James’ story – heroin user survival stories: from addiction to recovery | My Treatment My Choice
James’ story – heroin user survival stories: from addiction to recovery | My Treatment My Choice – Forgetting childhood abuse led to James experimenting with drugs. He experienced an “epiphany” when he first tried heroin at 18, but it would be several years before he started to use “huge amounts of heroin every day”. It ultimately cost him his home and he ended up on the streets. One day James had had enough, “I woke up and literally thought, ‘this is ridiculous’, and I went cold turkey”. James was unprepared for withdrawal, “I didn’t know how bad it was going to be, I spent four or five days of just horrific sickness and then another couple of weeks of feeling moderately close to death”. Despite the pain he was successful and stopped taking heroin, but after bumping into an old drug-using friend he relapsed. For a long time he didn’t want to accept that he had a problem, but eventually “no matter how much denial you’re in, when you’re sleeping on Clapham Common on a bench, denial kind of ends there”. After years of trying, James has managed to stop using drugs completely, “it was a mixture of things, changing location, starting to work with good drug workers and a change of medication as well. Those three things came together to really make a change”. He is positive about the future. “I’ve started my own organisation, a social enterprise helping people with alcohol and drug use problems.” James rues the lack of information available to him though, “there are so many approaches to recovery. It wasn’t until I’d been through the treatment system several times that I even …
Recovering addict decries detox worker cuts
Filed under: recovery from addiction
"The experience that these counsellor attendants have and the rapport they have in the recovery and addiction community, these counsellors are just so non-judgmental. A lot of them have had the same experiences that we've have," said the 28-year-old.
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Toys to benefit children while mothers recover from addiction
Filed under: recovery from addiction
A local nonprofit is asking for new toys for children living with their mothers while they recover from addictions. Prestera Center's Mattie V. Lee Renaissance program is in need of new toys for the 20 children, aged newborn to 12 years, living with …
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Road to recovery: Replacing addictions with healthy habits
Filed under: recovery from addiction
An addiction is defined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) as “a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by …
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