MARYS ALCOHOL ADDICTION STORY

Mary finished her treatment at New Leaf Recovery around five years ago. Mary had experienced some trauma in her life. After her and her husband separated, her drinking increased massively. Despite her ex-husband contacting other family members out of concern their response was ‘oh well we just won’t invite her to family parties anymore’, so her drinking just continued to get worse due to the lack of support. On her own with two children and minimal help from their father, things spiralled, her daughter became underweight and severely depressed with the strain and her son acted out violently to the both of them. After years of this, she ultimately tried to take her own life and ended up in hospital, it was after this that she came to New Leaf.

Marys admission was quick, and she was assessed by the doctor immediately, who created a detox regime that suited her best. After being shown around the building and settling in, her recovery journey began.

Despite growing up in a Roman Catholic household, she had lost her way with God, after her mother left her family for a priest and therefore was uneasy about handing over to a higher power again. After a discussion with her key worker, she was reassured and decided for the time being her higher power would be her children. In completing her assignments and taking part in all of the holistic therapies we offer, by the time she left New Leaf she found herself feeling more spiritual and closer to God again.

As part of New Leaf’s programme Mary completed her life story and received constant letters from family in order to reveal the reality of her addiction and the affect it had had on others. Reading her consequence letter from her daughter was something she found particularly difficult. It took her several days and plenty of talking with her key worker and peers to process these letters and accept that what had been said was true. Meditation also helped both her and her daughter talk this through in a safe calm environment. After this, she deemed this step in her recovery essential in rebuilding the relationship with her daughter which was deeply important to her.

Additionally, as Mary did not have much of a support network outside of New Leaf, she also found it particularly helpful to have peers around her that understood what she was going through. Being introduced to AA meetings gave her the opportunity to create a strong support network around her, helping her stay sober to this day.

Throughout her time here, Mary has grown emotionally and spiritually, it has been a pleasure to see her go from being very isolated and depressed, to making jokes and walking around smiling. Leading up to her leaving, she sat down with her key worker and decided upon an exit strategy and spoke about coping mechanisms. She decided to take part in the after-care programme which helped her make the transition back into the real world.