Recovery Stories

Kate Jopling

Description

Recovery Stories is a collection of first-hand accounts by people in recovery from or affected by drugs or alcohol. Invaluable for those looking to find new, addiction-free ways to live. It contains insights into the lives of real people who hit 'rock bottom' but came back again. Of interest across a wide-range of disciplines, including health, education and social services.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: Waterside Press
• Date de parution: 29 octobre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908162847
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Recovery Stories
Journeys through Adversity, Hope and Awakening
As told to Kate Jopling
Foreword by Mitch Winehouse
Copyright and Publication Details
Recovery Stories
Journeys through Adversity, Hope and Awakening
As told to Kate Jopling
ISBN 978-1-909976-16-0 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-908162-84-7 (EPUB)
ISBN 978-1-908162-85-4 (Adobe Ebook)
Copyright © 2014 This work is the copyright of Kate Jopling and Addaction. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved in full compliance with UK, European and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including in hard or electronic copy or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide. The Foreword is the copyright of Mitch Winehouse © 2014.
Cover design © 2014 Waterside Press. Artwork by Tom Humberstone: ventedspleen.com
Cataloguing-In-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.
e-book Recovery Stories is available as an e-book and also to subscribers of Myilibrary, Dawsonera, Ebrary and Ebscohost.
Printed by CPI Group, Chippenham, UK.
Main UK distributor Gardners Books, 1 Whittle Drive, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN23 6QH . Tel: [phone]; [e-mail] ; www.gardners.com
North American distribution Ingram Book Company, One Ingram Blvd, La Vergne, TN 37086, USA. Tel: [phone]; [e-mail]
Published 2014 by
Waterside Press Ltd.
Sherfield Gables
Sherfield on Loddon
Hook, Hampshire
United Kingdom RG27 0JG
Telephone [phone]
E-mail [e-mail]
Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.uk
Recovery Stories
Journeys through Adversity, Hope and Awakening
As told to Kate Jopling
Foreword by Mitch Winehouse
In association with Addaction
Addaction was set up in 1967 by Mollie Craven, a mother who had lost her son to a heroin overdose and couldn’t wait for others to help those in the throes of drug-addiction. Nearly 50 years on, it is one of the largest drug and alcohol treatment charities in the UK, helping almost 50,000 people every year.
Addaction is focused on recovery and believes that each person is entitled to caring, committed and individually tailored support to achieve a meaningful life through treatment and beyond.
addaction.org.uk
Contents
Copyright and Publication Details ii
Acknowledgements vi
Dedication vii
About the Author viii
The Author of the Foreword viii
Foreword by Mitch Winehouse ix
1 Dee’s Story 17
2 Spencer’s Story 42
3 Paul’s Story 61
4 Kenny’s Story 74
5 Susan’s Story 86
6 David’s Story 107
7 Michaela’s Story 123
8 Anthony’s Story 138
9 Yaina’s Story 163
10 Adam’s Story 179
11 Cameron’s Story 193
Reflections by Kate Jopling 218

Some of the names in this book have been changed.
Acknowledgements
My thanks must go first and foremost to the people who are featured in this book. Without their willingness to share their pain, their struggles, their fears and their hopes, Recovery Stories would not exist.
Thank you for your patience, your candour and your bravery in facing down the stigma which attaches to those who have struggled with drugs and alcohol. I only hope that my attempt to convey these stories does justice to the inspiring individuals that I have had the pleasure of meeting during this project.
I am also hugely grateful to Addaction for the vision they have shown in commissioning this book: to the trustees and senior leadership of the charity for creating the space for the stories of people in recovery to speak for themselves; and to David Badcock, Alistair Bohm and Scott Haines for helping bring that vision into being.
Thanks to Mitch Winehouse for his excellent Foreword. Thanks also to Bryan Gibson, from Waterside Press, who has guided us all through the process of bringing the book together with great patience.
Finally, thanks to Charlie for his support, both practically and emotionally, throughout this project.
Kate Jopling
September 2014
Dedication
For all those affected by problems with drugs and alcohol.
About the Author
Kate Jopling has spent 15 years working in public policy, campaigning and communications rôles, initially as a House of Commons researcher, later in senior positions with Catch 22, Help the Aged and the Campaign to End Loneliness, where she was director. She has also worked in the Social Exclusion Unit. She has won various awards, including being voted Public Affairs Achiever of the Year by MPs and Peers at the 2008 Women in Public Life Awards. She is now a consultant who spends time working for change through campaigning, researching and writing on a wide range of social issues.
The Author of the Foreword
Mitch Winehouse and members of his family founded The Amy Winehouse Foundation which works to prevent the effects of drug and alcohol misuse on young people. It also aims to support, inform and inspire vulnerable and disadvantaged young people to help them reach their full potential.
Foreword
Mitch Winehouse
Recovery is a concept that means different things to different people. It is hard to define at what point someone who has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction enters recovery and opinions differ as to whether recovery is a life’s work, or a stage of life. What the stories gathered in this collection powerfully show is that, whatever it is, recovery is out there and it is a real possibility.
The experiences I have had with my daughter, Amy, and through the Foundation that we set up in her name, have taught me a lot about the reality of the lives of individuals who struggle with addiction. They have also showed me the truth that people can recover, and that people in recovery can play an incredibly positive part in everybody’s futures.
Unfortunately, at the moment, addicts are stigmatised in our society. If someone has a heart attack, people take it for granted that they should be treated, because they didn’t choose to have a heart problem. But people think that drug and alcohol problems are the result of bad choices. It’s easy to think, “No-one forced them to take drugs. No-one forced them to drink themselves into a stupor.” I thought the same, until Amy became ill. Until then I hadn’t bothered to think about it, or to consider the fact that there are underlying factors to every addiction. However through Amy’s experiences, and the work we have done since, I now realise just how many addicts have been in abusive relationships, or have been bullied, or have self-image problems. I now understand that, for many people, unhealthy and coercive relationships lead to addiction. I can see that people turn to drink or drugs to lessen the pain of their past experiences. In fact, I don’t know anybody who is now in recovery who thought, “You know what? I fancy becoming an addict.”
When you hear the stories of people in recovery, like those collected in this book, and you understand what some people have gone through, you find yourself asking, “Is it any wonder that they turned to drugs?” So many people live throu gh things that they understandably want to blot out but, rather than sympathising, our society stigmatises them and tells them their problems are of their own making.
Of course not every addict faced a challenging childhood, and those stories are also reflected here. Addiction can affect anybody. It is like cancer, in that it is indiscriminate. If addiction can hit my family, then it can hit anybody’s. I never believed it could happen to us, because we are the most loving, caring family in the world, and yet it did.
I know that as husbands, wives, parents and family members it is easy to wonder if we could have done something differently. I would say, “Don’t blame yourselves.” Nobody could love their kids more than me and my family, nobody could have done any more for Amy, but sometimes these things lie beyond our control.
When she was younger Amy was a strong opponent of class-A drugs. She used to get on stage at gigs and get the audience chanting, “Class-A drugs, are for mugs!” Unfortunately for her, she fell head-over-heels in love with a man who introduced her to drugs, and in the end it was her addiction to him that led her down a dangerous path.
No-one ever imagines that drug-addiction could affect them, or their families. It is easier not to think about it. But when addiction does touch your life you have to go on a crash course. You have to learn what you can do and, more importantly, what you can’t. For a long time I was so frustrated, bashing my head against a brick wall, but eventually you have to accept that you can’t make things happen.
When we first realised Amy was using drugs we staged a kind intervention in a hotel in Miami and packed her off to rehab, but it didn’t last long as she had no desire to get well at that time. Once she came home we tried to help her, but it was so hard to know what to do for the best and it was almost impossible to get any clear advice.
At the end of the day, nothing could change without Amy wanting it to. Amy was incredibly close to her grandmother, who passed away shortly before Amy started with drugs, but even if my Mum had come down on a fiery chariot and told Amy to stop it wouldn’t have made the blindest bit of difference. Amy stopped taking drugs when she was ready. Whatever her motivation, or her bottom line, was she eventually found it and stopped.
Unfortunately, Amy never accessed any treatment because she thought she could cure herself. That view was only reinforced by the fact that she had some success. She had been clear of drugs for three years before she died, having first come off heroin and crack and finally weaning herself off Subutex (the substitute drug). The doctors told her that it was unheard of, but in some ways that was an unhelp