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Is it meth? Opiates? Mental illness? Or all of the above?



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Is it meth? Opiates? Mental illness? Or all of the above?

Old 05-21-2015, 01:36 AM
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Is it meth? Opiates? Mental illness? Or all of the above?

I live quite a distance and have limited contact with my 36 y.o. sister, and am trying to piece together what she's into... I know for a fact that for years and years she's been drinking, smoking pot, (smoking??)meth, and takes painkillers whenever she can get her hands on them.

Until she lost her house to foreclosure about 2-3 years ago, she was still functioning (sort of) - she (mostly) paid her bills, had a job, had some friends etc - she's always, always struggled with life, but managed to more or less make it work...

Since she lost her house, she's had a couple of unsuccessful relationships, lost her job, lost most of her friends, things have generally gone downhill, fast.

She was always prone to raging, aggressiveness, violence and blowing up at people, and for the past year or so she's had a mystery 'scalp infection' where she's lost her hair. About that time, she also had confirmed periods of psychosis, literally seeing her hair growing before her very eyes, seeing a mystery 'skin condition' on her face where she was analysing every bump and lump and stressing about hair growing out of her face causing it to bleed etc... She was very involved in conspiracy theories and gullable to ridiculous stories on the internet etc.

She never has any food, although raids my parents fridge and cupboards for anything sweet, she doesn't reply to phone calls or texts sometimes for days or even weeks (then saying she didn't have credit on her phone), she doesn't turn up for appointments without notice, she has terrible memory loss.

Her house is not well kept, and there are very strange indicators around that weird things go on there (window screens taken off, furniture put in strange places, tape over windows etc), but when questioned about them she remains vague etc. She's also very vague about people she knows, where she's been etc - sometimes I think it's because she can't remember, and sometimes because she doesn't want to tell my parents.

From what my parents have seen, she isn't so aggressive anymore (but they only see her every couple of weeks), but more and more depressed, lethargic, sad and unhealthy looking. From what we can gather, she doesn't even go out of the house very much anymore...

Around the time of the psychosis episode she admitted she'd had some 'strong' meth, but said that it wasn't a regular thing for her... I know what this all sounds like, and I am not naive, but she's never opened up about her drug use or addiction, which leaves a very small room for doubt - and it's that doubt that keeps my parents on side, helping her when they should really stop enabling. They want to believe that if she was doing drugs before, that maybe she's changed, and it's a mental illness that is making her the way she is - something like schizophrenia...

I feel that she has a powerful addiction to meth (and anything else she can get), but just interested to get some feedback...?

Thanks for reading
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Old 05-21-2015, 04:43 PM
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Its hard to diagnose your sister but she very well could be a addict. Hard to tell what she may or maynot be doing. Since we tend to lie so well. Theres definetly some indicators like the picking at the face I've read that prolong usage of drugs like meth and LSD can cause schizophrenia in the brain.

that being said Addiction itself is a mental disease
I personally feel its gonna be hard to help her get better unless some part of her wants to quit.
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Old 05-27-2015, 12:10 AM
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Thanks Damascus - sorry for the late reply. I was realising as I was writing the post how impossible it would be for anyone else to even guess as to what it is that she's up to - but I'm just a bit desperate to know for sure what it is that we're dealing with...

It's so hard to know if it's drugs or mental illness - or as you say, a combination of both... But the thought that it is perhaps just mental illness keeps Mum & Dad hanging on feeling guilty that they're abandoning her when she's unwell.

I suppose the end result is still the same, if she isn't willing or interested in helping herself.

Thanks again for your response
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Old 05-27-2015, 06:28 PM
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no problem were here to help. in my opinion(not a doctor) theres also a good chance drugs can make it seem like she has many other mental illnesses. We tend to lie ALOT. i know i was suicidal at times when i was using my brain chemicals were all outa wack.


the sad thing is shes not here asking for help ;(
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Old 05-27-2015, 06:31 PM
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al-anon might be a good idea for some of the family. i wish my family would have went. but the only thing i can change is myself. best thing my family ever did was say no more ur going to jail and be out on the streets if u dont go to rehab. a week later i was leaving detox and going to a rehab been clean ever since.
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Old 05-28-2015, 05:05 PM
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Thanks damascus - congratulations on staying clean since rehab - a fantastic achievement - your family must be so happy and proud.

I imagine my Mum & Dad will step away eventually... They are very, very gradually learning to detach a bit, and because of this, she is gradually learning not to ask them for much anymore. However, her situation is getting worse, not better... I know what you mean about lies - Mum and Dad are learning to not ask too many questions, because all the lies and vagueness doesn't add up, and they then spend the next days, weeks trying to speculate on what the true story in her lies might be... I think that almost all of what comes out of her mouth is lies... Why is that? What does she have to lose from just admitting what she's doing? Is it because she's ashamed and scared that when they know for sure that they might cut her off? Or is it because she's scared someone might be able to try to make her quit?

Not sure how bad things have to get before she'll be ready to get real - if ever. Just a bit of a tragic waiting game for the moment.
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