I have lived in England for about 15 years. When we arrived we didn’t know anyone. We were introduced to a family who originated from where we lived. We got to know them and they introduced us to heroin. My husband tried it first then I decided to try. I was very depressed at the time.
At first when I came into treatment I found it difficult. Social services were involved and there was a lot of pressure to stop taking heroin in the first 6 months. I found it hard to reduce so quickly. It came to a point where social services were not happy with my changes so a decision was made to remove my children. This devastated me and my husband. I continued to use because I was in such a bad place, depressed and crying every day.
I then lost my house and moved into the YMCA. I lost everything; my home, my life and my children. My husband and I talked about our lives so much. I thought about our lives, my family values, how I was brought up and how this has impacted on my family. I knew this was not me. We needed to change something. We asked for help from Foundations. We were titrated from Methadone to Subutex and I’ve never touched heroin since.
Foundations gave me great support, they believed in me which made me believe in myself. It was difficult at times. I would try to get myself up and go walking every day. I had to find the strength to say no to people’s offer of drugs. I started to feel better. I started saving money that I used to spend on drugs. Together my husband and I saved £300 for a deposit for a flat so we could move out of the YMCA.
Foundations called me one day and asked if I would like to become a peer mentor as I had been more than 6 months abstinent from heroin. I jumped at the opportunity as it was just what I needed. I began to attend every day. I have started peer mentor training which is really helping me. Now my goals are to start working. I will fight to get my children back and hopefully we will all live together in a bigger house. That is my dream.
Published 24th November 2017
