Emma's Story

So my drinking didn't start until later on in my life.
I started binge drinking in my mid-thirties
to the point where my kids got removed by family.
And then I was just all in drinking.
Then I would get taken in to detoxes and I would get
detoxed and I'd come back out
and I'd get put on Antabuse and I would be alright
for a wee while and then I would stop taking it
again and start drinking again.
And it just got progressively worse.
So it started
and then I would be getting hospitalised for,
you know, they where finding me in my house
with hypothermia, with a body temperature of
30 degrees, 31 degrees and all that.
So I'd be hospitalised, go in there,
getting detoxed in hospital.
Staying and getting well for a week maybe two.
So getting then sent back out.
I don't even know if I even stayed sober
when I got back out,
I think I drank straight away but I can't remember.
So, back in again,
this time I couldn't walk and I couldn't
feel my lower half of my body, especially my feet.
They were purple and my nurse couldn't
find a pulse.
By this point I was really, really ill, really ill.
I don't even really remember
much of getting taken into hospital.
I just know I was in there
and I had to learn to walk again and stuff.
In the background
my sister was saying,
you are just putting her in and out of hospital,
she's going to die.
She's going to,
you know,
you're going to send her home again
and she's not going to come back this time.
So, I don't really know
what was going on behind the scenes,
whether my family and my addictions team
in my local area were sorting out rehab for me.
I got offered to come to Abbeycare in March,
March of this year, March 2023.
I just came in and I just was like,
just tell me what I need to do.
I didn't know what I was going to have to do,
but just tell me and I'll do it.
Just whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it.
I needed to do something
because I know I wouldn't be alive
if I didn't get in, I know I wouldn't be.
They've told me that anyway. How poorly I was.
If they'd sent me out of hospital
instead of coming here, I wouldn't be here today.
I really wouldn't.
Because I would have, I would have drank.
I spent 84 days in treatment.
I done a lot of work throughout that
84 days, a lot.
I loved doing it actually.
I loved it.
It was hard work, but I loved it.
And then towards the end of my stay, obviously
we created an aftercare plan
which is quite in-depth,
you know, about what you're going to do
when you leave
and that you have got things set up
if things go wrong or if you're struggling,
so you've got plenty people that you can contact
within the recovery community
that you're going out to.
You're still working,
you're still with Abbeycare
for as long as you need them, which is great.
You know, the different things
that we go to, the different
aftercare groups and things like that.
I still phone in
when I've got something going on in my life,
If I've got something
you know, a meeting or a court date,
something to do with anything in my personal life
I'll let the aftercare team know that
that's what's happening.
Just so that they are aware
because I feel comfortable doing that,
you know, it's like
although you are in here
and you fell like a family in here,
when you are in here
and it's great and then you're going home and
then on your own,
well you're not on your own
but you're starting again sort of thing.
But you still have that,
I still have that connection that I have always got
and I love it, it's a great thing.
I'm now seven months sober, clean and sober now.
And I've felt the best I've felt in years.
Even when I was on all that medication
before I put on a lot of weight,
I was bloated and I just feel dead fresh and
calm and I just deal with things so differently.
I'm just looking forward to what's to come.
I love helping other people,
I love helping the newcomers.
I love speaking about being in treatment
because ultimately treatment saved my life.
I'll always say that
I wouldn't be here,
my kids wouldn't have a mum today
if it wasn't for Abbeycare.
They wouldn't.
Ultimately if I had went home, like I said,
I wouldn't be here.
The staff at Abbeycare were an absolute
amazing support.
The way the staff have got experience,
they have got understanding,
they know what you're going through.
There's so many varieties of the staff
through different things,
there's always somebody that can relate to you.
I owe everything to the Abbeycare staff,
I really do. I owe them my life really.
I just
I loved each and every single staff in here.
There's not anything negative
I could say about the staff in here.
They are great people they've got great
understanding, they've go great knowledge.
They are very open with their own journey,
they will tell you
and you know
that's such a good feeling when you come in
and you're feeling that low
and for somebody to tell you and you
look at where they are and you think,
wow I can get that.