 Born into Addiction Damian is in the T.H.O.M.A.S. Rehab Unit How I became addicted? My Mum and Dad were on heroin before I was born. It’s been part of my life for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t until my 16th birthday that I tried it. From that day it got worse and worse. |
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| I haven’t been bad
– like doing burglaries – I’ve done shoplifting. Because my Dad
has always been selling drugs, when I got into it I started selling. I’ve
always sold drugs. In 1998 I was caught with a substantial amount of class A’s. I got sent away for 1 year. I was on remand for a while but I was barred from the place where I lived for a year, so I moved to Chester. I still had a habit but I was taking methadone and things got the better of me there. I went back to Northwich to my Mum and Dad and ended up selling drugs again. I was caught again at the end of 2003 and was sent to jail. I over-reacted there, I caused trouble, I hurt people, I was mean, I got drugs when I was in prison. They got suspicious and searched me one night. I was taken to the office and accused of selling heroin to the prisoners but they couldn’t prove it. I was shipped out of there. I thought my local prison was Risley and that that would be where I was going, but lo and behold1 they sent me to Lancaster Castle, over a hundred miles from where I live. I think it was a blessing, I really do. If it hadn’t been for that I wouldn’t have found the Twelve Steps Programme. I landed in Lancaster with a bad head on me. I was only in Induction for one night and they put me on B wing which is the rehab wing. Here they specialise in the 12 Steps Programme and because I was a mainstream they didn’t put me in an intensive dorm. I was put in an after-care dorm. where there is TV. and music. That’s where I found out about the 12 steps. I really believe that I was led there; I was shown a path and I took it. The God of my understanding brought me here. I believe that inside me and it feels mystical, magical even. It’s real, when I acknowledge it and say it I get shivers through my body; I feel enlightened about it and if something that powerful led me here I will put all my energy and do my best. This has shown me the way out of the life that I have lived. I found it hard at first to distance myself from my family, my girl-friend, my child, but with the help of the God of my understanding he has helped me feel it and understand the pain of it. I do care but it’s something that will drag me back into my old life and I don’t need that. I’m still unwell and it’s going to be a long time before I am well. But I will carry on doing the 12 steps all my life and I can see me in 10 years down the road doing the 12 Steps, 1 to 12 and back, 1 to 12 and back over and over again. Something powerful showed me this and I will never let it go. Never. |
