Interview with Boaz van der Hoek, born 7 June 1996, living in Eindhoven.

When Boaz was young, he already struggled with addiction problems. This started in secondary school with an addiction to gaming, and in hindsight this proved to be the beginning of his susceptibility to addictions. He went back to havo from vwo, leaving more time for gaming. When Boaz turned 16, it was still legal to drink alcohol in the Netherlands. Here, too, he turned out to be very sensitive to it and it quickly got out of hand, but not yet to problematic levels.

At 19, he studied applied psychology, lived with a friend and first came into contact with weed. This went from a “hit here and there” to two to three grams a day within the same month. Boaz started going to school less and less and stayed at home all day blowing and gaming. Miraculously, he passed his propaedeutic year cum laude, but in Year 2 he quit school immediately due to experiencing a panic attack at school. After Boaz quit college, he moved in with his sister, from here he worked at various catering establishments. The irregular and late working hours did not reduce his addictions and when he was 22 years old, he went to rehab in South Africa for two months. Here too, Boaz suffered another panic attack, he said, and that hampered him for a long time. He did not acknowledge that he became addicted to things at all quickly and after five months of being clean, Boaz relapsed. He drank secretly, sold stuff to buy weed and eventually had nothing more than a computer, a table and a chair in his home.

He wanted to make changes in his life and took a vwo maths test, which I used with his propaedeutic certificate to apply to Radboud University. He was even invited to study there, but because his addiction took over, it never happened. Following this, the annual contract for his rented accommodation ended and he could no longer pay the rent. This was when he became completely homeless and found himself on the streets independently without family or friends.

“Getting rid of your addiction really only works if you want it yourself. And as long as people keep helping you, you do take advantage of it.”

Boaz said he was able to stay with one of his friends for a month, but he was still homeless. It was not an option for a longer time and ended up on the streets for a few days. “That's when I became a vagrant for the first time,” he said. The possibility of staying overnight at shelter “Het Eindje” on Mathildelaan was a godsend for him. At the time he became homeless, it was difficult to think clearly and think of solutions. Of course, there are people who can help you, but at times like this you feel alone and helpless.

With difficult thoughts in his head, he called Springplank and headed towards the “Eindje” shelter on Mathildelaan. After five days, he was able to go to Bellefroidlaan in Eindhoven, where he lived for several months. He got along incredibly well with the supervisors there who helped him a lot. “They really motivated me and saved my life,” he says.”

At one point, Michelle became his supervisor and you can clearly see how grateful he is for her. “A wonderful person who has always held me in my esteem.” Boaz has always worked in the hospitality industry and had a lot of experience in this. That's why he got to work at the former central walk-in on Visserstraat as a cook! Here he got to know Thomas, who himself worked as an ex-addict and came out on top within Springplank. “Thomas is number one for me,” he says. For Boaz, Thomas has become a great role model. After working on Visserstraat for a while, Boaz was given a temporary place to live by Springplank in a group building at Strijp-S. After which he started at a rehab centre to turn his life around and stay on the right track. He speaks ambitiously about restarting studies in Psychology at university. “Eventually, I want to combine this with a counsellor/experiential training to work as a psychologist/counsellor myself in addiction treatment.”

What would you pass on to readers?
“I think the most important thing is to be really honest with yourself. If you really have a problem like addiction or other mental things, be honest about it. Apart from that, I want to pass on that you really can't handle everything on your own. You need others for help and listen to them.”

“You can't enjoy the sun until you learn to dance in the rain.”

If Boaz's trajectory continues to go in the right direction as it is now, he plans to re-establish all broken contacts with friends and family.