Meth Addiction, Homelessness & Losing Custody | Janet's Recovery StoryMeth Addiction, Homelessness & Losing Custody | Janet's Recovery Story
Hard Knox Talks: Sober Stories. Real Talk.
Janet Tait talks through her experiences of meth addiction, homelessness, losing custody of her children, psychosis and surviving a stabbing before entering recovery. She reflects on spirituality, the 12 steps, ongoing self-work and her current role as a social worker supporting young adults leaving care.
53:31•18 Sept 2026
From Meth, Homelessness and Stabbing Survival to Social Work: Janet’s Story
Episode Overview
- Early exposure to alcohol and violence can fuel deep anger and make substance use feel like the only relief.
- Losing custody of a child may trigger intense grief and shame, especially when support systems feel inconsistent or unreachable.
- Meth can feel like emotional numbing at first but quickly leads to severe harms, including psychosis, homelessness and life-threatening situations.
- Small acts of kindness—safe housing, transport home, listening without judgement—can become crucial turning points in someone’s recovery.
- Long-term healing involves ongoing self-reflection, forgiveness, spiritual practice and, for Janet, using lived experience to support young people in care.
“I felt like I could quit anytime I wanted. I was in psychosis.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? This episode follows Janet Tait as she talks through a life shaped by childhood violence, early alcohol use, crack and meth addiction, homelessness, losing custody of her children and surviving a near-fatal stabbing. You’ll hear Janet describe growing up in northern Manitoba, where alcohol, poverty and domestic violence were part of everyday life.
She explains how drinking at 12 or 13 with older teens felt like the first time she was truly happy, and how that quickly slipped into crack and cocaine, leaving her son with relatives while "drugs got a hold of me." When Child and Family Services removed her second child, she recalls feeling "so lost and alone and scared" and turning back to substances when support felt out of reach. Her account of meth is stark and honest.
That first pipe "had me in a grip" because "I felt less, which made me feel like I was okay." Two years of meth use brought psychosis, shadowy hallucinations, rough trap houses and a brutal stabbing where a man she thought was a friend drove a serrated knife into her thigh. A doctor later told her, "you’re a miracle" after the blade narrowly missed a major artery.
The turning point comes through small acts of kindness: friends offering a sofa, bus tickets, food money, showers and time away from the city. Janet starts praying to God, finds AA meetings, gets treatment for drug-induced psychosis and slowly rebuilds a sober life. Sixteen years on, she’s a registered social worker working with care-leavers, drawing on her "lived experience" to connect with young people. Themes of forgiveness and self-reflection run all the way through.
Janet talks about learning she "was the damn problem", doing the 12 steps, going to ceremony and keeping her emotional "bucket" from getting too heavy by talking, setting boundaries and continuing to heal. If you’ve ever felt hopeless, her story might help you ask what support and self-forgiveness you’re ready to accept today.
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