Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 6/21/2008

Question
My husband and I have been married for a year together for two and about a year before he met me -he had been clean from Heroin for a year. I have just found out from him that he has been using again for seven months- I had to drag the truth out of him as he was not forthcoming, his excuse being he was scared to lose me and our baby boy.   He was a heroin addict for seven years before we met, and he promised me he had no reason to go back to this life.    When I confronted him about what triggered it he couldn't give me an answer. He has been lying to me about everything for the past seven months and has spent all our baby boys savings. He says he want to quit and begged me to stay an help him through this- the worst thing is is that he is an Addiction Counselor. He has used methadone in the past but I am so bitter about all of this I refuse to let him have it- my reason being that if he wants to quit this badly he would be prepared to do whatever it takes. Am I being unrealistic and unsupportable. What is the best way to help my husband? I want to stick by him but don't want to make it easy for him to relapse

Answer
Dear Lesley,

I am sorry to hear about your husband. Addiction is a disease in the literal sense of the word and unless you treat the underlying biochemical abnormality that causes him to use drugs as self-medication, he will continue to use drugs at any cost. No marriage will save him, because he is incapable of committing himself to the needs of other people unless his own needs for drugs is satisfied.

Most dug addicts are found to be hypoglycemic which interferes with the production of feel good neurotransmitters. So the first step in treatment is going on a hypoglycemic diet. If your husband is a reader he should theoretically be able to overcome his addiction by his own efforts (by studying the under-mentioned program) if he understand the basic underlying biochemistry of addiction. If not I strongly advise him to get a referral to a Nutritional Doctor, Clinical Nutritionist or a Nutritional Psychologist. The following program will help, him overcome his addiction, and if he is successful he should continue his career in drug counselling and help others overcome their addiction by more scientific means. Dug addiction is only one form of mood disorders and the program mentioned below will help people with all sorts of other mood disorders.

Please read:

Treatment of Drug Addiction at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/treatment_drug_addiction.html

Drug Addiction is a Nutritional Disorder at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/drug_addictions_nutritional_disorder.htm...

Self-help Personal Growth Psychotherapy at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/self-help_personal_growth.html

Study both the biological and psychological aspects. I suggest he also read my book Getting off the Hook, which is freely available on the internet.

and ask for a referral to a Nutritional Doctor, a Clinical Nutritionist or a Nutritional Psychologist if he so desires.

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman
Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au
Author of "Getting off the Hook"
Freely available at Google Book Search
Skype: jurplesman