Terra Chambers, an addiction peer support worker at the Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine (RAAM) Clinic, gives back to those within active addictions.
Terra Chambers knows firsthand what it’s like to rely on Niagara Health’s Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine (RAAM) Clinic. It was her own struggles with addiction and mental health that led her to help others.
In addition to being an addiction peer support worker for the RAAM Clinic, she also works at the safe injection site (consumption and treatment services) for Positive Living Niagara, a non-profit that supports individuals at-risk and affected by HIV, Hepatitis C, sexually transmitted infections and blood born infections, and substance use within the region.
"I essentially left home one day and didn’t come back. The guilt and shame can keep you from family – the drug is the antidote.”
“There’s not one answer as to why I started doing drugs, but I always think about the ‘why,’” she says. “I believe it started with low self-esteem, leading to poor relationship choices and ultimately a severe addiction and battle with mental health. I essentially left home one day and didn’t come back. The guilt and shame can keep you from family – the drug is the antidote.”
Chambers, who has been an addiction peer support worker at the RAAM Clinic for the past year, says its important to recognize International Overdose Awareness Day, which takes places annually on Aug. 31, as the world’s largest campaign to end overdoses.
In the throes of addiction
Niagara Health has seven addiction recovery service programs across the region and works with a variety of mental health and addictions community partners.
Chambers says she was in a toxic relationship at 16 and found herself in another when she was 18. She unexpectedly got pregnant and eventually moved back in with her parents when she was 26. Within a year, she found herself gradually using drugs to cope with her past traumas and eventually ended up on the streets. She says the turmoil led her to use crack cocaine daily and she eventually picked up opioids, including OxyContin, heroin and Dilaudid.
“I was 27 when things got out of control,” she says. “I began smoking crack which was a mainstay throughout my addiction, which made me very ill mentally and physically. I dealt with a lot of overdoses and infections from smoking crack and abusing opioids. It was a nightmare, but I’m also so grateful that fentanyl wasn’t popular during my period of active addiction. Drugs have changed quite a bit since I used.”
One scenario involved winding up in a park in Toronto for 12 hours with no actual recollection of what happened during that period after taking an opioid. During her time on the streets, she incurred a criminal record and spent some time in jail.
Chambers developed necrosis on her body – the death of cells in the body’s tissues – after smoking crack tainted with Levamisole, a medication used to treat parasitic worm infections. It’s commonly used to deworm cattle. She also had extensive damage to her nose, ears, feet, ankles and legs as well as her heart and kidneys.
Towards the end of her active addiction, she healed from the necrosis – at least, she thought she had. Instead of presenting on the outside of her body, the necrosis was developing inside of her body, causing both of her kidneys to go into failure.
The hospital had to call Chambers’ parents, who she’d only seen a handful of times throughout her addiction, to let them know she might not survive.
“I was extremely sick, including severe vomiting,” says Chambers. “Because of that, I wasn’t able to take my methadone [medicine used to treat opiate dependence], so I was going through withdrawal in addition to kidney failure. After a month in the hospital and being on dialysis, I was released and put on medication that saved my kidneys and ultimately my life.”
A turning point
She credits that experience, the support from her family and her own will to live to being the reason she was able to get sober.
“If the choice was to live or die, I was finally making the choice to live. I came from an incredibly loving, supportive family that didn’t have a history of substance abuse – and still, I ended up being addicted to drugs and living on the streets.”
When she was discharged from the hospital, she was 33 and knew her body wouldn’t last much longer if she continued on the path she was on. She went to a rehab facility for six months, and after graduating, moved back in with her parents, who raised her son for her while she was in active addiction.
When her addiction spiraled out of control, he was in Grade 1. When she returned home for good, he was just starting Grade 9.
“I was gone for about eight years,” she says. “It’s something I couldn’t imagine doing today.”
Today, Chambers carries Naloxone, a drug that can temporarily reverse an opioid overdose, on her at all times, and has administered it to people on the streets.
She has been sober for more than 12 years.
"If the choice was to live or die, I was finally making the choice to live. I came from an incredibly loving, supportive family that didn’t have a history of substance abuse – and still, I ended up being addicted to drugs and living on the streets."
Naloxone kits are free and available at many pharmacies across Ontario, as well as through hospital and community programs, such as Positive Living Niagara. It does not harm anyone who does not have opioids in their system, and Chambers encourages everyone to carry one not only in an easy effort to save someone’s life, but to also “save a family from a lifetime of heartbreak.”
“In my work, it’s my purpose to provide hope,” she says. “Having that lived experience and understanding being on that side of the fence has allowed me to help others. I was in and out of detox like it was a revolving door, but it helped me. People being kind to me, both on the street and in addiction programs, helped me. If I can be a little piece of why someone makes a different choice one day, then I know I’m doing what I was meant to do.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please visit niagarahealth.on.ca/site/addictionrecoveryservices
