Recovery from any issue, is almost impossible without the input of others.
"You can't solve a problem with the head that created it."
A few months ago I went and had a coffee with my old GP. On the 28th of June 2005 she had booked me into a psychiatric hospital for yet another detox from alcohol dependance - she had given me six months to live.
Yesterday was my 15 years since my last drink
Three years later we worked together running clinics for residents in the homeless hostel I worked in.
She told me it was the proudest moment of her medical career.
In the following years she would send her patients to me for treatment in the alcohol service I had set up alongside Turning Point and the NHS. She phoned me excitedly because she had just seen me on BBC Breakfast News commenting on alcohol issues, it wouldn’t be the last time I did so.
I’ve worked abroad in the Caribbean designing, and gaining permission for, the first high-end Rehabilitation Centre on the Island. I’ve returned home and now work in Mental Health - poor mental health was the forerunner of my, and many others, addiction.
I now have my own business, one I’m really proud of.
We genuinely come from a place of helping others first and foremost, and then earn money as a by product of that. I am sure we are not alone in this, but it is the core of what we do.
One lone Dr who believed in me, even though she feared the very worst for me, saved and changed my life.
But then the ripples occur, and my life changing has in turn changed hundreds of others, because the experience of being there is invaluable in guiding others to recovery.
I am part of a fellowship, a tribe of people who are at the moment filling zoom on a daily basis , helping the newcomers get well, and keeping each other sane and sober.
If you, or a loved one are experiencing issues with alcohol please DM me, or mail chris.stewart@mindingminds.co.uk , it’s anonymous and freely given. You have to give it away to keep it.
I’ve seen the most unlikely clients get well, and the seemingly untroubled loose their lives to addiction.
Never give up on even the toughest case. They will often surprise you.
I surprised my Doctor, my family, and myself. Thank you to hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have walked that path with me.