Helping My Brother With a Drug Addiction, Should I Test His Urine Randomly or Trust Him?
Question by sacha: Helping my brother with a drug addiction, should I test his urine randomly or trust him?
He’s been on cocaine for a few years now, he just told me a few days ago. My dad kicked him out from home recently for stealing / bad behavior, he had nowhere eles to go so I’m letting him stay with me for a few months until he’s clean and working.
I’ve heard many times that the only way he’ll quit is if he really wants too, he told me he wants to quit, but he just needs alot of help. Im thinking about buying urine tests online, to test him randomly.
Do you think that’s a good idea? or should I just trust him?..since him quitting is really out of my control. Although I wouldn’t really know what to do if he tested positive one day, I don’t think I can just throw him out like my dad did, or eles his life would be over… i don’t know, I need advice.
he’s going to try rehab, trying to get him in a 18day program
Best answer:
Answer by Absterbabe!!!
Very bad idea, test his urine, set some boundaries, and under no circumstances should you give him money. Do not enable his addiction! Addicts will lie and possibly steal to get their way. Have you gone to any Nar-Anon meetings? It’s a group for relatives and friends of drug addicts. Even if he is quitting, you still need to detach and let him work his own program. If he isn’t already in NA, look into it for him. You can’t force him to get clean or to enter recovery, but you can set boundaries and detach so he hits his own bottom and gets clean on his own.
Answer by Hannah
I don’t think that you should buy urine tests. For one, I’m not sure how you would get him to agree to take one. And as you said, I don’t know what you could really do if it turned out positive.
Is there any way that your brother could go to rehab? I think that that would probably be the best solution. Most people can’t just kick a cocaine addiction by themselves. Rehab might be the solution because he’d get more support and intensive treatment than he would staying at your house.