My name is Jimmy, I would like to tell you a little bit about myself, and how Harbour saved my life.
I started drinking alcohol at a very early age, at 13 years old, because I realised that alcohol made me feel ok and accepted within a particular group of my peers.
My drug use didn’t start until I was 19, when I was in Wormwood Scrubs Prison, and I was introduced to heroin. Heroin gave me an immediate effect of feeling okay. I thought I had found my drug of choice; one which gave me a false sense of security which lasted years throughout my time in the penal system. One prison cell was very much like the last padded cell – a living hell. However, it was all I knew, any normal person would have realised long ago that this isn’t right; to feel safe in a padded cell.
I then was lucky enough to spend some time in a treatment centre, which helped, and began the decade that I spent in recovery. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes and I relapsed in 2014 after thinking I was ‘normal’. It started by drinking a glass of wine every night, and then I found myself back in a crack house, the same-old-same-old.
I was back on the heroin again and when the consequences started to amount I found Harbour. I turned to Harbour when I felt that everyone else had turned their back on me. All I know is that I owe the Harbour team a hell of a lot of gratitude for saving my life. They managed to get me detoxification treatment. I can never begin to try and square that debt I owe even if I lived ten life times. All I can do is stay ‘clean’ and sober a day at a time.
I’m ever so grateful to Harbour for saving my life. You will never know just how grateful I am.