Addiction is living hell, says ex-addict

The theme for this year’s international Overdose Awareness Day is “Time to remember, time to act”.

The day is held on August 31 and began in Australia in 2001.

It is estimated that 15 million people inject so-called “problem” drugs across the globe and that one in five of these people has experienced a non-fatal drug overdose in the past year.

“However, many people aren’t that lucky and lose their lives,” said addiction expert Gareth Carter, who is also an addict in recovery for almost three decades.

The day is aimed at calling for changes in drug policies around the world to save lives by reducing the number of overdoses.

Overdoses on opioid drugs including heroin, codeine, fentanyl, morphine and oxycodone are responsible for the vast majority of overdose deaths.

“It’s important for us in the treatment industry to remember the patients we’ve lost, the grief of their loved ones and how much more we can do to help the still-suffering,” he said.

Carter said addiction was a living hell.

“No child grows up waiting to ruin their lives by overdosing on street or pharmaceutical drugs or alcohol.”

Sandra, who has been clean and in recovery for 23 years, remembers one of her overdose experiences that began at a work Christmas party and ended two days later in a hospital.

She counts herself incredibly lucky to have survived.

“Within an hour of drinking and using benzos I started feeling very confused and vomiting uncontrollably, I could hardly walk as I could not control my body movements.

“My body temperature dropped and I turned blue and kept going in and out of consciousness. But I kept drinking more and taking more pills.

“I was finding it hard to see and everything became blurred. My stomach and throat were burning and I felt I could not breathe.

“I started seizing and fell and apparently knocked my head. I’m not sure how long I was lying there before I was found.”

Sandra said she woke up in an ambulance with a tube in her throat and started panicking but she was tied down.

“I must have been given a sedative and woke up in the hospital about five days later.

“There were many overdoses after that, but I am grateful that I am alive today,” she said.

Sandra also spoke about the stigma she faced as a person addicted to drugs and alcohol.

“ I did face a lot of stigma. There was no real understanding of the disease and my family felt it was a moral deficiency.

“I have lost many people while I was in active addiction and also since I’ve been in recovery. Today I would like to honour them all.

“None of them deserve to be remembered only as down-and-out addicts,” she said.

Despite this loss, she has hope for others who are still suffering in the grips of addiction.

Kerry (30), who is now seven years clean, is a former heroin user.

She said in 2012, she had a very close encounter with overdosing in her parents’ house in Johannesburg when she was 20 years old.

“At that stage, I had no desire to get better, the only thing that was important to me was injecting heroin, and I was completely out of control.

“I had dropped out of tertiary education, been in too many accidents and I was back at home with my parents under close surveillance.

“Despite this, I still managed to get heroin and feed the addiction, terrified of withdrawal. I would generally try to use it in the evenings.”

Kerry said one evening she pretended to go to the toilet, but actually went to inject herself.

“My father, suspicious of my actions, followed me there but I had already injected most of the syringe.

“The dose was too much after a little while without heroin and I quickly lost consciousness.

“The remainder of the night I remember snippets of my dad telling me to breathe.”

Kerry said she found out that her father had carried her out of the bathroom and stayed awake all night keeping her alive.

“Slapping me and shaking me to wake me and pleading with me to breathe every time I stopped breathing and my lips started turning blue.

“The next day I was taken into a detox facility.

“This incident unfortunately was not a turning point for me, but it is a stark reminder now of why I eventually left it all behind,” said Kerry.

Contact We Do Recover on 081 444 7000 or email them on help@wedorecover.com

** Article amended

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