I struggled putting this article together for a variety of reasons.  I want to be sensitive to families that have lost a loved one due to addictions/suicide. As well, I want to provide some information for those struggling with addictions, of any kind and their families.  Addictions hurt not only the person with the addiction but those around them.

Addictions come in all shapes and sizes.  They can be as obvious as street drugs and abuse of alcohol or as subtle as street drugs, alcohol, prescription drugs, work or the need of control. Addictions do not have to be as obvious as a person who is a fall down drunk, or someone who steals to supply their drug addiction.  Addictions can be anyone who does anything to ESCAPE dealing with an issue in their life, or life in general.

You cannot tell an addict to just quit! Even if they do quit, generally it won’t last, unless and the key is unless, they deal with the underlying challenges of why they became an addict in the first place.  Why does the addict need to escape?  What is it that makes them feel, whatever the feeling is, that they can’t deal with life?

From a personal experience, the man I called dad (long story), was an alcoholic.  He couldn’t be trusted to bring his pay cheque home on pay day.  He was a violent drunk.  As a child it was difficult to understand how someone could say I love you one day and be abusive when he was drunk the next day.  As a young adult it was even harder to understand how someone who was so talented in many ways, he illustrated a book, taught himself to play the guitar, wrote the lyrics and music for a song, could do house renovations, just about anything he tried he could do but then would blow it all in a bottle of alcohol.  It wasn’t until years later I understood that any addict has deep rooted insecurities. In general what you and I see on the outside or what an addict projects is not how they feel on the inside.

Let me explain something about insecurities.  The insecurity could be their own insecurity because of a situation that happened in their life, e.g. a person who was taken advantage of by someone they trusted, but they never told anyone about the situation. They buried it deep within.  This has been my professional experience with two grown men who as a 5 year old for one, 14 year old for the other, were taken advantage of by a trusted person in their life. Out of their shame, they told no one. It wasn’t their fault, yet they felt shame.  As the five year old grew up the parents always knew something was wrong, that their son was going through something, yet time after time when they tried to talk with him, he pushed them away.  He escaped life by smoking up every day.  That is an addiction.  Finally there came a breaking point and in his 20’s he shared with his parents what happened as a child. 

The 14 year old was taken advantage of by a teacher, a female teacher.  He manifested physical symptoms that needed pain killers, pain killers turned into heavy prescription narcotics. They turned into street drugs.  After being released from prison he started to deal with the root issues. 

I wish I had a perfect answer to the challenge of addictions but I don’t.  I do know that homeopathic medicine is extremely helpful.  The challenge is to get the person with the addiction to a homeopath.  I am not saying this to promote myself, I am saying this because I know homeopathic medicine really truly helps people with addictions.

When I first came to work in Dunnville, I talked with Jen the owner of Whole-istic Wellness.  In our very first conversation about what are the needs in this area, Jen stated, addictions. I know Jen’s heart is in this area and she is looking for ideas from you.  How can we as a community work together to help support those with addictions and their families?

Diane Elms D.H.M.H.S., CCI, CCII, is a homeopath and specialist in Drugless Cancer Care and iridology.  If you have any health related questions please feel free to contact Diane at diane