Melinda Ferguson began life as a nice, talented middle-class girl, becoming a prefect in high school in Johannesburg, excelling academically and being singled out as one of the most promising students.

After graduating from UCT drama school in 1988, she began performing and directing on the alternative theatre scene in Joburg. In 1993 a casual, experimental hit of heroin led her into a seven-year journey to drug hell, where she found herself in 1999 at the end of the dark and horror-filled road of crack cocaine and heroin addiction.

After losing everything, including her two sons, marriage, home and career, Ferguson cleaned up in September 1999. A long and challenging climb back to "normalcy" followed. In 2005 her bestselling memoir, Smacked, was published to critical acclaim.

Today she is features editor at True Love magazine, is reunited with her boys and is an inspirational speaker. This month, Ferguson's sequel to Smacked, Hooked: Secrets and Highs of a Sober Addict hits the shelves.

• Hooked is published by Penguin, R220.