Former drug addict shares recovery journey

Jessica Gaddes, now five years clean, can barely recognise herself after looking back at photos during the peak of her drug addiction.

Looking back at photos, Jessica Gaddes can barely recognise herself.

At age 22, when she was a thriving real estate agent, she was introduced to the drug ice which ultimately sparked what would become a crippling addiction.

“When I was using life was hell,” Jessica told news.com.au

She not only lost her job and became homeless, but she spent her 28th birthday behind bars for a list of drug-related charges, including mail theft and fraud to help feed her addiction.

“I won’t even look back at the brief or the fact sheet during my first year of recovery, because I don’t know who I am reading about. I don’t know who that person is,” she explained.

“Today my life is so different.”

Jessica Gaddes, 33, said she barely recognises during the peak of her ice addiction. Picture: TikTok/jessnmaxx

The now 33-year-old has been clean for almost six years. But had you had told her this would be the case all those years ago, she wouldn’t have believed it.

It wasn’t until she spent time in a “dirty cell” that she knew she “couldn’t go back there again”.

“I knew if I kept using I would end up going crazy. I already felt like I was and I just didn’t want to go back to that life.”

She particularly recalls a moment in jail when she asked a staffer for Panadol after suffering from a bad migraine.

“I remember sitting on the floor with a massive headache, asking for help and no one coming to check on me or help me. If I continued to use, I knew no one would ever give a sh*t about me.”

Proud to be clean for exactly five years and seven months, Jessica has chosen to share her story of addiction and recovery “to give hope to anyone out there struggling”.

Jessica has been clean for exactly five years and seven months. Picture: TikTok/jessnmaxx

“I also want young people to know the consequences of taking drugs – and that it doesn’t discriminate against anyone,” she said.

Jessica said that growing up, she was a “normal” girl with a loving family and a good job where at 20, she was able to purchase her first home with her then partner.

“I bought a townhouse in Rooty Hill, but we sold it a few years later,” she said.

“I thought I was the bees knees in real estate and at the same time I was going out and partying a lot.”

The then 22-year-old was handed a “pipe” thinking she was smoking speed – a drug she described as being popular in the party scene back then – but it was ice.

And within one month, she was “hooked”.

“I was young, impressionable. I was out with friends and it was the scene back then. I was actually with real estate co-workers when it all started and that’s why I will never go back to that industry.

“The memories are too much.”

Jessica was 22 and a thriving real estate agent when she got introduced to the drug. Picture: TikTok/jessnmaxx

The following year, Jessica sold her house and moved to Surfer’s Paradise to “try and get away from it”.

However, she said she couldn’t escape the addictive substance and claimed her new apartment building had multiple drug dealers.

She blew the profits from her house and was back in Sydney within five months, “broke and completely hooked on ice”.

After moving back to St Mary’s, in Sydney’s west, Jessica found herself in and out of handcuffs and holding cells.

“In the space of three years, I had three major incidents,” she said.

Jessica has chosen to share her story of addiction and recovery ‘to give hope to anyone out there struggling’. Picture: TikTok/jessnmaxx

“The first time I was let off on a suspended sentence, the second time on community service, but the third time I was put in jail for one month.”

Jessica had committed multiple drug-related offences to help feed her addiction.

“It was an extremely hard time for my family. I am not the only person who has really supportive parents that has made these decisions (in life). And as parents it would have been so hard for them to sit back and watch.”

The 33-year-old, who is now studying a diploma in mental health, is looking to move into the professional realm of helping other addicts in her community. Picture: TikTok/jessnmaxx

Jessica said her parents attended AL-Anon and several NA meetings with her which gave them “enough education on how to handle a situation they had no knowledge on – addiction”.

“Speaking with other loved ones that were going through the same thing they were, I think it really helped them to understand a bit better what we where going through as both a family unit as well as individually.”

The 33-year-old, who is now studying a diploma in mental health, said while her road to recovery wasn’t an easy journey – rehab changed her life.

“I never belonged in jail, I now know I am meant to be here helping others,” she said.

The self-confessed “workaholic”, who also has a job as a bartender, is looking to move into the professional realm of helping other addicts in her community.

She also spoke highly of the policemen and women and the rehab centres in Sydney who “loved me back to life”.

Jessica shares her story and journey on TikTok and Instagram.