I am a senior registered nurse and my specialty is mental health and AOD nursing.

If society saw it differently, and it was treated like other illnesses, I believe things could be different.

I am now 125 days sober, love my life and am studying to become a drug and alcohol counsellor. I have no shame or embarrassment anymore.

I didn’t get clean on my first attempt, nor my fiftieth, but I persevered and kept trying. I held onto a glimmer of hope, however dim, that change was possible.

Finally I got clean and sober in a long-term rehab and it saved my life. Have remained clean and sober for 30 years, and life is wonderful!!

It took me 7 years and 3 rehab stays before I got sober. I’m now in a great place but can’t help but think it could’ve been earlier if I didn’t feel such shame and if it was easier to get help.

As an addiction psychiatrist I know that substance use disorders can effect anyone, no matter their age, their job, their background. Everyone has a story that brought them to this point.

After another 6 years of alcohol dependence and many unsupported attempts to quit drinking, I chose a path of sobriety 3 weeks before my sons first birthday. I put down the bottle for the last time on the 1/1/2019 and I am now over 2 years sober. I live the happy, healthy, hangover-free lifestyle with my family that I always dreamed of.

It was not until 2019, nine years into my heavy gambling addiction that I had the opportunity to be a part of Addicted Australia, which for the first time gave me an inclusive environment focusing on the addiction rather than the vice and a full transparent wrap around support and supportive community.

I think my now 33-year-old daughter started using cannabis around age 11. I didn’t know, it was many years before I knew and by then she had progressed to methamphetamine use