TORMENTED mum Tressa Middleton — who gave birth aged just 12 — told how she
ended up taking £400 of heroin a DAY as her life spiralled out of control.
Tressa, now 18, revealed the true extent of her devastating addiction as she
now battles to kick the killer drug for the sake of her beloved daughter.
The troubled teenager — who fell pregnant aged 11 after being raped by her
beast brother Jason — is determined to get clean before he is freed from
jail next year.
It comes as Tressa endures the heartache of another Christmas without the
child she was forced to give up for adoption.
But she told how she has already started to emerge from the drug nightmare she
shared with boyfriend Darren Young, 25.
She said: “Darren and I were taking £800 of heroin a day between us for six
months. That was a quarter of an ounce each.
“It was like living in a bubble.The drugs stopped us from feeling hungry,
so we would go days and days without food.
“I was injecting heroin nine or 10 times a day, at the same time as smoking it
constantly.”
She added: “I would take it to forget everything, and to blank out what Jason
had done to me.
“The hardest bit about coming off heroin is that you have to face up to things.
“I can cope with the physical withdrawal symptoms but I find it hard to cope
with my past now.
“I cry every single day for my daughter.
“I think I’m just starting to realise that I had my chances with her and I
failed her.”
Tressa — who plans to go into rehab next month — has already taken the first
steps to recovery.
But she still faces the pain of separation from her five-year-old girl, who
she’s not allowed to see.
She could only pen a poignant card to the child and cover the envelope with
messages including: “Love you sweetheart. Miss you loads and loads.”
Tressa, of Bathgate, West Lothian, gave it to social workers to pass to her
daughter, with a silver locket bearing the words, ‘You’ll Always Be My
Little Princess’.
And she has now vowed to make her little girl proud of her by turning her life
around.
Tressa plans to join Glasgow’s Phoenix Futures project to start a year-long
detox and recovery programme.
She finally decided to quit her habit after it began taking a massive toll on
her health.
Her heroin addiction had been dramatically exposed last year when video
footage emerged of her injecting drugs into her groin.
Tressa explained: “I went to West Lothian Drug Addiction Service for help
about four months ago, and Darren and I were both offered support.
“The drugs worker felt there was no point in me doing it alone if Darren was
still bringing drugs into the house.”
The couple were started on heroin substitute methadone — and ordered to keep a
diary of their drug-taking as they went into withdrawal. Tressa said: “I’m
now on 80ml of methadone a day and I don’t take any heroin.”
She now hopes to move to Glasgow in the New Year for the intensive course of
rehab at a centre run by Phoenix Futures. The complex — which can cater for
up to 39 people — is run like a small community, with users taking on key
jobs such as cooking, cleaning and gardening. Tressa will even be expected
to chant a mantra each morning, aimed at boosting morale among recovering
addicts.
She added: “During my time there I’ll have my methadone dose reduced. They
reckon it will take me six weeks to detox. I’ll be staying in a shared
bedroom with other recovering addicts.
“During the first stage of the programme, I’ll get settled in — then during
stage two I’ll need to share my life story with the rest of the group.
That’s a scary thought, but it’s to help others understand you.”
Recovering addicts spend time working on breaking the cycle of behaviour which
led them to drug-taking. They will later be encouraged to take up college
courses or voluntary work and begin integrating with the wider community.
Tressa said: “I believe this Phoenix Futures project can get me clean — but it
won’t be easy. Everybody I know is related to drugs in some way. It will be
hard to break that cycle.
“I’ve got a chance of getting clean and having a future, but I’ll have to give
up my friends.
“It will be worth it. I want to sort myself out and prove to my daughter
I’m not a total failure.”
She has been on a downward spiral of drink, drugs and self-harming since the
rape which led to the birth of her daughter in 2006. Tressa — who posed for
hospital snaps with her baby and her mother Tracey Tallons — initially
claimed another teenager, Jason Cameron, was the tot’s dad.
He was later given three years’ probation after he admitted having sex with
Tressa — but he always insisted the baby was not his.
Two years after the tot was born, Tressa shocked the nation when she revealed
who really fathered her child. Her monster brother Jason was finally jailed
in July 2009 after he admitted the rape when he was 16. He was also put on
the sex offenders’ register.
Last night Tressa added: “People say that what Jason did to me isn’t my fault,
but if that is the case, then why did they take my little girl away from me?”
Last night no one from Phoenix Futures was available for comment.