CRYSTAL METH-AMPHETAMINE: how do you quit the devil?

Meth is a real kick ass drug.; My first suggestion is that your friend start attending NA (Narac0tics Anny) and hope he will find a former meth user that will sponsor him and show him the ropes for recovery. t's folks helping folks.

I haven't fought it but know people that have.
Back if I have any sane help to post. Off hand, people after trying to rebuild, have the rebuilding scenario winning, however barely.

I figure if that takes, it's just a dot.

My business partner had a foreman dealing with this, and he lost. For me, he chased me around my house. Which might make me hostile, but I prefer rehab.
(I can be fierce, once in a while).

that's what we are doing here. on a personal level.

he's not a meetings kinda kid.

got two little boys, and a good job.

(i understand the drug. it is not nice, eats the body from the inside, and the soul dies quickly)

Is there any sort of in-house rehab that doesn't cost the patient money?
Is it too expensive? That might sound like a stupid question- but I don't know- in a way it'd make sense, providing a service that in the end, might save the health system millions treating people for the physical ailments that result from chronic alcohol and drug abuse.
The reason it doesn't seem like such a stupid question to me is that I have a friend who's checked himself into rehab right now and I was amazed to learn it's voluntary and doesn't cost him a cent.
I've visited him twice - it's a nice place, nothing fancy, but it provides a safe and medically supervised drugless environment in which for the first time - he feels enough support to end his YEARS of addiction.

I don't know anything about meth-amphetamine use - but as with withdrawal from any substance, even alcohol, won't he be having physical difficulty or symptoms? Doesn't he need to be monitored physically while that's going on?

this is poor folk in Kansas, no insurance, no prying eyes.

I am looking for personal insights, not referrals to health agencies. (no offense)

Hollywood makes this look more physically painful than it is. (I promise)

it is a psychological thing in the case I am dealing with. he just can't get past what he thinks it gives him.

Where I used to live, meth was heavy. I used to watch deliveries across the street from my kitchen window, and eventually contacted the building owner. I don't like meth from my kitchen window. None of these clowns ever looked up.

But, I'm not very anti drug, if at all.

I was just asking if that existed there. My friend is destitute and at the time he checked himself into this program was actually homeless. I think that's part of the reason he finally decided to quit - he'd hit bottom.

In terms of personal insights - all I can tell you is what he's told me- it's a struggle every single minute of every single day. He says, the receptors in his brain are screaming for it every single minute..... He said it's like they're asking him, 'Why are you depriving us of what we need - what have we done wrong...?'
He's been there a month now- and at first they gave him stuff to keep him knocked out so that he could sleep through most of the initial withdrawal stuff - which, I'm sorry to say- he did describe as being very, very uncomfortable and difficult.
He said that he'd wake up for three hours after being asleep for twenty-one and everything would be soaked - the bed, his clothes, etc...as he was excreting all the toxins in his body through his pores. That took four or five days.

He's happy he's done it though -he's off all the sleeping stuff- he's allowed to go out- and the other day I took him out to lunch and he didn't order a beer...so I think he's on his way.
He told me that before he checks out, they'll give him anabuse - this drug that makes it so that if you use drugs or alcohol - you'll get violently ill. He said they embed it in your arm - I guess like that depo birth control stuff. Maybe you could ask a doctor about that for your friend.
I know the thought of that is helpful to my friend - because he's very, very cognizant of the fact that once he gets back into his old environment with his old friends, it will be much harder for him to stay off the stimulants.
I think the thought of this anabuse is like a security blanket for him (in a good way).
He told me on the phone last night that it's so good to wake up in the morning and feel alive. He wants to preserve that feeling.

Good luck to your friend.

not denying full-blown addicts have painful withdrawal...(mosta them are shooters)

(good luck to your friend)

this is a backsliding edgeplaying kid that can crawl away.

(I know there is a big difference)

and there is almost zero free health care in Kansas...

Are there any reformed addicts around who can attest to the fact (hopefully) that life is better and more liveable without it?

For my friend, who's a musician, the turning point hit when he couldn't play music anymore because he'd developed a twitch or tremor that made it impossible. He realized then - music or drugs - because up to now he could have and did do both. But he can't anymore.

You say he has two sons. Maybe he needs to realize - drugs or my sons...

I don't know - I guess I'd try to find someone who'd been through the meth use, got off and could help him see that life could be more for him without it.

Yeah, and good luck to yours and to you. For myself Rockhead - I'm trying to keep a level head and not get too tangled up emotionally in it (which is MY addiction....I can never stay detached) but I've told myself I HAVE to.

It'll just be too disappointing if it doesn't take. And intellectually - I know that always a possibility if not a probability. So I'm trying to keep my head on straight about that fact at the same time that I'm hoping and trying to be as supportive and helpful as I can.

It seems to me, if they were serious about this 'war on drugs' they'd make rehab available and affordable. But I guess that would make too much sense, huh- and they also wouldn't be able to call it a war - it'd look too much like empathy and cooperation. Oh well...

I have no hope in "they".

I will impart what wisdom, humor and subtle thought bombs as I can for digestion later, and hope for the best.

(he is a good kid)

I will listen as well.

i hate drug addiction and it has affected the lives of a number of my friends and family, twice for heroin, three times for coke. one has to bite the bullet and be hospitalized. and still there are relapses.

i am smart enough to know that drug addiction treatment needs to be done by professions, anticdotes by a2kers won't work.

not looking for anecdotes, but thanks.

what do you think that system professionals offer that a dedicated friend cannot, other than association with other addicts, many of whom will not recover this time around?

(oh, and meds)

Youre asking for help and want to hear something that is mostly not available . Meth is the worst habit. Ive known many bikers who were on it and several are just dead . They died in some way related to Meth. One even got involved in its manufacture.
Its one of the most sreious of the drug addicions and (IMHO) its harder than crack to kick.
You say that hes a good kid. That prson,as you now know him, will not even exist anymore in a few months. He will become a violent, brain addled retard who doesnt even realize that hes changed so much. Itll take a heavy concerted effort to bring him back.
ALL the bikers I once knew that were on meth did jail time for something, several of them managed to kick the habit and become decent citizens since (Im talking the 1970's here).

There must be some public assisted forced intervention available in their state. This requires tough love from a parent, even if it means swearing out a warrant against your own kid and having him jailed for something trumped up. Serious as a heart attack here.You cant bargain or reason wiith a meth addict. The drug has robbed the kid of his humanity.

Sometimes only pictures will do. Show him these:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/meth_228x399.jpg

http://media.photobucket.com/image/faces%20of%20meth%20addicts%20deterioration/christimm/addictfacesofmethL.jpg

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.methtaskforce.org/images/methuse10%2520faces.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.methtaskforce.org/aboutmeth.htm&usg=__i9vdOlCDmedB5bH2MJ1Z7ogCSLI=&h=382&w=525&sz=51&hl=en&start=13&tbnid=ifKuDStqFkwb2M:&tbnh=96&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfaces%2Bof%2Bmeth%2Baddicts%2Bdeterioration%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mappsd.org/progression-new.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mappsd.org/Progression.htm&usg=__BmI0QNonDKoCV0R4THyt9I0tYG4=&h=453&w=711&sz=47&hl=en&start=24&tbnid=yZD8KITARwT3fM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfaces%2Bof%2Bmeth%2Baddicts%2Bdeterioration%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20

professionals in this situation know better than friends the way the mind can trick a person and throw up roadblocks towards recovery.

junkies are liars. they lie worst to themselves, and generally, friends don't want to tread there with friends.

my first wife was a heroin addict. the thing that was the hardest thing to do was get her to admit to herself that she had a problem with her addiction. it took trained professionals to get her to admit to herself that she was fooling herself. as much as i loved her i could not get through to her. that is why i turned to professional drug counsulors by dragging her to the hospital for treatment.

aw jeez. That sunken in facial look with the no teeth or, as I recall, guys with only three teeth in the front .

knowledge
no personal investment
professional resources - ie. connections/favours that can be called to get people into programs if necessary

friends/family are only very rarely, in my experience, successful in handling this kind of assignment