ABSTRACT
The narrators in this section talks about their lives over the many years since they stopped using drugs, apart from Lee, whose interview illustrates what it is like to be still addicted after an equal number of years. It was not the fact that people had suffered the effects of long-term addiction, nor the fact that they had been able to stop and leave their addictions behind, that fostered the change in orientation, but the way they engaged in their personal struggles in the time after they stopped. Minette and Johnnie spoke about taking responsibility in terms of paying their bills, but they also spoke about becoming more honest with themselves. It is not easy to accept the losses caused by addiction philosophically. Narrators found themselves having new objectives in the long term, but they were realistic objectives. The defensiveness and chaos of their addicted days gave way eventually to new growth.
