AMA
Mrsfloss · 27/06/2018 21:15
Jackie - I had years of shoplifting to feed my habit, methadone px, using to feed my habit. Kids on child protection plan. On benefits. Prostitution, on one occasion I was battered so badly by my partner I ended up in hospital. I decided to press charges for the first time. Partner went to prison. DV worker was amazing, she was a recovering addict and really impacted me, it was just the right time “like a perfect storm. She just got me at the right time when I had had enough. Other times hadn’t wanted to stop but this time I had had enough. She got me to see a worker at local drug and alcohol service Nd worker there who was also a recovering addict made me see how crazy my life had been and I had the chance to change it. Just perfect time really.
zenasfuck · 27/06/2018 21:20
My best friend died a few weeks ago after ODing on Heroin. He was trying so so hard to get clean
I am utterly heartbroken yet reading this has given me some faith back, it is possible to do, others will get through their addictions
Well done op - those words seems so insignificant but I know what you have done is huge and it takes someone really special to do it
x2boys · 27/06/2018 21:21
i imagine and i may well be wrong that recovering from heroin addiction is easier than alcoholism,the reasons i beleive this is there is still a huge stigma around heroin addiction ,but alcohol is so accessible and accepted and so many people drink it "socially"?
peony2325 · 27/06/2018 21:35
It must have taken an incredible amount of strength to stop using both heroin and alcohol.
Was there anything your friends / family could have done or said to get you into rehab earlier? Trying to get a family member to go but they seem to be in complete denial.
Mrsfloss · 27/06/2018 21:40
Flamingo - I wasn’t escaping anything. Very middle class wealthy upbringing. Didn’t want for a thing. Brought up in affluent area. Private school. Meant a guy through friends at 19 and bam. Addiction took over.
Initially family enabled me, gave me money. Put me up when I had nowhere to go. I caused my parents and siblings so much pain. They were very ill with it, thinking they were going to get a knock on the door and I was going to die. They both went to Familys anonymous and alanon and got so much support. They were told they couldn’t enable me any more that they had to let me hit rock bottom. That they had to have boundaries with me and they did and I eventually hit rock bottom on my own. Thank the lord,
We now have a very healthy relationship they are absolutely over the moon that I am clean and sober. They sleep at night, at peace that I am
Ok.
happysnappysandwich · 27/06/2018 21:47
Well done Floss.
Did you manage to get your children back? I used to work on a neonatal ward. Made my heart ache to watch those children violently shake and cry after being born addicted.
Truth be told it used to make me really bloody angry. Until I had a heart to heart with one of the young mums desperate to keep her baby. Her own mother had given her her first heroin smoke. Was a bit of a wake up call for me hearing about her tragic life. Still makes me angry, but more out of frustration. She couldn't quit, and lost her baby. As did most of them tbh. So bloody sad.
DaisyDreaming · 27/06/2018 21:47
People say addicts are extremely selfish when in their addiction (which is understandable). Do you find you relate to people differently now you’re sober?
Do you ever see yourself possibly relapsing or does it feel very much in the past?
Thanks for doing this post, and congratulations on 12 years sober, I can’t even begin to imagine the battles over come to be so and have great admiration
Mrsfloss · 27/06/2018 21:48
Bobble - I don’t think there is any way that stop them, you can educate them. Not everyone that uses drugs are an addict. I was all over the place from first use of cannabis. Chasing next use. Alot of my friends used cannabis and alcohol socially for a few years when young. Still went to uni, got jobs. They were not addicts underneath like I was
Mrsfloss · 27/06/2018 21:57
Over the years by parents paid for me to go to lots of fancy rehabs And spent thousands of pounds. I took the mickey as I wasn’t ready to stop. Rehab in Thailand. Swimming in the sea, doing yoga on the beach. I just nipped our and scored. I had to hit rock bottom on my own and when I was ready I had to wait ages to get funding and everything in place. But I was so ready. I would have jumped through any hoop and done anything to get clean.
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