Addicts must take each day at a time

But some people find the strength to get off drugs. As difficult as it may seem, Sarah Browning, 37, has been clean for almost six years. She tells Claire Truscott why life with her little boy has never been better.

When Sarah Browning was 18 she met and fell in love with a man who she calls "the brazen Yorkshireman".

The problem was he was a drug addict, six years older than herself, who thought nothing of her health and happiness. He encouraged her to pick up a heroin habit to "lose weight" and once she had, he would feed it to her to soothe the bruises he created with his fists.

The reality of her addiction came as a huge shock to her mother, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Bath, and her father, a policeman.

They could only watch as their daughter descended deeper and miscarried after a beating, but she found the will-power from somewhere to attempt to get off drugs and go to a drugs counsellor.

She said: "I realised my body was failing and I was going to die. I didn't want to. My habit went on for 12 years and my parents had to step back but their love never once faltered. My counsellor was superb.

Every week I came out crying and feeling emotionally battered but you have to keep going. I don't think I could have made it out of Bath without him."

Her ex-partner ended up stabbing her in the thigh and forearm and when he went to prison on an unrelated offence, she took her chance and came to Brighton.

She continued on a methadone replacement for heroin and eventually managed to ween herself off that.

She said: "Coming off methadone was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, a hundred times harder then coming off heroin.

"I went on to a substitute, subutec, which isn't as strong and keeps the cravings at bay.

"I had physical withdrawal and took Britlofex, which makes you sleep. I had six weeks of someone mopping up my human waste and I don't remember much about it."

Once she became clean, she found she still faced her biggest battle.

She said: " You become aware of your emotions coming back. You're full of irrational feelings and start to see things differently. The world seems to have just woken up like the beginning of spring. Everything is new.

"There are new fragrances and feelings and you need to cope with that world you had forgotten about.

"I needed to discover that part of society where it's not acceptable to sit there with a needle hanging out of your arm."

Her advice for Hannah Mayne is to take the decision to not take heroin today - just today. Baby steps are important and she believes the fact Hannah is now being honest with those around her is progress in itself.

She said: "She should keep her methadone as low as she can and delete her dealer's numbers from her phone. I found moving furniture around helped, just to have a change of scenery and enter a new phase.

"If she really wants to do this in herself she will. The only one who can make the decision is Hannah.

She needs to realise she has to find herself, for herself, but it's a wonderful new life if she can find it.

"She's obviously intelligent and if she gets through it she can give back by helping others. She must find it deep in her soul or she will die or end up in prison."

Sarah became fully clean in 2000, aged 30, and a year later became pregnant with her son Jimmi.

Pregnancy was tough, as she was still staying in temporary accommodation for the first few months, surrounded by the drug users who frequent hostels.

She said: "Seeing what goes on, there is a big incentive to be clean.

The loos are full of crack pipes and needles on the floor, it's rife."

Looking back from her Hangleton home she can hardly recognise the pathetic creature she was then.

She said: "Now I just want Jimmi to be happy and healthy and carry on working hard. You can't learn from anyone's mistakes but your own but I hope I can keep him away from the seedier side of life. It's just me and my boy and I'm enjoying every moment of being a mum."

Her mother calls to speak to her grandson every day, before and after school, and they visit every school holiday.

When she is not looking after Jimmi, Sarah writes and would like to make it her living by taking a computer literacy course and getting published.

But her past life will never fully escape her.

She said: "When I moved here, I found someone round the corner from me was one of my cohorts from the West Country.

"You can never escape your past but you can survive it.

"When I go back to Bath I would never ignore my old friends because we went through a lot together but I always keep my mum and dad with me because I feel vulnerable.

"I've lost so many people through heroin and there was no need for them to die.

"I still get cravings but it's a matter of staying in control and not letting them rule you - which Hannah needs to learn."

Have you been through a similar experience? If so, have your say below