Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 4/14/2010

Question
my boyfriend who i live with and have a child with is addicted to heroin and has been for a number of years. He sees a drug counceller every few weeks and takes methadone. he does work but spends every penny on his drugs he lies to me about where he is going stays out late and does not seem to care about his family. i have tried everything to help him get off drugs he has stopped for few days but then ends up going to get drugs again. he tells me he wants to get off them but i don't think he really does as if he did he would have stopped i understand its not easy to stop taking heroin all the help is there for him just need him to want it enough. is there any advice you can give me as i have run out of things to try. Thanks.

Answer
Dear sarah,

This must be very difficult for you. There is no way a drug addict can get off drugs by will-power alone. His needs to get hold of drugs and wanting to feel normal is so powerful, that it will override all other considerations, including family obligations and honesty to people. Although methadone is supposed to reduce his cravings it does not treat his addiction, which is not so much a "psychological" addiction as a physical disease, that needs to be treated before anything else. Most drug addict are hypoglycemic and this needs to be treated before looking at psychological issues. Hypoglycemia can be treated without recourse to drugs by the adoption of the hypoglycemia diet and then gradually withdrawing from drugs. Please read:

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

and discuss this with a Nutritional Doctor, Clinical Nutritionist or a Nutritional Psychologist, if self-help therapy fails.
For more information use our "Search our Web Site" and look for articles containing  topics entered in search engine.

It might also help him to read my book which is freely available on the internet at Google Book Search.

Let me know how he gets on.

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist
Hon. 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