Tom was reasonably academic, enjoyed music and was quite competitive in his youth but always felt a bit different, like a square peg in a round hole.  He had depressive episodes early on which were evidence of sub-clinical mental illness that would affect him later in his teenage years.

Tom was curious about drugs in his early teens and joined in with a drug culture at his school, using mainly marijuana. He stopped using drugs to improve his studies but experienced a mental breakdown and was placed on anti-psychosis drugs. Tom took a while off school and during that time he experienced heroin, which led him to his first rehab. He has since been in many rehabs and detox centres, where he was exposed to the 12^th Step recovery program of Narcotics Anonymous. Tom has also been in long-term rehab, on Methadone treatment and attended Smart Recovery program to address his combination of needing to treat his mental illness and stay clean.  Today, his life is manageable, but depression still poses the greatest risk to him staying drug free.

If you would like to find out more about Narcotics Anonymous or need to talk to somebody, then please call 1300 652 820 at any time or go online at www.navic.net.au.

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Music played in this episode was provided by the artists, via Australian Music Radio Airplay Project (https://amrap.org.au/):

• Daniel J Farthing - Run Neddy Run [https://amrap.org.au/release/daniel-j-farthing-run-neddy-run] @16:34
• Byrd of Paradyse - Karma (Ft Uncle Kev Starkey) [https://amrap.org.au/release/byrd-of-paradyse-karma-ft-uncle-kev-starkey] @32:20
• Mainline – Kara’s song [https://soundcloud.com/revampd/karas-song] @54:50