The stories.
Search by topic and what helped. Original stories are illustrative examples, not verified contributor testimonials.
12 stories
The sniff that ate my twenties
Everyone I knew did it on a Saturday. I was doing it on a Tuesday morning before work, alone, in my car.
Eleven years on gear
I'm on methadone and I still have a joint some weekends. People say that's not recovery. I'm alive. That's recovery.
The app on my phone
I lost €40,000 on my phone in the toilets at work. Nobody smells a betting app on your breath.
Crack in the estate
It started as a bit of coke at weekends. By the end I was selling the kids' Christmas presents.
Prescribed
A doctor gave them to me after the accident. Five years later I was buying them off a lad in a car park.
The nurse on the night shift
I spent twelve-hour shifts keeping people alive, then went home and did lines until the sun came up.
Ketamine and my bladder
I was twenty-four and pissing blood. The urologist said my bladder looked like a sixty-year-old's.
My son and the drug debt
They put a brick through my front window over €6,000 my son owed. I'm a retired school secretary.
Benzos at sixteen
Tablets were €1 each on our road. Cheaper than a bag of chips.
The farmer who couldn't say it
I was taking forty codeine tablets a day and calling it a bad back.
Online roulette at 3am
I had a mortgage, two kids and a seat on the parish council. I also had six online casino accounts.
The wedding season
Three weddings in one summer and I didn't remember a single first dance.