Client stories: National Drug Week June 2009
D.S is a 29 year old man who has a long history of mental health and alcohol issues. I met DS whilst he was in rehab, he left inpatient detox a week ago.
He tells his own story,
‘At the age of twenty five I lived in my own flat and I was depressed, I had depression from a young age. It was around this time that I took a lot of LSD and my mental health got worse. I also drank a lot. I think I drank as it was a way I could control my emotions. Because of my drinking and mental health problems I probably had ten or more admissions in to hospital, but every time I got out, I thought I could do controlled drinking, I convinced myself that I could carry on.
It was like being on a round about and I couldn’t get off
When I started to work with the alcohol services I cut my drinking down from 4 litres of cider, half a bottle of whisky and a few cans, to drinking 8 cans of Stella per day. Two years ago I was discharged from mental health services, and I just concentrated on my alcohol use.
I met a guy in one of the groups at the alcohol service and he told me he had been to rehab and was doing well, and I thought I want to be like him. It took me some time to get my head round it, and I am still working on it, as I have only been in rehab a week. I have a lot to do and my anxiety is not sorted yet but I know I have got time to sort it out.
I feel I am off the round about now and on the path to recovery, and now I have got a future. When I have finished in rehab I want to go to college, this would not have been an option open to me, a few months back’.