Tuesday, July 13, 2021

William Anderson spent nearly 30 years hooked on street valium, a highly addictive drug which he first started taking to help him cope with the loss of his infant daughter.

This addiction nearly cost him his life. But, after getting help from an Edinburgh-based support group, he managed to turn his life around.

Now, after being clean for more than a year, he is an active ambassador for WAVE Trust’s 70/30 campaign, helping to raise awareness on mental health issues.

The 70/30 campaign is a UK-wide network of individuals, organisations and elected representatives working together to reduce child abuse, neglect and other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) by at least 70% by the year 2030. If you’d like to find out more, click the link below:

Find out more

 

‘It only takes one tablet to kill you, so I was just lucky’

Here are some of William’s experiences in his own words:

"It goes back more than 30 years. My daughter died in 1989 when she was just six-months-old. She spent time in the Sick Kids' after she was born, but only survived six months. Me and my partner struggled to deal with it, to be honest. One week I went to the doctors and I was given the prescription. That was 29 years ago and it continued until around two or three years ago when I was taken off it.”

"I fell out with a lot of my family, because of my valium use, and things got worse. That led to me, last February, trying to overdose. I took 200 tablets, cocaine, Xanax and numerous other pills. All I remember was waking up in my mum's house four or five days later. It only takes one tablet to kill you, so I was just lucky.”

William says the help he received while trying to get clean helped restore his faith in humanity.

 

Read the full article here: Edinburgh man who almost died taking 50 'street valium' a day shares amazing transformation - Edinburgh Live