Election and social media
Meth: A mother’s story
WHAT we went through as a family in NZ with one of our four young adult children from 2004-2017, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Never.
This involved, getting familiar with the hospital psych ward 21, as it was the only “rehab “in Palmerston North. And still is. Nowhere else could help. The crisis mental health team was called on numerous times, But as parents, we looked after our son for most of it. Through it all. And what a hell it was.
Many don’t have what we have, a live adult, at the end of all the damage done. I’ve met numerous parents who lost their child. I’ve spoken at events and shared our story, some bits of it.
This included multiple court appearances over years, debts incurred, lawyers/legal aid, understanding the extreme paranoia and crazy withdrawal cycles, getting familiar with addictive patterns, and drugs that brought your kid back to themselves. I wrote a poem once about quetiapine — because it brought my son back from psychosis. We found him catatonic several times. That is, unable to control his body.
I’ve seen A and E rooms covered in blood from someone high on meth. Self-harming.
Quetiapine and other anti psychotic medications became a good friend of ours, as did the medical staff, support workers and police officers we worked with.
Other factors included, having no emotional energy or anything else in our mid-40s, including three other children in high school, reducing my professional job hours permanently, wrecking other relationships including straining us to the max as a married couple. Learning about what would come, for example ‘schizophrenia affective’, from drug-induced usage, getting educated about all this: the signs, drugs, and all its paraphernalia. Drug Arm with the NZ Police and my son’s behaviour taught me all this through the day and night-crazed reality of surviving drug addiction and its tentacles.
Broken trust, always having to be on tenterhooks with this loved one, of his friends, the lies and deception.
A family car being totalled, chopped up furniture, violence, destroying flats, loss of jobs, disappearances for weeks, being investigated by insurance, a six months periodic detention bracelet restraining an unwell person at home under my care, signing your 22-plus-year-old over to state welfare for mandatory hospitalisation twice and care, police raids, overturning family peace, loss of friends, and gaining permanent friends too. It turns your life upside down and inside out, wrenching your heart, your soul and energy with every waking hour and the unpredictable craziness that comes constantly. It is a daily hell on Earth.
The effects of one meth user on our family is ongoing until this very day: not because he uses anymore, no; those days are thankfully over, but because of everything, our family endured over 12 years of incredible chaos. Not least of all watching a person so tormented, it breaks your heart and mind. No parent ever wants to see their child suffer like this.
Fiji, methamphetamine is a killer and destroyer, and it’s here big time. It’s a demon.
Please, please don’t ignore any of the signs or opportunities to assist and report strange out of the ordinary behavior to the police. Get medical help asap.
Get support. Don’t ignore this.
Chances are meth and its cooks could be right next door in your neighbourhood.
It shows no partiality with all walks of life, all socio-economic groups represented and involved in NZ, and in Suva, no doubt. Why? Because it’s easy money — that will kill again and again.
Get informed. Support programs to educate against meth use.
Do not do nothing.
JEAN HATCH
Taunovo
I BELIEVE social media has a huge role to play when it comes to elections in any country these days.
The power of social media is immense and as we inch closer to election we notice a heightened level of campaign on social media.
The political party candidates have been searching for innovative and creative ways to appeal to the voting population.
With social media heavily regulated, the election candidates and political parties are well aware of the campaigning rules and the consequences should any breach occur.
However, it is the sudden rise in the keyboard warriors who are concealing their true identity under the guise of fake profile and deeply engage themselves into malicious activities targeting politicians.
The latest trend is use of applications to create deepfake videos online which goes viral on social media.
These intruders with whatever hidden motives are actively involved in socially engineering things to benefit them.
Perhaps it’s time that authorities need to strengthen their cyber laws to incorporate these new development and bring the alleged perpetrators to justice. PRANIL RAM
Votualevu, Nadi