I was a counseller to some durg addicts in a rehibitation centre
once. During the early days, I used to think that counselling them
was easy. just tell them to stay away from drugs and tell them the
con of taking durgs. How wrong was I. By talking and listening to
them, you can tell why the go back to the same path after, 3rd or
4th time. Let me share with you what I experience counselling
them.
1. Listen to them. Counselling is not just talking but listening as
well and probably more often than talking.
2. Create trust. Usually when someone knew that he is an addict,
there is alway a kind of eye when you see them or talk to them.
Usually it is fear or mistrust knowing that on top of being drug
addicits, they sometime commited other crime to feed their habit.
One must be sincere to help and put away those fear.
3. Help them make new friends. Usually their "friends" are also
drug addicts themselves. When they cannot make new friends, they
always fall back to the old friends and then the old way
again.
4. Create healthy activities. Usually religious activities help if
they can develop a strong faith in the religion.
5. Be very firm. never give them money to feed their habit again.
this usually happen to the mother who "could not bear" to see them
suffer. This is not helping but letting them go back to old
ways.
6. Help them to get a job and encourage them to stay on the job.
This will give them a chance to start anew as well as spending
quality time away from drugs. This also need the society to give
them a chance to change.
7. Help them to develop confidence in themselves that they can
change and are willing to change.
good luck
