Liam Tells His Story - EDP Drug & Alcohol Services

Liam Tells His Story

Liam first came to EDP for help tackling his problems with drug misuse back in 2008.  Since then his life has turned around and he has a good job as well as having become a husband and Dad.  Here is his story in his own words.

I remember feeling a sense of despair as I looked round my latest bedsit with only my hundred pound a day heroin and crack cocaine habit for company and wondered how I had found myself back in this situation again. This time I had promised myself things would be different yet I lacked support and was struggling to change.

Things hadn’t always been this way. I had grown up in a good family with a promising running career, running at national level by the time I was sixteen. My sister, a year younger than me, was planning on going on to become a teacher and my parents had high hopes for me too.

Back in 1996 no one really knew much about the dangers of heroin. It was glamorised in the film Trainspotting and in a major city like Birmingham soon became readily available on the clubbing scene. My friends and I were curious and tried smoking it. It made most of my friends feel sick but I loved the high straight away. I had no idea of how it would go on to destroy my life for the next twelve years.

I went to prison for my first drug related offence aged twenty and over the next twelve years went on to serve a total of twenty five prison sentences and clock up a criminal record twenty pages long with twenty nine convictions. I had lots of acquaintances but no real friends as in that lifestyle you can trust no-one. My parents moved house to get away from me, not telling me where they were going and unable to cope with the stress of the police raiding the house or people I owed money to turning up. People were keen to hang around with me as I was a good thief who could bring money in but when I inevitably went to prison again few of them kept in touch. While in prison I tried to both hang myself and self harm, a cry for help that was just not available in Birmingham.

Back to where this story started, at the age of thirty two I was living in Plymouth after being released from HMP Exeter. Whilst in prison I had heard of a new rehab opening in Exeter called Prospects House and knew this was my last chance. In a desperate attempt to qualify for this rehab I needed to get myself sent back to HMP Exeter so I went into a chemist and stole some perfumes before going to the police station to hand myself in. They just laughed at me and threw me forcibly out of the station.

I returned to the chemist and begged them to press charges. They called the police and the next day I found myself in court. I didn’t want just a fine or a community order, I wanted and needed prison so I was deliberately disruptive and abusive to the judge and two months later found myself released from HMP Exeter into Prospects House, run jointly by EDP and Stoneham Housing, after doing everything I could in prison to prove that I wanted to change.

As part of my stay there I attended daily group sessions teaching us relapse prevention and helping us to gain insight into our addictions. Over the last twelve years I had done many similar programmes in prison but what was different this time was the one-on-one support I received from my EDP Key Workers who also helped me progress in other areas of my life. They linked me up with a housing group who funded my rent deposit on a bedsit for when I left Prospects. They also linked me up with a back to work scheme who funded me to do a Lifeguard course and helped me gain a job as a Leisure Assistant at a local leisure centre for when I left Prospects. They also helped fund a gym membership so I could help get myself into good health again and this was where I met my girlfriend, later to become my wife. EDP had helped me turn my life around.

EDP continued to be there for me. Although my life now resembled nothing of what it had been previously, having money in my pocket at the end of the month was tempting. However, I found heroin not to be the kind of thing you could use recreationally as you could alcohol and once again I started to struggle. My girlfriend found out about my recreational use and it started to threaten my relationship. I found it hard to always get up and go to work in the mornings. I didn’t want to lose everything that I had worked so hard to achieve.

I got in touch with EDP and with their support I got onto a Subutex script. Now for the first time in years I felt normal. I didn’t have to fight cravings and it gave me the head space to concentrate on my life. My Key Worker provided support for my girlfriend and put her in touch with a counsellor and our relationship went from strength to strength.

We are now married and I have a new job as a Deputy Leisure Club Manager. I also work as a Personal Training and Sports Massage Therapist with qualifications to my name. I have my own house and recently became a Father to a baby girl.

I clearly remember many years ago walking past houses on Christmas Day and looking in and seeing families laughing and joking together before walking back alone to my bedsit and eating beans on toast. This year I woke up with my wife in our own home with presents under the tree, spoke to my parents who are now a part of my life, and finished the day in hospital with my wife in labour with my daughter. I realised how far my life had come and felt thankful I had been lucky enough to work with EDP.

Return to Latest News page