Latest news with #NarcoticsAnonymous
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Rick O'Shea: Addiction and the apocalypse never sounded so appealing
Tim MacGabhann describes being strung out at his first Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Mexico; while Gethan Dick's debut is a modern take on Day of the Triffids, but without the plants; and Pádraig Ó Tuama's anthology is a collection of incredible poetry Today at 21:30 How would you like 'the pollen-textured light over the bookshelves in a corner apartment, a window deep with time, specifically, time deep and quiet and unbroken enough to read every book on that shelf, leave them heaped and discarded on the bank of your own absorption in time as deep as a lake'? Sounds fantastic, right? It would be if it weren't Tim MacGabhann describing how he felt at the start of his first Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Mexico City. He had just walked halfway across the city, strung out on heroin having been arrested during a protest against the government and then dumped on the street hours later by police.
The Star
4 days ago
- Health
- The Star
Proteas wicketkeeper Sinalo Jafta and her path to redemption through sobriety
Proteas wicketkeeper Sinalo Jafta is widely heralded as one of the best cricketers in the world, but she is also a great advocate for overcoming addiction and the stigma surrounding the issue. In late 2022, Jafta was voluntarily admitted to an alcohol rehabilitation facility in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Back then, the 27-year-old could have been forgiven for thinking her cricketing career may already be over. Now Jafta is coming up to three years sober, and is one of the fixtures of the South African team. Since her debut for South Africa in 2016, Jafta has made 95 appearances across all three formats, solidifying her place in the Proteas side. When asked how she turned her life around, Jafta revealed how she instead saw it as starting a new chapter in her life. 'I don't see it as success. For me, it's literally just the 24 hours that is very important to me. And I think when I went into treatment, that was the one thing that I wasn't focused on. I was more focused on what I am doing outside of the game," Jafta told in an exclusive interview. 'But then as soon as I got there, they literally said focus on 24 [hours] and how you see cricket and how you play cricket. You literally focus on that day because that's the most important.' As any Narcotics Anonymous (NA) or Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) teachings will preach, it's about living one day at a time. This is a philosophy that the 30-year-old sticks to religiously. 'If I think too far ahead, I don't know whether relapse is coming tomorrow. But if I know that I'm sorting out what I'm meant to do today, I won't relapse tomorrow. It's more like a domino effect. And I think anyone that's going through anything with addiction or with sobriety in general, it's okay." 'I think if someone told me that it was okay and [if I had] asked for help, I think that's the biggest thing. There's nothing to be ashamed of because your story is not done yet." 'And I always think of life as chapters. It was just another chapter of my life. So now I'm looking forward to the rest.'
IOL News
4 days ago
- Health
- IOL News
Proteas wicketkeeper Sinalo Jafta and her path to redemption through sobriety
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES Proteas wicketkeeper Sinalo Jafta has had an inspiring journey from battling addiction to becoming a champion for sobriety and mental health awareness in cricket. Picture: BackpagePix Image: BackpagePix Proteas wicketkeeper Sinalo Jafta is widely heralded as one of the best cricketers in the world, but she is also a great advocate for overcoming addiction and the stigma surrounding the issue. In late 2022, Jafta was voluntarily admitted to an alcohol rehabilitation facility in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Back then, the 27-year-old could have been forgiven for thinking her cricketing career may already be over. Now Jafta is coming up to three years sober, and is one of the fixtures of the South African team. Since her debut for South Africa in 2016, Jafta has made 95 appearances across all three formats, solidifying her place in the Proteas side. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading One Day at a Time for Jafta When asked how she turned her life around, Jafta revealed how she instead saw it as starting a new chapter in her life. 'I don't see it as success. For me, it's literally just the 24 hours that is very important to me. And I think when I went into treatment, that was the one thing that I wasn't focused on. I was more focused on what I am doing outside of the game," Jafta told in an exclusive interview. 'But then as soon as I got there, they literally said focus on 24 [hours] and how you see cricket and how you play cricket. You literally focus on that day because that's the most important.' As any Narcotics Anonymous (NA) or Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) teachings will preach, it's about living one day at a time. This is a philosophy that the 30-year-old sticks to religiously. 'If I think too far ahead, I don't know whether relapse is coming tomorrow. But if I know that I'm sorting out what I'm meant to do today, I won't relapse tomorrow. It's more like a domino effect. And I think anyone that's going through anything with addiction or with sobriety in general, it's okay." 'I think if someone told me that it was okay and [if I had] asked for help, I think that's the biggest thing. There's nothing to be ashamed of because your story is not done yet." 'And I always think of life as chapters. It was just another chapter of my life. So now I'm looking forward to the rest.'
Globe and Mail
24-05-2025
- Globe and Mail
The heroic life and tragic death of Trey Helten
I saw Trey Helten for the last time in September last year. It was a typical day on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. A steady drizzle fell. People huddled in doorways, slept on the wet sidewalk or stood slumping like broken dolls as their drugs took hold. Trey had been there himself. He spent years homeless and addicted on those streets, then more years working in a supervised drug-use site trying to help people survive the opioids crisis. Now he was getting out. He had left his job, exhausted, beat-up and hoping to make a new start. He showed up for our meeting with his ever-present black dog, Zelda. He tied her leash to a railing and we went into a diner for lunch and a talk. His story was a familiar one. Trey got into trouble when he was a kid and started smoking crack cocaine when he was 14 years old. He quit school. He moved to the Downtown Eastside, one of Canada's roughest, poorest neighbourhoods. He graduated to heroin. He ended up sleeping on the sidewalk, a ruin of a man, his handsome face pale and scarred. Then one day he walked into a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, pushing a shopping cart full of his stuff. With the help of NA and addiction medicine, he got sober. He started volunteering at the drug-use site. He was a natural, with a commanding presence and a knack for treating clients as equals. Before long he was running the place. Trey became a famous figure in the Downtown Eastside, instantly recognizable with his studded leather vest and his towering, brightly dyed Mohawk. He seemed to be everywhere. Striding down East Hastings Street with Zelda at his side. Speaking in documentaries and news stories about the devastation wrought by the overdose epidemic. Buying bacon and eggs for a struggling friend in a booth at the Ovaltine Café. He knew everyone and everyone knew him: cops, social workers, first responders, dealers, users. Like a soldier in a long war, he saw many of his comrades perish over the years. But he saved many, too, jumping in to revive them with a shot of naloxone or a dose of oxygen. He was at it days, nights and weekends. Driving people to drug detox. Visiting fallen friends in hospital. Offering someone a place to crash while they sorted things out. Where others saw ghoulish subhumans staggering along the street, he saw people. He knew their names and stories. And yet a shadow hung over Trey whenever I went to see him. He had a haunted look. It was there in his eyes. He couldn't shake the feeling, so common among those in his world, that he was somehow contemptible, worthless, a failure. For others, he had all the compassion in the world; for himself, none. In the first line of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, David Copperfield asks 'whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life.' If you had put that question to Trey, he would have laughed or shrugged. He could never see himself that way, no matter how much good he had done and how much pain he had endured. He was coming out of a tough stretch when I saw him over lunch last fall. He had started using drugs again. He had an angry meltdown at work. He got into a fight with his teenage son. He passed out on the street one night and landed in hospital with pneumonia. Something had to change. After days of agonizing withdrawal, he managed to quit the drugs again. When we spoke, he had just taken a new job: retrieving dead bodies for the B.C. Coroners Service. A strange choice, he agreed. Not exactly a mood lifter. But he felt it was useful work. He would get a text from a dispatcher, hop in his van and go. He was good with the families. On days off he led meetings of Narcotics Anonymous. He was hoping to patch things up with his son. A few months after our lunch, his girlfriend became pregnant with his child. I didn't talk to Trey for a while. The fall passed, winter came and went. Then last month my phone lit up with a text from the West Coast. Trey had failed to report for work one day. Friends went over to his place. Trey had died at age 42. No one said how, but everyone had the same sinking thought. Throngs of people dropped into his day-long memorial service on East Hastings to say their goodbyes earlier this month. They were the usual motley crew, many bearing the marks and wounds of street life. They left flowers in front of his picture. They wept. They laughed. They sang karaoke. They bent to pet Zelda. They wondered how it was possible that Trey, the indestructible, was gone. Trey Helten may not have been the hero of his own life, but he was one to them. He was one to me.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Former meth addict grandmother who spent 15 years on the drug reveals her shocking transformation after getting clean
A grandmother who spent 15 years on meth now looks unrecognisable after finally getting clean. Shannon Hughes, 46, from Springfield, Missouri, started using methamphetamine when her daughter, Mistena Renteria-Elliot, now 26, was just 12-years-old. Shannon, who is now a grandmother-of-two became instantly hooked and Mistina spent years trying to get her mother clean She took Shannon to sobriety living and paying for her to get a place to stay - but said nothing would work. In March 2024, Mistina said her mother was in a 'terrible state' - she weighed 105 pounds (seven stone), was malnourished and terrified to leave the house. During a visit to the doctor, they told Mistena that her mother was in the 'final stages' of addiction and if she carried on she would die. From that moment, Shannon made it her mission to help turn her mother's life around after realising how much she hurt people around her. Now, nine months sober, Shannon is working a full-time job as a waitress, attends Narcotics Anonymous, and passes frequent drug tests. Shannon said that people will walk up to her in the supermarket with tears in their eyes and hug her to congratulate her on getting sober. Shannon, who works as a waitress, said: 'I literally have people come up to me with tears in their eyes, just asking if they can give me a hug. 'I hear them in the background at the store, hitting each other like 'that's her'. 'Then they come up to me all shy and embarrassed, asking if they can give me a hug. 'I am always overwhelmed with it, they make me feel better, as it can be embarrassing, they have seen me at my very worst.' After getting into a new relationship when Mistena was 12-years-old, Shannon started taking methamphetamine. Two years later, when Mistena was 14-years-old, she was thrown out of the family home and started living with her boyfriend and his family. Mistena, a stay-at-home mother, from Springfield, Ohio, said: 'She was getting heavy into the drugs at this point. 'She would still come to see me, and I would spend the day with her. 'I have been trying to get my mom clean for 10 years and have done everything I can to get her clean. 'But nothing ever worked, so I completely gave up on it.' Between the years 2017 and 2018 until Mistena was 19 years old, she had no contact with her mother. Mistena said that when her mother and step dad broke up, her mother got more deeply involved in drugs and earned the nickname of 'drug lord of Springfield' because she would supply drugs to people around town. Mistena said: 'I started to go back around more, but it was one of those things where I would tell myself that she was not going to bother getting better. 'I thought she was selfish, and she was going to hurt me. 'I didn't want to be taken advantage of. When I had my first daughter, I said I would let her hurt me, but not my kids.' In March 2023, Mistena went to visit her mother and said she was in a 'terrible state'. Shannon's head was shaved, she would self-harm to 'stop the voices in her head' and was scared to leave the house. Shannon said: 'The moment that I saw how bad I hurt people that I loved, made me realise I need to change. 'When you are high, you don't feel those feelings, you totally become numb, and you cannot associate. 'It is very important that people who are being hurt by people who are doing drugs understand that the drug user does not know how much they are hurting you. 'They cannot feel it, they don't get it, and they are not going to get it.' In July 2024, with the help of her daughter Mistena, Shannon went 'cold turkey' and completely stopped taking drugs. Now, her life is transformed; she is able to spend time with her grandchildren, she has her first job and is attending regular Narcotics Anonymous to keep her life on track. Shannon said: 'I don't think I would have ever got to this point if I hadn't hit a spot where I was deathly afraid of dying. 'I feel great now, I am working a job that I am holding down. 'I would never have dreamed in 1000 years that I would be able to get a job because my anxiety was so bad.' Mistena added: 'Mom got her first job, I am so proud of her. 'Having a job has helped her tremendously, she feels like she has a purpose. 'It is so nice to have a conversation with her, and our relationship is getting better as the weeks go on.'
