Wow.
To address a few points raised by Bo. I have my PMs set to friends and contacts and I do accept friends requests.
I have no formal qualifications in the area of substance abuse but I spent ten years of my life from the early 80s to the mid 90s in the field of HIV/AIDS which involved a huge amount of immersion in harm minimisation. That was the time when needle exchanges were being set up here, when injecting drug users gained a political voice, when the goal of methadone programmes shifted from reduction to maintenance, etc. All of those things were created from the ground up with no road map.
I did study some behavioural science units as part of a degree I never completed in Criminology and Criminal Justice and a lot of the issues involved in addressing criminality are similar to those involved in addressing longterm substance abuse.
I do get frustrated at times, but the great thing about forums like this is that they offer a unique combination of intimacy and distance - I can walk away from the keyboard when I'm feeling frustrated and come back later. I can comment or not on any given thread depending on whether I think I can contribute anything useful.
My own struggles with both alcohol and mental illness have taught me that there is always another option. Even when you think you've exhausted them all, there are still other options to explore if you can summon the energy to try something else. From personal experience I know just how hard summoning that energy can be.
I try to keep in mind that our goal here isn't to "fix" anyone. While I do try to focus on the OP of any particular thread, I'm aware that what I say may turn out to be more useful to someone else reading the thread than it is to the OP - and that's fine. I'm just putting the ideas out there in the hope that they'll benefit someone, even if that someone isn't the OP.
Anyway, that's enough about me. I love this place and hope to be a part of it for a long time to come - the good, the bad, the ugly, the successes, and the inevitable sadnesses.
