Faith talks with a friend about an Uncle who struggled with substance misuse.

Description

“So who was the person misusing drugs or alcohol in your family?”
“One of my uncles in India”
“Okay. Um, did they ever lie about their addiction to any of the family members?”
“Yeah, i think they tried to preserve their reputation”
“Okay. Did you or anyone else in your family see them misuse drugs or alcohol”
“Um, yes. He just came home drunk - pretty often.”
“How did you family handle the addiction?”
“Um. They generally left him alone and tried to carry on as normal. Um, and yeah”
“Um, did your uncle ever try to seek help?”
“No. It was a pretty new problem and he’s going through a lot, so he wasn’t focusing on getting
help for himself”
“Okay. Did they ever steal from the family to get money for their addiction?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Okay, um, *long pause* Did they ever get into any arguments with any of your family members
because of his addiction?”
“Um yeah, his marriage was in trouble, so it didn’t help.”
“Did he have any children?”
“Yeah, just one. He’s around my age”
“And how did he handle that?
“He wasn’t doing quite as well in school, and he lost a lot of motivation.”
“Okay, um, how did your family members who were affected by the situation cope with it.”
“They tried to focus on the son the most and make sure that he stayed in school, things like that,
and then tried to be supportive for my uncle but they didn’t really push for him to get help.”
“Okay, um, *long pause* Did they ever lie about their addiction?” (Generally, not to family
members)
“Um yeah, when he met new people, he wouldn’t like, I mean, it wasn’t obvious so he would try
to hide it.”
“Okay, did he ever get in really big trouble because of his addiction?”
“No, not that I know of.”
“Okay, um *long pause* Did the situation affect you personally?”
“Um. No haha”
“Okay”

Participants

• JTAC
  

Interview By

• JTAC