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The article discusses the increasing number of women seeking treatment for addiction, particularly mothers who often delay help due to fear of child custody issues. It shares personal stories of recovery, the societal stigma faced by addicted mothers, and the support available through programs like the Chrysalis Community Drug Project.
A growing number of women are in treatment for drug or alcohol addiction, but many mothers delay seeking help because they fear their children will be taken into care Crashing her car was the first time Anna* hit 'rock bottom', she says.
The episode prompted her partner to start contacting addiction support services. Anna then went into a residential treatment facility, but 'wasn't ready' and 'only lasted a week'. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien/The Irish Timest was 7am one day when the car Anna* was driving veered off the road and almost crashed into a tree.
"I had taken a sleeping tablet, but forgotten," she recalls. "I fell asleep at the wheel and literally almost killed myself. "At this point in her life, the mother-of-two was battling an intense addiction to the drug, but wasn't ready to admit it.
Photo portrait of Katie Taylor aged 10: 'You can see the steel in her eyes even then'Bon Jovi at Croke Park: Thunderous choruses prove you can't keep a good song down "When I came to, all I was fixated on was still getting cocaine. That's all I could think about. Nothing else mattered," she says.
"He picked me up, brought me back to my house... I took the drugs, went in, continued doing it.
" Anna says she "got lucky" in that no one else was involved in the road incident. Her partner called a tow truck and the car was taken away. For some time, she had been a so-called "high-functioning addict" - holding down a job while looking after her children. The episode prompted her partner to start contacting addiction support services.
Anna then went into a residential treatment facility, but "wasn't ready" and "only lasted a week". This proved to be the "lowest point" in her life.
"I was just frozen, numb. I couldn't quite believe that my life had gotten here.
""I spent the first two weeks in treatment just crying, shameful, just absolutely hating myself for how much I felt I let my kids down. "- Marianna*, who is focused on staying sober so her children can live with her again Anna says she had become reliant on alcohol during a physically abusive relationship that lasted from her teens into her early 20s. She left that man and stopped drinking.
She then met a new partner, got married and had two sons.
"I was seven months pregnant with my youngest, and my mother passed away from cancer... and then my marriage fell apart. " Old habits started to creep back in. She was drinking again and, over time, she turned to cocaine. She was able to hide her addiction from most people for a long time - until that morning when she narrowly avoided driving into the tree.
It was not an easy path, but Anna hopes to be three years sober in November. Her sons are living with her full-time again. Now in her early 40s, she is sharing her story because she would like mothers, in particular, to know they can recover from addiction. She also says she wants other people "not to judge" mothers who are struggling, noting that many of them are dealing with mental health issues or domestic violence.
"Mental health is definitely involved in addiction. I feel nine times out of 10, it's combined. could happen to anyone... there's so much more to it than what you see on the surface.
" Valerie* knows this all too well. For her, taking drugs was a way of "chasing false feelings" and "escaping what's going on in the mind".
"I was in an active addiction from a very young age, abusing drink and drugs - cocaine, tablets, stuff like that," she says. "I got caught up in the wrong crowd in the area, and I started selling drugs. " Valerie, a mother-of-one, was eventually "up on a big charge" and knew "I can't live like this any more". One by one, she eliminated the substances she was taking.
The process was difficult, but Valerie says she persevered because "my child deserves a better version of me". Now aged in her 30s, she attends regular counselling and, through Chrysalis, has completed courses on personal development and addiction studies. She describes her recovery as "like knocking a wall down, literally brick by brick; I was stopping one thing and then I was stopping another.
"I am three years, four months now without any tablets or drink or cocaine or anything like that... I'm a new person.
" Many mothers who experience addiction delay seeking help because they fear their children will be taken into care, according to those working in the services. Even if the woman in question is actively addicted, the responsibility of child-rearing most often falls on her shoulders.
"When male drug users go into addiction, nothing is expected from them from some point on. Their social expectation stops, their family stops depending on them," says Christina Petropoulou, a case manager at Chrysalis. Christina Petropoulou, a case manager at the Chrysalis Community Drug Project in Dublin. Photograph: Enda O'Dowd "It doesn't happen with women.
I think women are supposed to keep everything in place... We should be able to go to work," she says. The stigma around addiction can be especially strong for mothers.
"People say, 'She's a drug user, but she's a good mother. ' It's like, 'If she's a drug user, she's not a good mother. '" Marianna*, who is now in her mid-40s, says she had become a "prisoner of my own fear" and struggled to accept the "label" of addict. "I was terrified I'd lose the kids, but also I just didn't want to accept the reality of what was going on," she says.
"I thought, if I say I'm not ready [to go into a treatment centre], they'll think, 'Oh, she doesn't want to do it, she's not serious. ' But deep down, I just wouldn't let myself admit it. " Eventually, Marianna did go into residential treatment - where she says she was met with "no judgment" by the staff.
"I spent the first two weeks in treatment just crying, shameful, just absolutely hating myself for how much I felt I let my kids down. " She says she is now focused on staying sober so her children can live with her again. "It was a very hard time, but it was the best thing I ever did for myself... I'm just trying to get back on track, piece by piece.
Addiction Treatment Mothers And Addiction Child Custody Recovery Stigma Chrysalis Project
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