This is a post from Michael DeBell (http://www.charcotmarietoothsupport.org/profile/MichaelDeBell). I'm posting because of some tech challenges.
I do not have c.m.t. myself and did not know about it until I met this young woman on the street. She was at the entrance to the place where I am in veterans transitional housing and needed some help. So I met her and talked to her because no one else was and asked her about what she had. She explained it all to me and said she was a very rare case of x recessive chacot marie tooth because it usually only affected males the way it did her. I thought for a little while that she had some kind of personality disorder but now I realize that she uses meth. to kill the pain. Sometimes she is not "crazy" (her words) and is somewhat level headed. I, not being a person in the drug culture. being notified by some of my fellow vets that were, that the true reason for her erratic behavior was "tweaking" I wondered how doing those kinds of drugs would affect the condition she has. I have suggested to her that those kinds of drugs capture one and that the only way out is drug rehab. She claims that because of her condition, drug rehab would kill her because of the drugs they use to detox one.Because of this line of thought, she is insisting on getting off of them on her own. According to what I have learned and read, there is no getting off of meth on ones own.
On the other hand I help her as much as I can by buying her something to eat and taking her around to attempt to get things together. I have got her cloths from time to time when she wound up with only the ones she had on her back and it was getting cold. The place I live at feeds the homeless regularly but kicks them out after. I am not supposed to fraternize with them but the help they offer here does not seem to meet her needs. I had compassion on her because she was sick and cold and has a hard time getting around. The other homeless people in the shelter treat her badly by making fun of the way she walks. Needless to say, she does not go into the shelter any more ( yea, they gave her a top bunk and she got stuck, and people laughed at her).
So I just wondered of anyone here had any advice on how I could support her and encourage her. I suppose that she might need to be rebuked, but I want to also do this with some consideration for her condition. For me a balancing act that I am untrained in.