My story didn’t start with addiction

Where I came from

My name is Dwayne Stevens, and long before Hopewick existed, my life was shaped by childhood trauma, the foster care system, incarceration and addiction.

I became a ward of the state at seven years old, moving through more than ten placements throughout my childhood. There was abuse. For much of that time, I never really experienced the stability, security or sense of belonging that every child deserves.

By seventeen, I was in jail.

I turned eighteen behind bars, along with spending other significant birthdays in custody. While most young people were beginning their adult lives with some form of family support or guidance, I was transitioning out of state care while incarcerated.

Think about what that means for a young person. I had spent much of my childhood in a system responsible for my care, and when I officially became an adult, I was sitting inside a prison.

I share this not to excuse the choices I’ve made throughout my life, but because it shaped me. When you move that many times as a kid, you learn not to trust people. You learn not to get too close, because it won’t last. And you learn not to ask for help, because asking never seemed to change much.

For years, I carried things I didn’t know how to process. Shame, anger, abandonment and a belief that my future had already been decided by my past.

Addiction became part of that story, but it wasn’t where the story began.

Where things changed

For years, trauma and addiction ran my life. Rehab is where things started to turn, but even that wasn’t simple.

My first rehab was meant to be six weeks. I didn’t meet my caseworker, or even know who they were, until about week four. I’d finally put my hand up and asked for help, and it was still hard to get.

During my time in rehabilitation around Easter 2025, all the caseworkers were on leave for about ten days while new people kept getting admitted. The ones detoxing had nothing to do. The talk in the smoke pit was all about using and the old days, so I stayed away from it. Being around that put me at risk of relapse.

I was the quietest person in the room. I thought I had to carry everything on my own. A lot of us coming out of addiction are like that. We carry so much guilt, and we worry about what people will think, so we hold back.

That’s when I started using AI. It gave me somewhere to get my thoughts out, ask questions and work out what I was feeling when there was nobody around to talk to. I went straight to what the research says about how trauma and addiction work together, and asked myself what I needed to do to apply it to my life.

It never replaced counselling, treatment or people. What it did was give me the courage to walk up to the staff on site and say, “I’m really struggling.”

Looking back, I often wonder how different things might have been if I’d had something like that when I was younger, especially during the years when I didn’t know who I could trust or where to turn.

Something else that helped was writing gratitudes. I did them every day for nine months, and it changed the way I think.

My faith in Jesus Christ has played a significant role in my recovery. It gave me hope, purpose and a reason to keep going. It has helped me understand forgiveness, accountability and the possibility of becoming someone different from who I once was. But Hopewick isn’t about asking people to believe what I believe. Whatever you believe, you’re welcome here.

Rebuilding my life

And thankfully, addiction wasn’t where my story ended either.

I don’t see recovery as something I’ve finished. It’s something I keep working on.

When I was celebrating two years clean, I heard a member say that if we set out a chair for every person who had sat in that room and lost their life to addiction, there wouldn’t be any room left for someone new. That stayed with me. I know what relapse looks like. I know how quickly people can disappear into isolation and shame, and how difficult it can be to find the courage to walk back through those doors. Not everyone who leaves the rooms loses their life, but far too many do. And sometimes it’s that shame and isolation that stops someone from reaching out before it’s too late.

I wanted to put what I’d been through to good use, so I went back to study. I’m still completing the Dual Diploma of Mental Health and AOD at TAFE Queensland. My placement is complete and I finish in January 2027. My placement was with QuIHN, in the alcohol and other drugs sector.

Living it taught me what it feels like. Studying it helped me understand why it happens and what can help. I need both.

Why Hopewick exists

I know what it’s like to need support and not know where to turn. I know how hard it is to ask. And I know what it’s like to finally ask and then wait. Waiting for an appointment. Waiting for a caseworker. Getting through the nights and weekends when nobody is there.

Hopewick is for those gaps. It’s somewhere you can talk things through, reflect, journal and find some guidance when you need it. It’s built on harm minimisation, and it meets you where you’re at.

It doesn’t replace your psychologist, counsellor, caseworker, rehab or the people in your life. It’s meant to sit alongside them. A lot of the time, the most useful thing it can do is help you find the words, then point you back to the right person to say them to.

AI doesn’t replace people. It helps you find the words to reach them.

Why it matters to me

Hopewick didn’t come out of a business plan. It came out of a quiet bloke in rehab who thought he had to carry it all alone, and out of the gaps I fell through along the way.

Today, I’m a husband, a father and a person in recovery. I’m building a family and a life I once struggled to imagine having. That doesn’t mean I’ve got everything worked out or that life is suddenly easy. It means I’ve been given an opportunity to build something different from what I grew up knowing, and I don’t take that for granted.

Behind every person struggling with addiction, mental health or trauma is a human being with a story that deserves to be heard. You deserve to be listened to without being judged. And sometimes, before you can start changing your life, you just need to know that change is possible.

That’s what I want Hopewick to be. A small light that stays on between sessions, until you can get to the people who can help.

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