Tuesday December 03 , 2024

Posts Tagged ‘drug abuse’

The drugs don’t work, they just make you worse

drugsThe highly-publicised case of Paul Flowers, the disgraced former chairman of the Co-op Bank, filmed allegedly buying drugs, has put the spotlight on the use and misuse of drugs and alcohol by senior employees. What role does human resources play in developing and enforcing drug and alcohol policies in City firms? Is the culture of drug use in certain segments of the financial services sector in the City widespread, or is it just a case of negative media publicity?

As the song goes, “the drugs don’t work, they just make you worse”. The reality however is that the message of the song has yet to sink into UK society, where the level of alcohol and drug use is frightening: 26 percent of men and 18 percent of women drank more than the recommended 21 units in an average week, according to the NHS Information Centre in England in 2009. Around one-third of adults have taken an illicit drug in their lifetime, according to the 2012 to 2013 Crime Survey for England and Wales.

 

Traders Seek Help

In a recent news report that appeared in The Sun, City Beacon comment upon a 20% increase in city traders who have requested counselling services this year. Managing director Richard Kingdon said many were turning to drugs and alcohol as an “anaesthetic”. He told The Sun: “It’s allowing them to bury their heads deeper and deeper into the sand.”

He claimed bankers felt hated by the public and were being put under increasing pressure by their own bosses. He said: “Banks and financial institutions are using lower profit forecasts to cut staff bonuses, salaries and jobs.

“Denial is the name of the game in the City. No one — and no company — wants to admit there’s a serious addiction problem.”

 

City Beacon featured in the Guardian

Richard Kingdon director of City Beacon

A working life: the addiction counsellor

(This report was written by and taken from www.guardian.co.uk)

Addiction counsellor Richard Kingdon works with City clients in a world where it’s acceptable to drink heavily or take drugs – but not to seek professional help

You don’t have to be a drug addict or an alcoholic to be an addiction counsellor, but it certainly helps.

“If you were an addict desperate for help, would you want to turn to someone who has learned it all from books?” asks Richard Kingdon, managing director of City Beacon, an addiction counselling service based in the City of London.

Kingdon has plenty of experience of addiction. He started taking drugs – “anything but heroin, I never injected” – at the age of 12, was homeless and living on the streets of Soho by 16, and says he has done “everything” to fund his addiction. Then, at the age of 26, he had a breakdown, or “breakthrough” as he prefers to term it, and ended up in a psychiatric unit suffering psychosis.

 

Markets meltdown leads to surge in City addictions

London Square Mile

Counselling service founder says record numbers of workers in City of London seeking treatment for drug and alcohol problems

Drug and alcohol problems are rising at an alarming rate in London’s financial district, according to the founder of what claims to be the only specialist addiction counselling service based in the Square Mile.

Richard Kingdon, 42, says the climate of markets going into meltdown and banks implementing mass job cuts has prompted record numbers of City workers to seek treatment for addiction. He says his service, City Beacon, has worked with nearly 100 clients over the past two years.

“I’m seeing increasing numbers of people who’ve been taking a variety of substances to deal with the stress of their lives.”

One of Kingdon’s recovering clients is Daniel (not his real name), now in his mid-40s, who started drinking heavily at 25. He moved on to cocaine and found it impossible to stop his habit of “shoving my six figure bonuses up my nose”, although he has not had a drink or taken drugs for two years.

 

Life addicted to prescription drugs

addicted to prescription drugsMore than a million people in the UK are estimated to be addicted to prescription drugs known as benzodiazepines. But with withdrawal symptoms similar to those experienced by heroin addicts, those who find themselves addicted are calling for more help and a change in the way the drugs are prescribed.

Josh says he gets sweats and a sense of going mad if he stops taking his prescription drugs

“Being addicted is hellish. When I get up in the morning I need to take my meds so I can function, so I can be a whole person.”

Josh, 50, was first prescribed a benzodiazepine, a tranquiliser, as a hyperactive eight-year-old and has been addicted ever since.

 

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