Published in South Africa in 2005 by author Danila Botha, ”Smacked” was her first book. In this book she was unafraid to show addiction as it really is - a desperate, ugly struggle to get her next hit, an obsession that led her to abandon everything that once meant something to her. Her family, including two young sons, her home all for a bit of smack (heroin) and crack.
She tells it like it is - or was. She tells all with blunt honesty with no concern of how she portrays herself and the tale of her hard fought for recovery. She relates it as a very hectic story that goes right down into the darkness of addiction. How addiction doesn’t discriminate she was not a likely candidate for addiction as a straight A student, a hall monitor, played net ball and went to university. She says she had to work incredibly hard to get where she is today. That she is all for opening the can of worms and confronting the shadows. The more open we are about these things, the more we will learn.
It was well received with five reprints and will be reissued in July by her new Publisher Penguin Books with an addition chapter on Ten Steps she took to stay sober. She is a brave woman and has since overcoming her addiction become a journalist and writer who regularly shares her experiences in the hopes of helping others.
Well done to you Danila - and please keep writing and helping.