A mate of mine has been sectioned. He’s smoked an awful lot of weed over the last 20 odd years and has apparently been dabbling recently with legal highs. Things came to a head a couple of weeks ago and he’s ended up getting sectioned. I found out at the weekend after another mate had been to visit him. He described him as being “****ed”, shuffling about and babbling away whilst making notes in a little book about all things that annoyed him.

Generally speaking in these situations can they put you back together, or has he done some permanent damage?

Whichever way it goes, it will take a very long time. Years.

Hope they recover well.

Rachel

Mrs Daz is a drug worker, she might know. Any idea what he was taking? This is the trouble with ‘legal’ highs. If he’d been taking something safe(r) like heroin he’d probably be ok ironically.

No idea what he has been taking. He used to be a close mate, but I got married, had kids and moved out of the area. Not really seen him much in the last couple of years apart from bumping into him out and about.

Advice I have been given by friends in the past who were sectioned is try and make sure he has contact with the Independent Advocate. The NHS is not always so great in getting hold of them like they are supposed to.

Legal highs, and skunk are causing a lot of issues with mental health these days. the various types os “spice” seem to be causing major issues…

Cant help with the drugs side of things, but a good friend had a nervous breakdown about 1995, he’s still not better now, to be honest I dont think he will ever be better.

A childhood friend was sectioned…he always had an enormous lump of cannabis on his coffee table. He smoked tons of the stuff and was very paranoid.

This was probably 15 years ago.

He’s married with two daughters now…all I see on facebook is happy family pictures now.

Cannabis can certainly have long term effects. But the combination of cannabis with other substances can be additionally destructive.

You don’t mention what the ‘legal highs’ were that your friend was taking, but if he’s been sectioned, hopefully it will allow him to break out of that place (mental or literal) where the substances took over.

I suspect he’ll need a long, long time.

worked in a large psychie hospital for 6 years, the use of a section is only used if there is a serious risk to the patients health, eg self harm or suicide or to other peoples lives , etc, as the cost and lack of beds is quite a problem.

Prescribed drughs, therapy and family /freinds support all help to make a gradual return to something resembling normality returns, but then some patients get to like the system and abuse it and become istitutionalised.

An ex’s sister was sectioned after years of abuse of all sorts and by her other half, she came out of the other side and last I heard was doing well.

Glad I stopped smoking because skunk can cause all sorts of problems.

I’d read that weed isn’t like weed years ago, these days its sprayed with all sorts of sh1t to ‘enhance’ its potency??

All the stoners who carried on after college / uni are either obsessed with the likes of David Icke or work at the BBC!

Before i pressed ‘post’ i omitted to mention that one of my riding buddies isa CPN and teh amount of kids who are being screwed over by these legal highs and this super strong skunk is on the rise. Some come out of the psychosis, others don’t, it seem to be if your susceptible to mental illness then it brings to the fore…. I suppose, its a bit of roulette….

From experience, it depends an awful lot on the individual concerned, how willing they are to accept help, make the changes they need to make, and then stick to them. mental illness can be massively debilitating for even the strongest of folk, who on the outside appear intelligent and sane…

I hope your friend gets all the help he needs, and makes a good recovery.

All the stoners who carried on after college / uni are either obsessed with the likes of David Icke or work at the BBC!

This is fantastic. If it’s okay with you I’m going to steal this and use it as lyrics.

Teasel, knock yourself out lad! I’m full of observations like that! Just give me a mention in the credits though. 😉

I’d read that weed isn’t like weed years ago, these days its sprayed with all sorts of sh1t to ‘enhance’ its potency??

It’s been selectively bred to have a much higher active ingredient content (THC), so it much stronger than the stuff we all smoked in the 60s, 70 & 80s.

I packed it in when all i could get hold of was Skunk, it didn’t agree with me at all. Way to strong to be able to function normally…