MY HUSBAND IS A DRUG ADDICT

Q I recently found out that my husband has been using a drug called cat on and off for the past seven years of our marriage. He has episodes where he’s extremely aggressive and illogical and our altercations have threatened to turn physical.

I found out he’s on drugs by accident because he had to be hospitalised one night when he lost it. He’s been through some difficult times recently and I thought this was the reason for his behaviour. But a psychiatrist who treated him in hospital called me and told me – with my husband’s permission – that he’s in fact a drug addict. What do we do now? Jenny, email

A Cat is short for methcathinone – a stimulant drug derived from a plant called cathula edulis. In South Africa it’s often used as a cheap alternative to methamphetamine (tik). The effects of cat last for four to six hours and causes feelings of euphoria, increased alertness, increased heart rate, rapid breathing and dilated pupils.

The side effects of the drug are anxiety, convulsions, delusions, fever, hallucinations, muscle twitching, irregular heart rate, paranoia, restlessness and tremors on withdrawal.

The long-term effects are most disturbing – these include paranoia, hallucinations, anxiety followed by depression, anorexia, nose bleeds, destruction of the nasal tissue, elevated blood pressure, permanent brain damage and death.

Your husband should enter a drug rehabilitation programme as a matter of urgency. He should ideally be admitted to a rehab centre where he can be helped by a team of therapists.

However, your husband needs to make the decision to go to rehab himself. In my experience with drug addicts, when they go to rehab because a spouse or their family has insisted on it, it’s often not successful. Rehab is usually only successful when the addict decides to kick the habit and work hard to do so.