Reasons for Living

“Finding, buying and using drugs is a full-time job. There’s no time to think of anything else.” ‘Debbie’ (50)

Many mothers send their children away to boarding schools. But when Debbie sent her daughter away to boarding school, she was determined to remove her child from her own daily lifestyle of finding, buying and using heroin. At that time, Debbie was living with her boyfriend, the man who had introduced her to heroin. “I just couldn’t have my daughter live that lifestyle with me,” Debbie says. So she sold her house in order to pay the school fees.

Debbie had already tried treatment programs in her home area. But she realized that fighting addiction meant breaking the ties and associations that had previously led her back into old habits and friends. So she entered the CAB’s Methadone Program at the Danvers Treatment Center, a 40-minute, each-way commute that made all the difference in her life. 

Today, over 10 years later, the heroin life is a distant memory. Debbie is working part-time, and her now-adult daughter is her best friend. About her one-time drug use and her recovery process she says, “Drug addiction doesn’t leave any choices at all, but methadone treatments allow me to make choices, to have a job, to lead a normal life.”

               

*The names and photos have been altered to protect confidentiality, but these are true stories and direct quotes.