Ballymun Recovery Stories: Personal Journeys of Drug & Alcohol Recovery
9 Philip’s Story “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” - Robert Collier I am a recovering addict and I am grateful for this opportunity to tell you a little bit about my journey of recovery. I was in and out of recovery for 17 years. I was born and grew up in Ballymun. I was a middle child and I was always seeking love and attention because one brother got the praise and the other brother got the attention and I was always seeking it and it did not happen. My first addiction was my mind and I still identify with that today. It is our mind that creates the problem. I grew up in a violent home. My Mother was an alcoholic and my Da was the worker and eventually,
I didn’t feel that I belonged or was part of that family. I had to separate myself from my Mother. I found refuge on the street corner with the lads. I felt comfortable there more than anything. The lads were a lot older than me. I was only 12 and they were in their teens or twenties. It was not long before I started running riot in the community. That is where I went to; that’s where I sought my refuge at the time. My Mother left us, left my Da to raise me and my brothers, we were all very young. He had to go and work, and we had to get up and go to school, but I didn’t go to school. 43
