Dear Quentin, I’ve read your advice to other people. I’ve suffered for a long time with my own financial and family problems. I would value your thoughts. My younger brother developed a lifelong drug addiction when he was a teenager. My father, who grew up in an orphanage, provided him with financial support that enabled him to, as my brother once said, have a home and family while “being too drugged to ever see them clearly.”
He saw his whole world through a haze. He also said that getting off drugs was difficult enough, but because our parents were financially supporting his addiction, life became impossible for him. My father purchased some things for my brother, including a house and cars, but kept them in his name so my brother could not sell them. But my father also created opportunities for my brother to steal from him. Sometimes he would send my brother to collect thousands of dollars from a customer, and the money would of course go missing.
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