Drug rehab or mental health facility best for brother?

[srb0404]

My 30 year old brother (we'll call him Dave) has been depressed for several years and has attempted suicide before. He lives with my dad and my other brother (we'll call him Tom) and is just generally miserable. I recently found out from Tom that Dave has been experimenting with drugs like steroids, meth, molly, xanax, cialis, etc. He says that Dave doesn't do these all the time, just periodically, and he thinks that they are being mailed to the house. My dad is completely unaware that this is going on. Tom had to take Dave to the ER a couple of months ago because he thought he OD'd on a meth/cialis combo. I would really like to have an intervention for Dave. Tom is unsure if drug rehab is appropriate because it's less obvious that the drugs are the real issue especially since he doesn't do them ALL the time (except for weed). He thinks he needs an actual mental health facility, rather than rehab. What WOULD be the most appropriate setting for my brother to receive help? Thank you!

[Paxiled]

Most people who take too many drugs are depressed and are self-medicating.  Obviously, from the behavior you describe, even if your brother wasn't playing around with, I might add, some pretty odd drugs to play around with in some cases, he would need help.  Drug rehab is for people who are addicted to them -- if he's not, they probably won't take him.  Mental health facilities also don't take many people these days unless they're a current danger to themselves or others, and even then they don't keep them long -- not enough beds.  Outpatient psychologist and psychiatrist are probably where he's going to end up anyway.  I don't really know how you're going to learn if he's taking so much meth he's addicted to it, but given he's taking weird combos of drugs maybe a drug rehab facility will take him, but if you know the depression is the cause, then that's what needs fixing -- most people get out of drug rehab and just start using again because all the reasons they had for using are still there.  So you need to do some homework both on what's available in your area, whether they'd take him or not, for how long, and what's really going on with him because it will go a long way to determine how bad off he is and how much immediate danger he's in.  But you can start outpatient any time, assuming he's amenable to it.

[Paxiled]

And he needs to want to change -- drugs are fun, and he might like them more than he cares about anything else.  When they stop being fun, most people stop taking them, those that don't need the drug rehab.  If he doesn't participate in his treatment with a commitment to work and get better, he won't.  Are you able to talk to him?