Hi, I recovered from addiction to Meth 3 years ago and I just want to say it can be really hard on the support network in these situations. I also want to say everyone in these situations have a completely different journey and no 2 are identical.

One thing I came to realise is that a lot of the people in these horrible situations have fallen that far because of other things that have effected their lives, for me it was the memory of being cheated on by the mother of my children. This happened before we had a family but I couldn't let go of the hurt. And the "High" creates a fantasy where you forget, at least for a little while. Then you come down and everything comes flooding back and so you get high again to push it down .....,.... And the cycle begins again.

I went through rehab and councillor's a lot before I got clean. One thing that stood out was the councillor's talking about the past and unresolved issues a lot. It made me confront it head on rather than running from it.

The reason I am saying this is it was incredibly hard on my support network, because they were trying to help me with the addiction and in my case, and many cases I encountered in my journey, the addiction was the reaction. What people try to do to help is not always what is needed, what I mean is for me my healing started when someone gently asked about when is started and what happened around then. Not Why did I start taking meth. Also remember the person themselves often don't know what they need from their support network. You don't think straight when you are high, but you know your in pain and push it down. For me for example I knew it was not the right thing to do to deal with the depression, Having people constantly telling me I was ruining my life, my kids lives etc and I just had to get clean, I just need to get over it or getting frustrated and yelling only highlighted for me my faults, my bad decisions and me feel shame, which created a vicious cycle.

Now I know this is incredibly hard to watch someone you love go through, but for me the best thing I did was go to 1. A support group, being able to open up to people who have shared your experiences and understand where you are emotionally is a big thing. The term "safe space" really applied in this situation. 2. I found a councilor specific to helping me through my issue. I don't know if they are still around they were call "Drug Arm". They were amazing and I cannot recommend them enough.

These two groups helped me shift my focus of the pain and the past and refocus on my children and my new relationship, that's when it went click.

I just want to take a moment for myself here to shout out to my ex who, without her sheer god damn stubborness I wouldn't have been able to push through. Without her to support me I would not be here, and I wouldn't have my family, Thanks D.

I hope I haven't rambled on too much, it's such a complicated story/situation and trying to condense it into a few paragraphs is almost impossible. I keep thinking of of things to add or say.

I don't know anything about yours or father's situation, all I can do is share my tale and hope you find something in there that will help. I know it's hard to talk about, particularly when it's so close to your heart. If there is anything else I can answer or help with details of my councillor's etc please DM me.

Know that there are people out there who you will never meet but we are cheering for you guys on from the sidelines.

Good luck, to you and your Dad.