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What it means to be an "Addict"
Becoming a drug "addict" usually means a person becomes part of the drug based culture and adopts that lifestyle. For a person dependent on drugs, or someone who is very seriously alcoholic, that can sometimes mean:
Having no money or very little
Having no proper home, 'crashing' with others
Living on the street
Living from day to day
Turning to prostitution and crime
Always seeming to be in a state of waiting, for the next "taste", the next bottle
Having few personal skills, life skills and work skills
Being frightened of life and its ordinary tasks
Not eating properly
Neglecting their health and not taking care of themselves
Not being able to plan for the future, plan their life
Some people, young and old, who are addicted to drugs can maintain a personal presentation and lifestyle that covers their drug problems and they are indistinguishable from the rest of the community. They are doctors, priests, policemen, bankers, truck drivers, shopkeepers, mothers and so on.
In New Zealand there are approximately 23 drug counseling centres for outpatients spread throughout the country. They have constant flows of people wanting help for substance abuse. For instance, every year in Wellington one centre counsels between 500 and 600 new patients for substance dependency.
Kindly reproduced with the permission of the New Zealand Police Association
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Becoming a drug "addict" usually means a person becomes part of the drug based culture |
Reproduced with the kind permission of the NZ Police Association |
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