Katherine, Adelaide

Money. Or, more specifically, the lack of it. That’s what ultimately pushed Katherine into treatment. She’d been using recreational and over-the-counter drugs for years. One day the chance came to inject heroin with a friend, and she did.

“To me it was just another drug, another method.” She continued injecting socially, mostly on weekends. But in the following months her use escalated rapidly into an all-consuming daily habit. And it threatened everything from her friendships to her career. “Every day was sucking me dry. I had no money, I stopped eating, I was losing weight.”

When the time came to seek help, however, Katherine made a decision she’d painfully live to regret. “I was still working and didn’t want to tie myself down,” she remembers. “I was after a quick fix, and totally underestimated things.” Desperate to do something, Katherine rushed into a treatment. But she was underprepared for what happened next. “I knew I’d be sick, but not that sick,” Katherine says.

The experience took a heavy toll, physically and mentally. “It was hideous. I went into instant withdrawals. I couldn’t walk, or talk. It felt like I’d been left high and dry.” By everyone, that is, except her parents whose support back then, and since, has made a massive difference, even through her darkest days. Four years on, and Katherine is stable now on a very different treatment program. But her first experience has left a bitter taste. “I just felt like I rushed into things and should have thought more about what I’d do long-term.”