Turning points: June 06 - Natalie

Life can change with the strength to overcome addiction, the courage to travel through life alone, the conviction to make the world a better place, or the determination to succeed on your own terms.

Natalie Galea, 24, was addicted to drugs at 12 and living on the streets at 15. Today, she has been drug-free for six years, is studying for a degree at university, engaged to be married and the mother of a three-year-old son.

“When I was twelve years old, I didn’t know anything about drugs; who does at twelve? But then I met an older man. One day he took my arm and told me to turn my head the other way. He said, ‘This will make you feel really good’. And I know it sounds silly, but I didn’t know what he was doing. Suddenly I felt really weird, a feeling of not knowing who I was. He’d injected me with heroin.

“It became a regular thing. At first my parents didn’t know anything about what I was doing. When I turned fourteen, they finally intervened – by then they knew something was happening. I think they didn’t find out for such a long time because I was still managing to keep up a front, still going to school and doing my school work, still doing music and my drama and dance classes. So they didn’t really notice for a while. But then they started to see changes in me. They put me in a hospital to detox and then they drove me to a rehabilitation centre. I only lasted eight days; I just didn’t want to be there. I was pretty far gone.

“When I left the rehab centre, I started living on the streets. At home my parents were always fighting about me and I just couldn’t take it. They almost divorced over me; now I say sorry to them every day for the trouble I caused. I was living on the streets for two years, still taking drugs, and sleeping in places like squats or under bridges.

“By the time I was sixteen, I’d been to numerous detox centres. Lots of people tried to help me. By this time I was living in a halfway house. I was still going to school; I think I just kept going because I needed some sort of normalcy in my life.

“I did a rapid detox when I was seventeen. When you finish it you’re clean, but you also have the tolerance of a baby for drugs. I didn’t listen to anyone. I left the detox centre, took heroin and ‘flatlined’ three days in a row; I nearly died. Luckily, someone got me to a hospital. I just couldn’t stay away from heroin. Addiction is an illness, and not many people are aware that it is – they’re very quick to judge people on drugs.

“When I turned eighteen I just made a decision that I didn’t want to do this any more – I didn’t want to do drugs. I think I had just had enough of that life. I got a job as an office administrator and went on a methadone program where they do a ‘blind reduction’. They lower your dose of methadone gradually until one day they say, ‘Congratulations, you’ve been off methadone for a week’. I’ve been clean for six years now.

“I applied for university and was accepted and now I’m doing a Bachelor of Social Science degree. Just after I was accepted I found out I was pregnant [Natalie’s son is now three years old]. I’m engaged to be married to my son’s father, who is wonderful. We have our own place and I’m doing my degree part-time so I can spend as much time with my son as possible.

“I’m also doing some work with Reach [see ‘About Reach’, opposite]. When I was twelve, I went along to Reach – it’s for teenagers who need direction in their lives. They tried to help me numerous times but I just wasn’t ready for it. Now I want to help others; I want to tell kids that it’s not cool to take drugs.

“When I finish my degree I’d like to work with at-risk youth. I remember when I was going through all my stuff I would tell people they didn’t understand. If someone says that to me, I can say, ‘I understand; I’ve been there’. I think I’m doing a fantastic job now. There’s no turning back for me.”

About Reach
Founded in 1994 by former AFL star Jim Stynes and film director Paul Currie, Reach is an organisation that works with teenagers to help them improve their self-esteem and gain a sense of control over their lives.

“We work with kids from all walks of life, from all sorts of backgrounds,” says Reach marketing and public relations manager Sue Meehan. “We run workshops and weekends away, which really drive and instil feelings of self-esteem and confidence in teenagers. We often find that the biggest barrier between a teenager and their goals is a lack of self belief and a lack of support so we nurture that.”

Reach has a specially trained crew of young leaders, aged between 16 and 24, who run 14 different programs every year. Around 40,000 young people aged between 13 and 18 attend these and other programs, including camps and special events.

“What they do is create a very encouraging and stimulating environment so teenagers really discover for themselves that they can do anything they set their minds to,” says Sue. “Jim and Paul have trained young people to facilitate the programs and have empowered these kids to go out and do the work now.

“Some of those kids from that first workshop in 1994 have gone on to big things. Jules Lund was one of them – he is now a reporter on ‘Getaway’ – and he still does school workshops with us and is very involved in groups.”

For more information, go to www.reach.org.au.

 

Words: By Karen Spresser and Josephine Brouard. Photography: Andrew Lehmann.  Styling: Nicholas Sholl. Hair & make-up: Jay Jay Rauwenhoff.