Personal stories addiction women 50+, heroin addiction, cannabis addiction, ice addiction, prescription drug addiction, OTC addiction, men & women 18-60, women 50+, personal stories addiction men aged 30-39, Personal stories addiction men aged 50+, Personal stories speed addiction, personal stories ice addiction

Men Aged 40-49

Here you’ll find participants’ accounts of living with addiction, dependence or a drug habit. The people and stories were carefully selected to highlight diversity in backgrounds and experiences. While this website is not able to tell every possible story in Australia, it can show just how different people and their experiences are. In the stories can be found details of the many important concerns and circumstances our participants negotiated in living with addiction, dependence or a drug habit.

The stories presented here rely on participant reports of drug use and related health issues. Some experiences may not conform to medical definitions or medical advice, but notes have been added in such cases to clarify key points.

While these narratives were written from the interview transcripts and rely on participants’ own words, some aspects have been paraphrased to improve coherence and readability. In making these changes we have worked hard to remain faithful to the original meaning and intentions. Some experiences may also be presented in other sections of the website, using more detailed quotations.

Bill

audio recording, prescription drugs, cannabis, cannabis habit, depression, heroin, men 40-49, drinking, alcohol problem, ice addiction

Bill first tried alcohol at a young age when a family member offered him a drink. He started drinking fairly regularly in his teens.

Luke

cannabis, cannabis addiction, drug counselling, depression. anxiety, heroin addiction, alcohol, ice, prescription drugs, life story, drug use experience, drinking, heroin, morphine, alcohol habit, addictions, speed

While working in a ‘high pressure’ job, Luke began drinking every day as a ‘release’ and a way to ‘block’ feelings of depression and anxiety

Opal

From his late teens into his twenties, Opal worked in industries where he says working hard and ‘drinking hard’ were ‘widely accepted’.

Phoenix

Phoenix grew up in a ‘violent home’ and describes his parents as ‘alcoholics’. In his mid-teens his parents separated and he left home and began drinking regularly.

Andrew

Andrew started smoking cannabis daily in his late teens and in his twenties he started drinking alcohol heavily. He now describes his alcohol and cannabis consumption as ‘addictions’.

Matthew

Matthew has smoked cannabis ‘for the better part of thirty years’. He finds it helps him cope with depression, and gives him hope and motivation.

Barry

Barry started drinking regularly and smoking cannabis in his early teens after a close family member died. In his early twenties, he began taking heroin and has continued to take it on and off since then, which he now describes as ‘an addiction’.

Bobby

In his mid- to late teens Bobby began smoking cannabis and taking speed regularly with friends.

Misja

Misja found himself homeless in his pre-teenage years. He says he began taking ‘anything’ he could to ‘get high’ and in his early teens he started taking heroin regularly.

Ned

Ned began taking heroin in his late twenties, stopping after a few months when he felt he had developed a ‘habit’.

Peter

When Peter was in his early twenties he tried a variety of drugs but avoided heroin. Then in his late twenties, he decided to try heroin and since then has taken it intermittently.

Sean

men 40-49, OTC drug, Experiences with over-the-counter drugs men aged 40-49

Throughout much of his thirties, Sean took heroin, ice and cocaine, typically with friends, sometimes in relationships, and also alone. His drug consumption changed when he began a new relationship in his late thirties.

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Men Aged 40-49

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