Drug and alcohol addiction and abuse. Recognition. Prevention. Treatment
20/20 Parenting. Recognizing and mitigating early vulnerabilities and risk factors.
Letters to Kerry
Stories of Victory, Struggle, Tragedy, & Workplace Concerns
July 11, 2007:
This is a very sad case. It illustrates how childhood traumas left unresolved can lead to drug and alcohol dependency and how helpless family is in finding help once it has progressed into self medication and addiction.
If you are local to British Columbia and can make any suggestions or referrals to this sister and family please send them to me to forward. Thank you. – K
I have a brother named Bob. He is 42 years old but really he is more like a teenager than a grown man.
Bob made his way to Vancouver a few years after our father was killed, in his early teens and immediately went to the streets where he started selling himself. After living that way for a couple of years he entered a gay relationship, which lasted several years. When that relationship ended he quickly found himself back on the street doing drugs etc.
On one of his time outs from a treatment centre he met a woman, another addict, and they decided to get married and have a child. The marriage lasted for a few years, very volatile years, ending badly and now Bob is not allowed to contact his ex-wife or his son who is seven years old.
It wasn't long and Bob was back on the street and now addicted to crystal meth. For several months the only contact I had was the occasional phone call, where I learned that he was sleeping on the streets and then that he had just been diagnosed HIV positive. A couple of months back during a very difficult time, our mother had just passed away, I was able to convince Bob to come and stay with me in [northern BC]. He arrived via Greyhound and I couldn't believe how bad he looked. He slept for two weeks straight and upon waking became restless and very extreme in his behaviour.
Long story short, he is now back in Vancouver downtown. Apparently, he stayed at a "friend's" for a couple of days and went to the Income Assistance office where he was told that it would take at least two weeks to get his file transferred from Kamloops and if he didn't like that he would have to get the information himself. Bob was given Disability status a few years back due to Post Traumatic Stress disorder from events that occurred during his childhood.
I talked to him briefly on the phone last night and he was very paranoid, said there's things happening in this city, they don't even know me but they all hate me…. this type of thing. He said that he was going to sleep on the beach that night and he said he was scared.
I phoned the Community Relations and Service Quality office for the Vancouver Coastal Region. They said there wasn't anything they could do because I didn't have enough information. They did tell me that it takes only a few seconds to transfer someone's file and all information can be accessed via computer.
My family and I would like to have him committed to a treatment centre, but the only time there was a bed available we couldn't contact Bob due to his being on the street and having no contact number.
I don't know if you can help in any way but I'm just grasping at any possibility right now. I saw the story about your son and found your contact information there. If you can offer any advise I would appreciate it.
Sincerely,
S. B.
