ABSTRACT
Desmond had told Ali that the counselling could start the following week. Ali was in two minds. Since coming out of the hospital things had not been easy and three weeks had passed. To start with, all had been ¢ne, but some of the old feelings and thoughts had returned ^ feelings of suspicion and the sense that people were looking at him and knew all about him ^ and he’d smoked some cannabis. It had made him feel better. But it had changed his behaviour and it was this that had alerted his brother. Too bright that kid, was what Ali thought. But anyway, he’d been seen by the mental health team for a followup not long after they had discharged him from the hospital and they had told him to stop using cannabis, that it was causing him problems. Ali knew that he smoked to try and stop his thoughts, to quell the discomfort and unease inside himself, but they weren’t prepared to accept that. They just kept telling him to stop the cannabis and to take his medication. Well, he was trying but he missed the feelings he got from using the cannabis.
