“I’d be lost without this place,” says 31-year-old Jennifer (not her real name), who started last August to attend Jane’s Place – an all-female drop-in centre in Dublin – for counselling, but continues to come for much more.Jane’s Place was created by Merchants Quay Ireland, which supports people affected by homelessness and addiction.Jennifer had been in recovery for almost two years, but wanted to understand why she still had addictive tendencies, even though drink and drugs were no longer a part of her life. “I was still struggling with my sex addiction. I needed somebody to really dig deep with me and start to unravel all these layers that I put over me for such a long time.”Alcohol darkened her entire childhood in north Co Dublin, paving the way to her own addictions. Her biological father, “an abusive alcoholic”, died when she was three. For more than two years after that it was just Jennifer and her mother, a drinker “who didn’t recognise herself as an alcoholic”. Then, much to Jennifer’s resentment as a little girl, her stepfather, also a heavy drinker, moved in. A year later, her brother was born.Frequent verbal abuse in the house would occasionally become physical between her mother and stepfather. “I would have these moments where I’d step in and be the peacekeeper, like a referee between the two of them.”[ International Women’s Day is ‘all talk and no action’, says SenatorOpens in new window ]By the time Jennifer had done the Leaving Certificate, her mother had given up alcohol but was very ill. “I started looking after mam; she was sick, dad was still drinking, my brother was getting into all types of trouble and I just took on that role as a mother. I made sure the bills were paid, the shopping done and the house was clean.“In a way she reared me quite well,” smiles Jennifer, who then trained as a healthcare assistant, to care for other people’s parents. With money in her pocket, once-a-month partying became something she did every weekend.‘I was made feel so small about myself. For about two and a half years of me being with that person, my mental health spiralled’— Jennifer“It’s funny because I looked at what the drink had done to my mam, and I always said I’d never end up like that.”Yet, within a few years, roles were reversed. With her mother now sober, “I was the one coming home in an absolute state. I always felt awful about it because we’d never have drink in the house. My stepdad always went to the pub.”Sharon Geraghty, deputy head of operations, Dublin day services, Merchants Quay Ireland; and Susan Diffney, women's services co-ordinator at Jane's Place, in the drop-in facility's welcome area. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times