Corey, Canberra

“Suddenly, my whole life just fit back together.” That’s how Corey describes the hugely positive impact of his current treatment for an opiate dependency he’s wrestled with for the best part of a decade. A recreational drug user since his mid teens, Corey and his friends tried a lot of things growing up.

“Ecstasy, amphetamines, benzos – anything we could get out hands on”, he recalls of a lifestyle that continued into his early twenties. “On weekends we’d party for 48-hours straight. We started injecting heroin on Sundays just to come back down.” But one morning, after returning from a trip to Melbourne, Corey started feeling sick.

Despite thinking it could never happen to him, he knew. He was hanging out. “I had my first habit.” The months that followed affected everything from Corey’s apprenticeship and finances to his relationship with his family, who even now struggle to cope with his dependency. “I’d hocked everything I owned,” he says shaking his head. “One day I was just sitting there thinking, ‘I can’t keep doing this’.”

While the decision to go into treatment had become relatively simple, his first experience was anything but. “It’s no wonder so many people cycle in and out, and never get anywhere,” Corey reflects. “I just wasn’t prepared for what was about to happen to me. I’d never go back to that (first treatment), it just didn’t suit my body.”

These days, Corey admits he still has a long way to go. But what he’s found through a different program is control. “It’s given me stability. I’m not fixated 24/7 anymore… I can focus again.”