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Stephen Hine is in our Drug Treatment Programme. |
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I’m twenty-three years old. I have been on heroin now for eleven months. It all started when I’d been out drinking one night. I used to binge drink a lot at weekends. I asked a work mate who’d been an addict for about ten years if I could try a bit. Ever since then I have been using. The first time I tried heroin I enjoyed it. It gave me a feeling that I had never had before. Like everyone else I thought that I wouldn’t get hooked but eventually it got a hold on me. I went from working full time and earning quite a lot of money to being jobless and losing contact with friends and family. I went on to benefits and started not looking after myself. I began to look scruffy, lose weight and not eat properly. When my mum found out she was devastated that she had another son on heroin. She used to come to me for help and advise about my brother because I was the only one who knew what was going on with him. It was a bombshell to her. I started taking recreational drugs at the age of fourteen – things like cannabis and alcohol. I moved on to LSD and mushrooms and then on to ecstasy by my late teens. I tried cocaine a few times in my late teens as well. By the age of twenty-two I was on heroin. I have always been a bit of a joker. A lot of my school reports said I was the class clown. I think I annoyed a lot of the teachers because I had a decent brain inside my head but never used it. I always decided to have a laugh and distract people a bit. I didn’t play truant much because I enjoyed going to school for the laugh. I didn’t realise to later on in life how serious school is and I should have knuckled down more. I have got a girlfriend who I am now engaged to. We have been together for three years. It was devastating when she found out about my heroin problem but she has stuck by me. I knew that she wouldn’t be there for long if I didn’t try and get clean. She has been brilliant. She is a massive source of inspiration for me. I came to T.H.O.M.A.S. at the beginning for the drugs support group. I had an interview with one of the project workers. She told me I had three options – one was to have a mentor, two was to carry on attending the support group and three was to be brought into the residential rehabilitation programme. I chose the third option and within two weeks I had an assessment and was brought in. While I’ve been here I have rediscovered myself. I have started to get my feelings back and a sense of direction. For the past twelve months I’ve just been basically floating through time, not really existing. At the start of this year I had the intention of joining the army or the RAF or the fire brigade. Now that I’m clean of all drugs I intend to go for it. I have passed my first test with the fire brigade and now I’m just waiting to hear about the physical test. When I leave the T.H.O.M.A.S. Project one of the first things I am hoping to do is move back in with my girlfriend. I just want to start over again. I’m being made to grow up now and stop relying on my parents for everything. I have to be responsible for myself. I’m twenty-three years old and not a kid anymore. |
