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Male 47yrs - Alcohol
I first tasted alcohol at 8 years of age but started "drinking"
when I was 15. By the age of 16 I was experiencing blackouts, wetting
the bed and being violent in drink and when drunk. Over the next
32 years the progression of the illness within me ran rampant. It
took from me everything I had: - relationships, children, career,
and material possessions. It also stripped away my self-respect,
morals dignity and self-worth.
I returned to Wales, after 27 years away drinking alcoholically,
some 15 months ago. 11 months ago I hit my rock bottom and picked
up the telephone and asked the Neath Centre for help. I must say
that by now I felt broken beyond repair! I was wrong. For the first
time in my life someone listened to me and I felt that someone understood
what I was saying to them. I was assessed, offered help and steered
in the direction of Alcoholics Anonymous. Over the coming weeks
I started Primary Group, which I finished some 4 weeks ago after
almost 11 months in treatment.
A. A. has kept me sober, but the treatment centre has been a true
voyage of discovery for me. With unconditional, sometimes confrontational,
sometimes tough, love I have experienced for the first time in my
life. I have had to look at myself and the damage I have caused
both to me and others. That has been hard but necessary if I am
to truly change and go forward in my life.
Today, thanks to what the treatment centre has done for me, I have
been sober for almost 12 months. Slowly but surely my feeling of
confidence and self worth is returning, my life in this time has
changed beyond anything I could have dared to imagine. One day at
a time I am sober, imagining my life without alcohol, which, for
me, is a miracle. I have been fortunate to be able to throw myself
fully into my recovery and accepted everything that was on offer,
including the DOMINO Project, which has been a massive part of my
recovery, and something I still do today.
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