My name is Mark, I was born in Gt Yarmouth in 1969. My childhood memories were mostly good - nothing to cause me to turn to drugs. I was given my first joint at 13 and I started experimenting with speed and LSD at 15. I liked speed because it made me confident and energetic; I liked LSD because it made me see strange things and everything was like a cartoon. I took ecstasy and was involved with raves when they first started in Yarmouth. After a few years I started getting paranoid, so I took Valium and alcohol . Depression and anxiety caused me personality problems and I became more defensive and isolated. After some bad acid trips and serious violence in my life, I decided I would give God a try. My mum always talked about Jesus who loved me and died for my sins. So I prayed and asked Him into my life and change me. I really believed, even though there was no flash of divine light, but there was a change in me. I was able to give all my bad habits up, even cigarettes. I went to church every Sunday and read the Bible; I worked, bought a house and gained qualifications. But after about 3 yrs I became complacent and forgot the mess Jesus had saved me from. I started all my habits again, and more. I dabbled with cocaine and h.e.r.o.i.n and soon became addicted. Within 2 yrs I had lost everything. I eventually ended up begging on the street, stealing and injecting h.e.r.o.i.n twice a day at least, for about 7 years. Although I was an addict I still kept my faith. I didn’t live it, but didn’t deny it either. I even prayed when I injected sometimes, because I’d overdosed and ‘died’ at least 20 times, and I lost my 20 yr old brother Jay to an overdose. I lost my self-respect, my health, my wife and my possessions to drugs; my sanity was next. I ended up in hospital for a detox - I tried on my own to stop but couldn't stay clean. So I went on a methadone program and and applied for rehab. My probation officer gave me a leaflet about a Christian rehab called Yeldall Manor, so I applied and went after two weeks’ detox in hospital. The whole process took about 4 months from starting the methadone program to getting to rehab. I spent 8 months in rehab in all - not all at once, unfortunately - I was very paranoid and left a few times - and overdosed every time. Recovery has been hard to get hold of. I felt hopeless and broken, craved drugs and wanted to escape my life. But when I took my recovery seriously, and gave in to the strength and hope that God gives I can truly say that through him I overcame my addiction and was given the power to choose life. He showed me I had a choice: addiction causes temporary blindness to reality and makes people think they don't have a choice, or that their lives are so bad that there's no hope, but there is hope for everyone. God’s love never let me go. .

Me and my ex just before things got bad

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