Friend has a drug substance dependency.

A male age 36-40, *azanobody writes:

Dear Agony aunts and uncles, I live in a city where I suspect there is a high proportion of mental health issues and substance abuse (Berlin). I think this is linked to it being a city that is very creative and also very queer-friendly. These two fields often bring them their fair share of sensitive people who have to deal with a lot of rejection. I speculate a lot of people cannot handle rejection very well. The reason I write is I keep coming into friendships with people who I observe to have a different relationship with drugs or alcohol. Some of these people are wonderful, but every weekend they take a lot of drugs with friendly acquaintances, and have according to themselves "A great time". Everyone is different, but often I notice these people suffer from some form of social anxiety/shyness and this makes them into groups where they can offset their loneliness or plain escapism. I feel these friendships they make or built on substance use, they often do not have their ducks lined up. I've recognized when I mentioned drug use being an issue, they get very offended or angry. But also it's very hard being friends with someone whose entire life revolves around taking drugs and alcohol. I don't want to abandon friends but I can't socialize with people who love taking drugs every weekend. They are unable or unwilling to recognize the drugs are their biggest issue, but I now know why people do not intervene with substance abusers, the risk is they will be attacked. What do I do?

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