Comment on Liverpool parade crash victim refused PIP despite life-changing injuries
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 3 days agoSorry, I this came up in a discussion with someone else who replied and I realised that I’d missed out some important context behind my own purely anecdotal experiences. I was, for way too many years, addicted to smack and crack, so I tended to move in those circles. This meant that I saw a section of society much more towards the dodgy end of the spectrum. My experience with having seen crackheads blagging benefits is not something the vast majority of people would see. And it’s probably correspondingly rare.
I’m sorry you dislike my ‘if they’d just. . .’ comment. Yes, it’s definitely reductive, but I stand by it. Addiction is a different conversation, so rather than go off on a tangent I reduced it to ‘If they’d just. . .’. But that’s kinda what it comes down to. I’m not unwilling to discuss my own history, my overdoses, hospitalisations, horrible situations I ended up in, all that stuff that goes with a smack habit. And the crack on top just shifts your problems up a gear. I’ve been clean for a few years now, but just last week at the doctor’s a simple blood test took about 45 mins because I don’t really have any veins left. Humiliating, really, but entirely my fault. I did this shit to myself, my responsibility, my fault. So I kinda know whereof comes the shit I’m saying. ‘If they’d just stop. . .’ is what it boils down to for every addict. I just stopped, and relapsed many times. But you’ve got to just stop. It’s really the only way. At least in my case, things had to get very ugly for me to finally get clean. I still have issues with alcohol and nicotine, but I’ve quit everything else.
Like you, I’ve worked since the 80s. Actually, lots of junkies just work extra shifts to pay for their habits, we just only notice the obvious ones begging in the street.
Sorry to hear you’ve been going through the mill with the system. Yeah, we assume that if we’ve worked and paid taxes all our lives, the state will look after us when something goes wrong. And increasingly that is not the case. A civilised society should look after its poor, its sick, its homeless.
There are organisations that can help you navigate the Kafkaesque corridors of pip, I hope you are able to reach out and get some help.
As I said, I did know a couple of people who successfully navigate this stuff when I really didn’t think they deserved the support - but they weren’t stressed so it wasn’t such a big deal for them. I guess that’s the difference. And again, my life experience and anecdotes are the exception not the norm.
cybervegan@lemmy.world 2 days ago
That’s fair. I’m thankful for your perspective - food for thought. You’re right I’ve not seen that section of society from that angle, though I have a sibling who went through addiction. They were a “functional addict” and were working throughout, so I’m aware of that angle, at least. That was all decades ago now, though their partner had a relapse after an operation when they were given opiate painkillers. I think you’re being hard on yourself though - and I don’t know your circumstances, so I don’t know how you got into that mess, but although it’s easy for outsiders to frame addiction as a personal failure, I think the circumstances that led to that path are often ignored. I see such problems as a systemic failure, rather than a personal one. I’m glad you got clean of the class A’s, it’s no small achievement, and I hope you’re making progress with the rest - though I understand that Nicotine is perhaps the hardest of all to kick. I do think you have a bit of survivor bias there, though. One thing I’ve learnt recently, is that not everyone has the same abilities to get through - I know you’ve seen chancers, and you managed to get through, but I don’t think it’s true that everybody could have taken your path.
For myself, I’m getting help from the CAB, so we’ll see where that goes. I start 1-to-1 support next week with the local “Autism Hub” which is an entirely new thing to me - I’ve never “been in the system” before, so it’s an “interesting” learning curve. I have ups and downs - the past few days I have been far better, but I keep relapsing due to factors outside of my control - mainly caused by said system. I just need the time and space to recover properly, but I don’t know if I’m going to get it. Purely “mental health” things are something this system seems hell bent on denying, so I’m expecting a continuing struggle. I have no choice but to push on.