As with other research projects, I meet my interviewpartner on location. This time, it’s a pub by the station. And not because we can’t find anywhere else, but because this is a place where Werner often spends his time. He comes here every day. On Mondays and Thursdays, the home care service does come to his home to help him with his personal hygiene. But afterwards he’s back here, sitting at a table with other guests, a beer and a glass of wine in front of him. Often both at the same time.
When Werner talks about his life, to me it sounds like a constant search. A search for the thrill or the high. At some point, the search turned into an addiction and ended time and again in a crash.
Addiction and work
Even back in the seventies, when Werner started an apprenticeship, he was interested in getting high. Hashish every day at the autonomous youth centre, and often during breaks whilst he was training. He successfully completed his training, and a conventional life followed: a girlfriend, an early marriage, two children and a job. After 16 years, the marriage ended in divorce.
Werner worked as a chemical laboratory assistant in a large pharmaceutical company. The search for a high never left him, even here. He tried coke for the first time in 1995. It was a fantastic experience. Euphoric, you felt good and had good conversations.
At work, he got to know a lab technician. Together, they started snorting coke regularly. Eventually, everything got out of hand, and it wasn’t the lab but the coke that became the focus of his daily life. At first, his addiction went undetected at work.
Help from colleagues
Lydia Paiva, Prevention Project Manager at ‘Sucht Schweiz’, provides information on the topic of addiction in the workplace. She points out that if addiction is suspected, managers or colleagues should first seek a conversation.
However, one must be cautious with assumptions; first gather evidence and then talk to one another. Symptoms of addictive behaviour could include changes in performance, frequent absences or lateness, as well as mood swings or aggressive behaviour. “Someone doesn’t always smell of alcohol or cannabis. You have to proceed very carefully, as changes in behaviour could also have mental or other causes,” she says.
People with addictions may initially tend to reject offers of help from managers or colleagues and downplay the issue. “They are afraid of losing their job and often lead a double life that nobody at work knows anything about,” says Paiva.
When working is no longer possible
My interviewpartner Werner left his pharmaceutical company back in 2001 and has not had a regular job since then. He had stopped turning up for work, so the company gave him a five-day deadline, which he allowed to pass. However, Werner is not reliant on financial assistance, but makes a living from dealing cocaine professionally. He earned very well during those years.
The peak of the trade was followed by a crash: Werner became his own best customer. And with the heavy use of cocaine came severe physical symptoms and psychological dependence, particularly sleep problems. At some point he collapsed; he calls it a blackout. His doctor then prescribed him sleeping pills. Names such as Temesta and Dormicum are mentioned. Medicines that many of us who struggle to fall asleep are familiar with.
But Werner wouldn’t be Werner if he’d stuck to that. He replaced the coke with pills, particularly benzos. Eventually, he collapsed here too and checked himself into a clinic. Acute treatment and a detox clinic. He kicked his benzodiazepine addiction.
Werner tells me about his current situation: alcohol and a bit of coke, none of it quite as intense as it used to be. It has all settled down with age.
