Linda

Has a lived experience of addiction

I was using heroin for thirteen years. I stopped when a friend OD’d. They say stopping is easy but living with feelings is hard. I couldn’t do any of it for years and I just thought I’d wait for the day I didn’t come back. I had a doc gave me scripts for opioids and I got addicted to them.

I got to the point I trusted no-one. How are you – fine. What you taking – nothing.

But I had this friend kept chipping away. We love you we don’t want you to die. I couldn’t ignore it. Like a knocking, *knock knock*, we love you. You hear that and you think ‘yeah right’ but one day I just made a decision.

I went to see this GP and I said I need help. It was like a homecoming. The GP put me in touch with a service and they saved my life. ‘Don’t quit till the miracle happens’ they tell me. Funny how it works out if you give yourself a chance.