John and Dave share their recovery stories, each growing up in a loving family they initially started drinking in their early teens before moving on to smoking weed then onto serious drugs.

For John, life got worse pretty quickly as he was kicked out of home at 16 years old and as a homeless street kid joined a gang and started a life of drug use and crime, leading to youth detention. Homeless and taking care of his young son didn’t stop his drug use until his 16 year old son decided to leave him and he sought help from Narcotics Anonymous. After over 30 years of drug use John has been clean for nearly 6 years and now has a good relationship with his son and granddaughter.

Dave was diagnosed with mental illness when he was 19 and was put on prescription drugs (benzo’s and painkillers) and quickly became dependent on these. He married and through work achieved money and property but 15 years after being introduced to heroin everything was gone. Dave started to self-harm and had many court appearances which eventually got him into detox again and he realized that NA could really help him. He has been clean for nearly 2 years and volunteers at a Drug Court in the outer East.

If you have a problem with drugs of any kind, you can call the Narcotics Anonymous helpline on 1300 652 820 or 0488 811 247 or go online at na.org.au.