not to look at my phone for the first 15, 20 minutes when I wake up of a morning.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

And I find that hard.

unknown 12:02

Really?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

And that's yeah, it's gosh.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

I mean, I'm not on social media on purpose.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Oh, I'm not on social media either, yeah. I I just find myself wasting too much time. But to not check the weather, to not check the news, like not turn the screen on for 15, 20 minutes, and I get up and I just try and sit on myself and focus on what I've got to do today.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Well, I'm I might promote that. I think that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

But it's hard. Like I some mornings I I well, I'm not gonna fail is probably the wrong term. Some days I don't do as well as others.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Right. Yes, we'll we'll we'll we'll leave that one. Look, I have found this discussion so interesting. Douglas, thank you so much for coming in and giving us all an insight into what addiction can be about. I have speaking with Douglas who has been involved with assisting many people suffering from addiction for several years. I do hope you enjoyed this podcast as part of a world at war with itself, and look forward to joining me next week. Until then, this is Julie Finch Galli saying goodbye, five.