My story of Alcohol addiction and recovery journey at Inclusion Recovery Hampshire Drug and Alcohol Services
Many of us find ourselves battling with addiction over the years and think it is impossible to recover! Recovering from alcohol addiction I have now learnt, and I am still learning every day in my ongoing recovery journey that it is not only possible, but it is the rule rather than exception.
I had endured mental health issues for many years for numerous reasons and used alcohol as an escape mechanism which of course exacerbated my dependence even more with alcohol for quite a few further number of years.
Following a general health check and a very frank and honest conversation with my GP about my 25-30 years of binge drinking for so many reasons. It was certainly an exceedingly long overdue wake up call for me, but also a huge relief.
After that challenging discussion I had with my GP, she introduced me to Inclusion Recovery Services in Hampshire and encouraged me to self-refer via their website and received an assessment appointment within two weeks of self-referral.
Where it all Started…
I very hesitantly walked through the door for my first assessment appointment at my local hub in Basingstoke and that was the start of my recovery journey on 31 July 2022 and to this day I have never looked back.
Not only has my mental health improved enormously, my alcohol addiction no longer dominates my life. I have also learnt and accepted that recovery is often a long and bumpy path, and a relapse can also be inevitable, which in my case it happened in the early part of 2023 following the loss of my parents within 9 days of each other, however it was thankfully a very temporary setback.
I have also learnt that recovery is a process that requires patience, commitment and perseverance with the right support and resources and by putting in the challenging work, I now know overcoming my addiction to alcohol only leads to a much healthier, happier and a more enriched life.
Following a number of 1-1 appointments with appointed key worker and was then introduced to the Inclusion recovery support tools, such as structured and non-structured in-house groups and other online groups facilitated by Inclusion staff and other recovery tools that were available to support me during the process of my recovery journey.
What worked for me…
These included, Breaking Free Recovery Only online Programme, Intuitive Thinking Skills e-learning, Online Women’s ACT Group, Online Mixed Peers Groups and In-house, Mixed Peers Groups, Online Meditation Group, Mindfulness in-house groups, online SMART Recovery Groups and In-house meditation with acupuncture.
I also explored AA but after a very short time decided that this option did not work for me personally, however all the other tools above-mentioned have played a crucial part in my recovery journey and I still use in my daily life.
I successfully graduated from being a service user at Inclusion Recovery Services, Basingstoke hub and became a Service User Involvement Representative until October 2023 and progressed to becoming a Service User Involvement Volunteer for Inclusion Hampshire. In May this year I have teamed up with another great volunteer, supporting the Service User Involvement Lead for Inclusion Hampshire Volunteering and SUI Rep Programme and her team and continue with this role as a Recovery Volunteer to date, involved with many different Inclusion projects, training, planning and organising events, as well as the SUI Programme.
I have recently been involved in two paid research studies on Alcohol Modelling with Kings College London/Sheffield University which I completed this May and awaiting the final report to be published in the public domain and very recently a further research project study facilitated by Kings College London about Mental Imagery used in addiction recovery services which is due to start September this year complete in late 2026. Research is my passion and was very dominant in my past legal profession.
I have truly found myself again having endured so many difficult and very challenging long years alone, I now like what I see, do and feel within and its feels incredible.