"Personal srories " | Positive People

Personal srories

Fedya Vertenyuk: Being sober is getting me high

Fedya Vertenyuk, a volunteer and future outreach worker of “Viata Noua”, is sober for a relatively short amount of time – 10 months. Before, he was addicted to drugs for 5 years. Fedya was one of the participants of the photo project “A soul under the gun”. He told how from a candidate for master of sport he turned into a candidate for the rehabilitation program, what did he lose because of drugs and what currently gets him “high.” I was using drugs for exactly 5 years. Before becoming a drug addict I was a sportsman. How did it all happen? I will tell you now…

It all started with smoking cigarettes. Nothing special actually, I was smoking during the breaks at school, sometimes only once in a couple of days. Later I tried marihuana and after if I easily switched to stronger drugs (amphetamine, ecstasy, cocaine). And, it all ended up with injecting heroine. The last...

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With Dmitry and Svetlana Panish we met at the open day in the therapeutic community “Viata Noua”. That day, Dima with her daughter Sasha and son Tima visited Sveta, who now is receiving rehabilitation. In two months she will leave and she will return home to his beloved husband and children as a new person. Sveta and Dima feel like if some test is coming. After Sveta’s rehabilitation they all will have to pass the exam of life – sobriety exam. Almost 15 years with some small breaks, Sveta and Dima used drugs. During this time they managed to meet each other, get married, give birth to two children and come to the most important decision in their life – it is time to quit.

Dima: "The first time I tried drugs in autumn 1999, it was very cool. I started sniffing heroin, this drug was considered elite one, like an expensive car. The first time, as usual, someone...