From the deepest drug depths, there’s a way up

SUZANNE BELLING

These “humbled addicts in recovery” found their way from the dark place of drug addiction – heroin and prescription drugs They told their stories to the delegates at the 31st national conference of the Union of Jewish Women on Monday.

Nikki, an achieving former King David pupil, came from a loving home, but lost her father at the age of nine. Her mother battled financially to give her and her three older brothers the best in life and Nikki rewarded her by excelling academically and on the sports field.

“But I could never really find my place and discover who I was,” she said. “I did pretty much as I liked and during my matric holiday, I had my introduction to cocaine and, not long after that, heroin. It was love at first hit!” She felt “euphoric”, she said.

Entering university after the habit had kicked in, the former A student failed every subject. She realised she needed help and was sent to Cape Town for three weeks to undergo rehabilitation. But she was unco-operative and asked to leave “after I broke every rule”.

She earned her keep through waiting tables and moved into a backpackers’ lodge, “where the rats were bigger than me”. She used the next-door YMCA as a base from which to call her mother and was fed by prostitutes sharing the lodge.

“I weighed 37 kilos.” Eventually someone from the “Y” contacted her mother and she was given a one-way ticket to a rehab centre in the Karoo.

Her first husband – “I have two beautiful children” – influenced her negatively and she was arrested and imprisoned for fraud. “My son was a year and my daughter four at the time.” This was in addition to a previous possession charge.

She was working in Houghton House, a rehabilitation centre, and it continued to pay her salary during her jail time. She received an eight-year sentence. Although her appeal was turned down, her sentence was reduced. Nikki ended up serving seven months of her sentence.

“I have to say, in spite of it all, I had the support of the Jewish community. I found my missing piece and took a less demanding job when I could come home at three and be with my family.”

She is remarried and an addiction counsellor at CHANGES Treatment Centre. “I have been in recovery from heroin addiction for almost nine years,” Nikki said.

A Johannesburg resident and recovering street and prescription drug addict, Nicola Barak, is the happily married mother of two girls, a nursery school teacher and addiction counsellor.

“I grew up in a middle-class family, but my father had an addiction [alcohol] and subsequently died. But there was no history of abuse in my family.

“I started the usual way – alcohol, cigarettes and club drugs – out of pure curiosity. By the age of 14, I was addicted to heroin. Taking drugs meant more to me than going to school. I did not have to take responsibility.”

Today, being observant, she says her yetzer hora had taken over.

She lived in Hillbrow, on the streets, and even had a stint in jail. At the age of 19, she decided she had “had enough and the past 14 years has all been about recovery”.

There was, however, a time when she had an operation and became addicted to prescription painkillers, sedatives and sleeping tablets. “I was swallowing boxes of tablets until my head was quiet. They all contained codeine and heroin is a derivative of codeine.

“Prescriptions are given out so freely. Feeling stressed, pop a pill, is thought of as the answer. Even mothers give their daughters tranquillisers.”

Nicola emerged from her setback with the help of her loving family, therapists and rabbis. “Holding hands and standing together gives us the power. But there is always strong gossip instead of standing together.”

Today, attractive and well-adjusted, she says she is committed to fighting for herself and others. “My passion in life is to help grow individuals into all they dream, desire and wish to be.”