Tarek Kareem Harris – Rock bottom – Why I do what I do?

			I'll never forget a man I saw when I was a junior psychiatrist in Oxford.
		

			I was doing a mental health clinic for homeless people
		

			in walk the tall man in his 30s and he looked like he'd had a good life in the past. Unusual. He was
Muslim, his name was Asif.
		

			This man used to be an accountant. He had a wife and a family. And now he was living under a
motorway bridge.
		

			He was sleeping in a tent, get done. So for seven years,
		

			it turned out, he had an addiction to online gambling. He'd lost 1000s and gone bankrupt. And he'd
even turned to alcohol. And it made me so sad to see him like this. He was so depressed just about
given up on life. He hadn't seen his own son in seven years.
		

			The thing is, he felt he'd lost himself and he wanted to be found again. He didn't pray because he
thought Allah had abandoned him. He was ashamed to go to the masjid. And even in the masjid, they
turned him away because he slept there overnight a few times, and this was against their rules. I
don't know what.
		

			And look, there's no happy ending to the story. My clinic was a Oxford University run service, and I
couldn't help this man with a place to stay. Nor could I see him with an Islamic medical
perspective, because that's wasn't what I was paid to do.
		

			He came a couple of times and I lost touch with him. And for all I know, he's still out there nearly
20 years on May Allah forgive me.
		

			Allah forgive me.
		

			I can't let people who enter my path slip by like that. I decided that some time ago.
		

			That's why I'm back here on social media to help not myself, but to help you.
		

			If you've hit rock bottom, if you feel lost, I will try to help coach you back to wellness,
addictions, sadness, heartbreak, obsessions, depression, bad habits. I will listen and I'll advise
you as best I can.
		

			In return, you will be helping me because you'll be helping me achieve my mission to help those who
can't afford it get free mental health.
		

			As if was lucky still in the UK, healthcare was free, but the rest of the world is not the same.
Reach out to me. It will help you and it will help others.
		

			I remember asking him why he came to see us in the clinic after all those years.
		

			He said he realized one thing.
		

			Recovery is hard. But regret is harder.
		

			Drop my admin line. If you want to be seen online. I know Allah guides those whom He wills and may
you be from among those