A mother-of-two has opened up about the devastating effects of her drug addiction and what it took to turn her life around.
Liz Gal, 34, is a former cocaine and heroin addict – a woman who once spent as much as $1,000 a day on drugs.
Ms Gal, from Sydney, has been off drugs and alcohol for the past eight years, and now she has revealed how her battle with addiction almost destroyed her life.
‘At the height of my addiction, I was spending $1,000 a day and staying up for a week at a time. I was using pills, coke and heroin and was on methadone,’ she told FEMAIL.
Liz Gal (pictured at the height of her addiction) told FEMAIL of her ten-year battle with drugs – one that saw her spend as much as a $1,000 a day to fund her habit
The now-recovered addict said it took the realisation she was headed for death ‘in a gutter’ in order for her to come back from the brink.
Ms Gal revealed she had begun smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol as a teenager and that by the age of 15 she had already left home.
She said troubled relationships at home were the catalyst for the decision she made as a young woman to walk out the door one night and never return.
Ms Gal (pictured now clean) has now been off drugs and alcohol for eight years after battling a decade-long addiction
From there, Ms Gal progressed to using harder drugs and by 16 she was routinely injecting speed and ice.
‘By the time I was 16 I was using on a daily basis. It didn’t matter what it was if it got me high or low – just as long as it changed the way I felt about myself,’ she explained.
‘Basically, I took whatever I could get my hands on.’
Soon after she was introduced to heroin and cocaine, drugs she said which drastically changed her life for the worse.
Ms Gal revealed that she left home at 15-years-old and by the time she was 16 she was already injecting speed and ice (pictured during her addiction)
Trying to explain how addiction gripped her life, Ms Gal, then a young woman of 18, who lived around the streets of Kings Cross said there was nothing she could do to stop herself from taking drugs and would do whatever it took to fund her habit.
‘The obsession and compulsion to use was so strong that I did anything I had to in order to get drugs – including things that went against my values,’ she said.
‘I was constantly using then having to make more money and then using drugs again. It was a never-ending cycle.’
Ms Gal (pictured now clean) said her obsession and compulsion to use drugs was so strong she did anything she had to in order to get a fix – including things that went against her values
By the time she was 20, not only were drugs a permanent fixture in her life, Ms Gal also became a mother to her son Lez.
Ms Gal admitted to taking drugs while pregnant, however, she said her son wasn’t born with a physical dependency.
While there was some hope her newborn child would give her the strength to change, sadly she revealed this wasn’t the case.
Ms Gal (pictured right) revealed she had a baby when she was a 20-years-old and admitted to taking drugs while pregnant
Returning to addiction, Ms Gal said her son would often be ‘dragged around Kings Cross ‘ with her or she would leave him with her mother for days on end.
‘I would leave him with my mum when I was going to get my methadone and I would tell him “Mummy is just going to get her medicine” and sometimes I wouldn’t come back for a few days at a time.
‘I just was incapable of taking care of him.’
The young mother (Ms Gal pictured left) let her mum step in and take care of her son when her addiction became too much
By the time Lez was three, Ms Gal said her mother intervened and took her child from her to give him a more stable upbringing.
‘I couldn’t look after him anymore and I knew he would be safe with her,’ she recalled emotionally.
‘I could go out use more [drugs] and not have to worry about coming home to a child who needed me [sic].’
Ms Gal said her breakthrough moment came after she realised the drugs she once loved had stopped working (pictured clean)
Ms Gal’s addiction would continue for another three years after that, something she said was fuelled in part by the pain of having to give up her child.
She shared how her breakthrough moment came when the drugs she once loved simply stopped working.
‘I was on methadone and was using a lot of coke and pills and they just didn’t numb things anymore.
‘And then I had a night where I realised I was going to die,’ she continued.
‘It was then I decided I didn’t want my son knowing I had died in a gutter somewhere.’
She said the next day she reached out to her mum and asked for help to stop using.
‘She told me I had to get off methadone and go to rehab and I laughed and told her people don’t get off methadone. But I was wrong.’
With help from her mum, she was able to go into a 10-week program first to become drug-free, and then on to a longer rehabilitation program where she spent eight months.
After this, she spent a further 12 months in a halfway house.
When Ms Gal’s mother told her she had to get clean she said she just laughed and told her ‘told people don’t get off methadone’
‘It was the hardest thing I had to do. I was diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and drugs had been covering that for a long time.
‘In the beginning, I had panic attacks and flashbacks. I had spent every day for the last 10 years using and now I was having to deal with my feelings and the responsibilities of my life which I had never had to deal with before.’
Now, eight years on, and still drug-free, Ms Gal is a mother to a two and a half -year-old girl.
Ms Gal said she once believe the line ‘once an addict, always an addict’ but since finding recovery her whole life has changed
She has been reunited with her son Lez. He has been back in her life for six years.
Helping others find a way through has turned out to be Ms Gal’s life’s calling. The 34-year-old now works in a residential treatment program for mothers on methadone.
Ms Gal said she hopes by sharing her story she might be able to help anyone who is struggling with addiction see there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
‘I thought I would be on methadone for the rest of my life and believed the line “once an addict always an addict”,’ she said.
‘Since finding out recovery is possible my whole world has changed. And although it was very difficult for me at the start, the life I have now has been so worth it.
‘If someone who used drugs the way I did can get clean, it’s possible for anyone,’ she concluded.
Where to get help: Narcotics Anonymous on 95196200 or na.org.au