It was hard to watch heroin taking hold of my big bruv Dr Brian

THE sister of a former heroin addict who is set to open up about his addiction has told how it affected their family growing up.

- SANDRA MALLON

Dr Brian Pennie is hosting a gripping new three-part documentary, Hooked, on RTE One, which dives deep into the science of addiction and how our brains are being hijacked.

Whether it's phones, alcohol, gambling, or hard drugs, addiction, the experts agree, can happen to anyone.

Dr Pennie knows only too well the horrors of addiction; he was a heroin addict for 15 years before miraculously turning his life around.

His sister Anne said of her older brother: "We really, really looked up to him. Things changed around my teenage years.

"I would have been out with my own friends and drinking with my own pals. But Brian would have always looked out for me.

SUBDUED

"But then we started around my teenage years, I kind of started to see that there was something else going on and that he wasn't around as much, or he wasn't picking up on things as much, or, you know, so we didn't have the same relationship, you know, that was kind of starting to separate."

Anne told Oliver Callan on his RTE Radio 1 show about watching heroin take hold of her older brother.

She said: "It's quite subdued, like it's quite relaxed. It's not like a manic drug. It doesn't make you kind of excited, but it's very hard to watch.

"And you know, he'd be touching his face a lot or and then just kind of, like nodding off at the table, but very much believing he's OK.