Narcotics do not simply poison the mind of the user but also burn the bridges with family and the people around them.

Doctor Alvin Vergara of Tahanan–Quezon City Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center said it is rare for an individual suffering from substance abuse to seek help voluntarily; it is their family that most likely refers them.

“Based on my experience, it is rare that someone with substance use disorder voluntarily undergoes rehabilitation — because they have a disorder their beliefs are altered,” Vergara said.

“They will say that ‘yes, I use (illegal drugs), but I don’t have a problem.’ However, their family can see it. They don’t go to work, there’s always a quarrel with the family, running amok and stealing money from the house,” he said.

According to Vergara, who’s been administering care to drug dependents for more than 20 years, substance use disorder affects the family even more than the individual who is suffering from it.

“Most of the time, the family reaches out to us. Why? Because it is a problem of the family, not just the health problem of an individual,” he explained.

Vergara cited that under the law, relatives up to the fourth degree are allowed to recommend an individual suffering from substance use disorder to undergo rehabilitation in a facility such as Tahanan. If a person does not volunteer to file a voluntary submission into the court, the family may sign it.

However, Vergara explained that not all drug users are considered to be suffering from substance use disorder, and not all are admitted or allowed in the rehabilitation and treatment facility.

He said the clients undergo an evaluation to determine if a person will be an inpatient that will be resident for not less than six months, but not more than one year, or an outpatient that can be treated outside in a community-based rehabilitation that local governments have with 12 sessions, or an intensive outpatient program of 24 sessions conducted by the Quezon City Anti-Drug Abuse Council.

Additionally, physically fit clients are considered inpatients, while those who are too old or severely ill can’t be accommodated due to health risks. Individuals who are suffering from severe mental disorders are also recommended to be placed in a psychiatric facility.

Vergara said families may recommend their loved ones undergo a long rehabilitation, up to five years, due to fears or threats they may be receiving from them.

“There’s a threat to their life if they don’t give money. I told them you guys are being enablers, but they reason out that they are being pestered and threatened if they don’t give money,” Vergara said.

In effect, they are used to that system until they are so fed up and they can’t take it anymore,” he said.

One of the residents of Tahanan, “Jun,” had an addiction to methamphetamine, locally known as “shabu.” He is a 50-year-old man who went into the facility when he relapsed in his drug use.

According to him, his family noticed the changes in his behavior when he went back to using shabu, creating a gap in his relationship with his wife and daughter.

“My family noticed that my attitude and behavior were uncontrolled. My time was spent more on drugs instead of with my family. More on my friends, more on my vices, more on my wants and my needs, but basically those times should be meant for my family,” Jun said.

Talking to Jun, he is different from the stereotype society perceives to be a person suffering from substance use disorder. He is clear with his words, he is very articulate, and you will not think that he is an addict.

In his story, his addiction started due to his environment, the influence of friends, and the people around him. His family began noticing something was wrong when he started changing his routine, stopped working, and had no appetite most of the time.

What convinced him to enter the rehabilitation center was when a school psychologist and professor advised his daughter to leave the house and live separately to focus on her studies.

“Her problem was I am in the house, she wants to graduate and that is the advice of her teacher. I told her, together with my wife, that she is way too young to live alone; she was just 18. I should be the one to leave the house, so I agreed to enter rehabilitation,” Jun said.