Rachel began taking heroin, and other drugs, including cannabis and cocaine with friends in her late teens, after moving interstate to go to university. After her consumption ‘escalated’ in her early twenties, she attended Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings and stopped taking heroin. ...
Grace began taking heroin in her twenties and has taken it fairly regularly since then, with periods in which she stopped while on opioid pharmacotherapy treatment (methadone maintenance treatment [MMT] and Suboxone® [a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone]). A few years before the interview, Grace...
Helen began taking heroin with friends in her twenties, and continued to take it during her thirties, while completing her university degrees and working full time in Australia and overseas. Over the years, when her income was limited and she couldn’t afford to take heroin...
Amy first tried heroin when she was in her late teens and has taken it ‘on and off’ since then. Over the years, she’s tried various treatments for opioid dependence including residential rehabilitation treatment, home detoxes, pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy and most recently, homeopathy and acupuncture....
When she was in her early twenties, Annemarie experienced anxiety and panic attacks, and was prescribed benzodiazepines (Serepax®/oxazepam). While the medication initially helped to alleviate her symptoms, after a while she found she needed to increase the dose to get the desired effect....
Pauline started smoking cannabis daily in her mid-teens and continued during her twenties while at university. In her early thirties she began practising yoga regularly and reduced her consumption to a few times a year. Several years later she came out as a lesbian and...