I was a nineteen year old girl with a very young child, my boyfriend was round
about my age, he was in with all the older lads, they liked to take
different kinds of drugs, at that time it was just cannabis, mushrooms, and
amphetamine, of course mixed with drink. I never minded as I used to do some
of them myself, but new people came on the scene, so drugs started to
change, at the time I did not know much about them apart from what I had
watched on the TV. People laugh when I said it, it was because of watching
one program, I never went, or put my parents through the pain that many
have. Months went by and I started to notice things going missing like his
clothes and other things I had bought him. Then months went by and I started
to notice that my little spoons were either burnt or going missing and I was
starting to use a lot of vinegar, and my shoe laces were going missing, but
I thought nothing of it, till one day I was stopped in the street and told
my boyfriend was a smack head. I did not believe it, but after months of loosing things and ( me )
being called a smack head and my boyfriends appearance I started to
realise what he was doing. The worse part of knowing what he was doing was
keeping it to myself, I kept it to my self because I was ashamed, of what
others said. The biggest problem was telling my parents as not only was my
boyfriend on it also my brother. My brother also had children and a
girlfriend, and also a lot of money, and he also found he had a lot of
friends (drug friends). Months went by and my family found out was going on,
they weren't happy of course my partner got the blame and of course I had to
get rid of him. I never give up on my partner, as he never had much of a
family, so I tried to deal with the problem myself. He started to steal from
me and my child, he would take things from the house, I couldn't take
anymore so I put him out, only to try and stop him from stealing but it
never worked, someone else would just take him in.

Days went by then there would be a knock at the door, it was him saying he was sorry and he would never do it again, and he needed me to help him to come off the drug that was hurting him. I would take him
back and after a couple of days he would be pinching again to feed his
habit. His mam was taking into the hospice as she was very poorly,so he
would ask me and my family for money so he could go in and see her, but that
was a lie,  he just went and got high, two weeks passed and his mother
passed away and all he could think of was his next fix.

I started to realise if that's what he thought of his mother what does he think of me and my
child. He used to watch our child as I used to work, there was one day I
had came in from work and my child had said they had been on a train , of
course he had took them to middlesborugh to get sorted, he said he was sorry
and of course he would not do it again, but I couldn't take that risk so he
was thrown out again.

A year had gone buy I was just getting my life back on
track and there was a knock at the door, it was him saying how sorry he was and he was on
methadone and he wanted me to help him, I took him back yet again to see if
he had changed. I was going to work and he was climbing out of my windows ,
and climbing in them by the time I come in from work. People told me what he
was doing but of course I didn't believe them, he was on methadone why would
he. There was one night we went to bed and I woke up and could feel
something in my back, it was a packet of needle ends I was just lucky that
the lids were on. So I knew the police where looking for him so I phoned
them asked if there was a warrant out for him they said yes so I said you
have five minutes to come and get him or he is out.  So they came and took
him and that was it because I couldn't handle any more of his problems, as I
had lost my friends and my family was not liking what was going on. Its now
six years down the line and I have a new partner my life is back on track
and I am doing very well .I am now working in an advice centre to help addicts battle with

their problems, and to help their parents or carers who have been through the
same problem as me.