My lived experience, addiction and recovery journey

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 the 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 years until I walked through the door for my first assessment appointment at Inclusion Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services and that was finally the start of my recovery journey on 31 July 2022.

My alcohol addiction recovery journey finally, began with a frank and honest conversation with my GP about my 25-30 years of binge drinking for so many reasons and it was certainly an exceedingly long overdue wake up call for me.

Following that discussion with my GP she introduced me to Inclusion Recovery Services in Hampshire and encouraged me to self -refer via online and to this day I have never looked back.

Not only am I recovering but my condition is improving to such that my addiction no longer dominates my life. I have also learnt and accepted that recovery is often a long and bumpy path, and relapse can 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.

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 my key worker and was then introduced to the Inclusion recovery support tools, such as structured and non-structured in-house groups and other online recovery tools that were available to support me during the process of my recovery journey.

These included, Breaking Free Recovery Online Programme, Intuitive Thinking Skills e-learning, Digital Women’s ACT Group, Digital Mixed Peers Group, Digital Meditation Group, and SMART Recovery  I also explored AA but after a brief time decided that this option did not work for me personally, however all the other tools have played a crucial part in my recovery journey and still do every day.

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 and then In January 2025 progressing to a Service User Involvement Co-ordinator Volunteer for Inclusion Hampshire.

I have truly found myself again having endured so many difficult years, I now like what I see and feel within,

Melanie.