Rachel Forde

They were just people who weren't taking them.

Understood, yeah.

And...

You know, I thought it was normal.

My doctors prescribed these to me and I was in so much pain.

You know, I was like, sure, I just need an extra few.

Like you're supposed to take eight and 24 hours.

I was taking upwards of 70 on the daily.

So would you have started in the morning from, would you have taken 10 in a go?

Yeah.

I remember going to work and having like a two litre of water and most of the time my tablets would come in, you know, dissolvable form.

So I would put 20, 30 of them into the water and they might last me to my morning break.

would you be supping the water and just kind of pretending there was something else in it yeah but you wouldn't see it once they're dissolved it just looks like water is it kind of a high you would have gotten that dopamine fix yeah it was definitely a dopamine fix but I quickly realised Brenda if I was to go

And first, I suppose if I was to go a day without them, I'd start feeling the effects of the physical withdrawal.

But then it turned into hours, you know, that I couldn't go a few hours without them.

I was fairly dependent on them and I knew it.

I knew it from very early on, I knew that, but I didn't care.

you know I didn't I actually didn't care it was the other drugs then you know like I couldn't get a bag of cocaine without knowing I had my sleepers and my painkillers

Yeah.

Then it turned into, I can't get my sleepers and my painkillers without getting the bag of cocaine.