‘My two year old son’s in drugs rehab with me’
ADDICT FIGHTS TO KEEP HIS KID
A HEROIN addict went into rehab with his son in a last ditch bid to keep him.
Micky, 36, was given an ultimatum by social services – give up drugs or lose two-year-old Kyle.
He first used drugs at 13 and got hooked on heroin at 18, meaning he has been on it for almost two decades.
Micky entered a unique rehab facility in Sheffield, S.Yorks, where addicts live with their children while they recover.
He said: “It’s just a bad habit and it needs kicking. People say ‘You shouldn’t do it with your kids’, but they don’t realise how hard it is.”
Social services were frantic after it emerged Micky and his partner Faye, 28, had put Kyle in front of the TV while they used drugs.
Talking about his addiction on a TV documentary to be shown next week, Micky said: “It’s always going to be there. Always and forever. That worries me. But I know for a fact that I won’t because of Kyle.”
Micky was put on a detox plan under which he takes a daily dose of methadone which is gradually reduced.
He said: “My emotions are like a rollercoaster. One minute I’m dead happy, then dead sad, then dead angry. I’m like ‘Boom…where has that come from?’.
“It’s the detox that’s causing it. I’ve not been opium free since I was 18.”
Faye joined Micky and Kyle in rehab and also faced the tough task of ditching heroin.
Polly, a key worker at Phoenix Futures in Sheffield, had the job of helping Micky beat his addictions.
She said: “When they stop using substances, whether it’s heroin and methadone, all those emotions they have suppressed come to the surface.
“It can be quite a sensitive time and it can be quite overwhelming.”
Polly used to be an addict herself. She added: “I don’t mind telling service users that I used to be a user. They feel I understand. Sometimes they expect me to be sympathetic, but I’m not.”
While in rehab Micky started doing voluntary work and it helped him cope.
He said: “Recovery Through Nature they call it…RTN. Makes your day go a bit quicker and splits the week up.
“Without robbing and that, you need to work – it’s the way forward for me.”
Addicted Parents: Last Chance To Keep My Children is on Tuesday at 9pm on BBC Two.