MARY suffers from hypertension, high blood pressure and depression. Her health problems stem from the fact that two of her children are drug addicts. Some of her extended family also use drugs. Mary, who is middle-aged, lives with one of her children who is using drugs, and is rearing the child of another of her drug-using children who is unable to cope by herself.
When she discovered that her daughter was using drugs, Mary tried to get her to come off by taking her to every service available. When her second child became an addict, she says she learned that the decision to come off must come from the drug user.
One of her children is getting methadone maintenance privately; the other is not receiving any services. Both have been repeatedly in and out of prison. When they were "inside" she says she felt "relief" as they were not stealing from her and she knew where they were.
She uses services informally to chat about her children's problems, but would like to be involved in a peer support group. She feels a lot of people are too scared to open up, afraid that their "secrets" will become gossip.
Mary says her children's drug use has wrecked her life.