Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 2/22/2003

Question
Dear Mr Plessman

i am 21 years old and at a bit of a point in my life where everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. I have a girlfreind whom i love dearly who is currently in a drug rehab. she has a baby boy who i do not see often. and a mother who will stop at nothing to break us up. Lisa, my girlfreind. Told me yesterday on the phone that her mother threatened to take her baby away if she continued to see me. The reason, she states is that we share a co dependancy with one another. based on meth emphetamine. Lisa and myself would smoke copious amounts of the trash day in and out. however ever since she left for rehab i have come clean from my addiction. my qeustion sir is simply this. how can i make it work between the two of us without Lisa gettind hooked on speed again, and could being with me cause her to start up again. Please sir your reply and opinion would be greatly apreciated.

sincerely

Warren Fryer Cape town South africa  

Answer
Unfortunately I don't know how old your girlfriend is. If she is a minor, then the mother could presumably take action to take away her baby. This is ultimately a legal matter, and I would advise you to ask the same question here to somebody who  is familiar with the law of your country. Please state where you live, so the person can find out what the law is in your area.

As to the drug addiction problem, your girlfriend has been doing the right thing by going into a rehab centre.
The question  whether or not she will return to drugs all depends on the success of her treatment. I don't know what treatment model they are following in your girlfriends rehab centre.

I can only tell you how I help drug addicted people overcome their addiction.

I take a Bio-psycho-social approach whereby I look at the underlying biochemical disorder that may have contributed to drug addiction. For instance, we have found that many if not all drug addicts have a hypoglycemic condition, which is a sugar handling problem and may cause some wild mood swings and emotional upsets. Drug addicts take drugs to counteract these uncontrollable feelings. This can be treated by going on a hypoglycemic diet.

Then I teach my clients psychotherapy, which will help them to better handle stress situations.

It is not easy to explain all the details of the program and for this reason we have created a self-help psychotherapy program which you can find at our web site.

If you want to know whether you or your girlfriend are hypoglycemic, there is a Nutrition-Behavior Inventor Test under ARTICLES at the web site. This is a self-test and it is explained how to score the test. There is also an article

“Testing for Hypoglycemia and How the Doctor can Help”

which enables doctors to test for hypoglycemia.

To understand the program please read:

“What is Hypoglycemia”

“Treatment of Drug Addiction”

“The Serotonin Connection”

Then read all the articles in the self-help PSYCHOTHERAPY course at the web site.

You can do this program by yourself, if you are a good reader, or with the help of a friend or counsellor.

I would print out “What is Hypoglycemia?” and give it to your girlfriend. I am sure she can identify herself with that condition.

I hope I have been of some help.

Jurriaan Plesman
Free Web Site at:
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au