Tijana

Now I am fine without drugs.

My name is Tijana. I was born in Kragujevac, 30 years ago in a family with mother and father. When I was 5 my parents divorced. I remember my earliest childhood as sad. Alcoholism, disputes, conflicts, and strife were my everyday life. Excellent grades in school did not change my situation. I felt unbearable sadness and huge rejection from the world I lived in. When I was 12, I decided to take care of my life alone. I went to the streets and I accepted the rules of the street life. Violence, stealing, frauds, and drugs became my everyday life. I liked this world very much because it made me feel strong, and no one could hurt me. I tried heroin. Shortly after that I became an intravenous addict. In heroin I found fake fulfillment and identity. When I used heroin I felt accepted and secured. My life was falling apart, and I could not see it. After several years I faced real consequences of that way of life. I lost my friends, withdrawn into myself, and became someone else. It led me to serious physical and psychological condition. I wanted to ask for help. My father helped me recover and change my life. Cooperating with him, I started a private “business” and went into the world of it. Even though everything seemed great: money, status, material safety – everything stayed the same inside of me. There was still strife in my family. I did not know how to face it again and I started using heroin again. This time I touched the rock bottom. I lost my boundaries. Large doses of heroin exhausted me and soon I was broken down, tired, lost. I experienced overdose, and I ended in the hospital. I did not have any hope whatsoever that my life could ever change.
It was when I heard for Raskršće. I entered the program and finished it successfully. Now I can see that this was the best decision in my life. During the program the trained staff helped me solve the problems with which I fought all my life. I learned that I could change myself and this could better my world perspective. Now I have a new purpose, new direction and goal in life. I changed my bad habits and risky behaviors, and now I have new stands. I do not feel sadness that made me use drugs. Now I know I am not an addict anymore and I do not have to take drugs ever again. Now I am fine without drugs. Momentarily I volunteer in Women’s Rehabilitation center Raskršće and I have started my own business that I plan to develop. I am happily married, and my husband also finished Raskršće program. Now I am full of hope that my life is on upward trajectory. Now I have the courage to fight for all the good things that are waiting for me in the future. Now I am free!

Before and after