Helen and Donald
Family member of someone with a lived experience of addiction
We are the parents of a beautiful young woman who went down the path of drug addiction in her mid-twenties. As parents we found ourselves in a situation of being distraught, embarrassed, overwhelmed and lonely.
Our GP provided support to us and our daughter, but she was very limited in what she could provide in information and assistance.
Eventually she was able to receive support through a local alcohol and other drug service which linked us into a parent support 6 week program – which was hugely beneficial to us in working through coping with a child with addiction. The service provided my daughter counselling.
We eventually paid for our daughter’s health insurance so she could access support through a private mental health service. Until we accessed the private mental health service we thought our daughter would be dead in a very short time. We thought there was no hope for a treatment to cure her. She has now been off drugs for 3 years and never wants to go down that track again.