Meet Emma

Meet Emma. A 31 year-old (yes, really) professional working full-time in the renewables sector and living in Stroud. She is a recovering alcoholic.

Emma is warm, kind, and brave. She has agreed to share her recovery story in the hope it will help others realise they are not alone and that help is out there. 

“When I was 14 years-old we moved from Australia to the UK. What do you do as a teenager in a tiny village with very little going on? Get hold of some alcohol and meet up in a field to drink. It’s like a cultural thing here, binge drinking and socialising.” explains Emma.

Once legally permitted to drink at 18 years-old, the social binge drinking simply moved to the pubs.

“All through my twenties it was live for the weekend! Without fail, every single weekend it would be a big night Fridays, Saturdays and sometimes Sundays.”

Emma didn’t get to a point where she felt an absolute need for a drink, but she felt trapped in a cycle that she couldn’t break and that alcohol was taking over. She explains “I realised my friends could go for a mid-week drink and have one or two pints…I didn’t have a stop button and would end up having 12 pints”.

Alcohol was negatively impacting her relationships, her health and even her personality.

“It’s been difficult to regulate my emotions, I would go through extreme highs and lows exacerbated by drugs and alcohol. I’ve behaved in ways I am not proud of, losing my temper, manipulating and betraying people I love.”

It got to a point where her weekends were dominated by drugs and alcohol. Consuming 60-70 units per day and taking cocaine, Emma visited her GP to get help. She explains “Addiction doesn’t come from nowhere. I needed help. I was recommended Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, but I could only access that through my GP if I was sober. But I felt I couldn’t get sober without therapy, it was like a catch 22.”

Emma’s GP referred her to Change Grow Live.

“I’ve been through the Change Grow Live programme twice. The first time in 2021. I now realise I was doing it to save the relationship I was in. I wasn’t fully invested in doing it for myself.”

Emma had an initial assessment with her navigator and joined a weekly support group. She was abstinent for three months but had replaced alcohol with over eating. She was feeling unhappy and was signed off from work and prescribed anti-depressants. At her lowest Emma attempted suicide and her relationship ended.

Now working with Change Grow Live for the second time, Emma has been attending the Twilight Group every second Tuesday.

“I am 19 weeks sober today. I can remember when I first started this process, the thought of never drinking again absolutely terrified me. My original goal was just to drink less. Now I value myself, I never want to drink again.”

Emma is learning to be kind to herself and changing that inner voice that can so often by our harshest critic. She’s making changes to her life that make her happy, using her new found time & energy. That precious time will be given over to her therapy, working on doing up her campervan, as well as volunteering to be a peer mentor with Change Grow Live.

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