Alcoholism survivors explain why awareness is paramount
It took Jane* breaking into her own home, where her two children had been left on Christmas Day while she got high, to turn away from her long addiction to alcohol and drugs.
She had walked home in the rain after a fight with her partner and was on the brink of losing custody of the children.
The Christchurch woman, who did not want her real name used, never thought a life without her addictions was possible.
However, she has been now sober for more than two years, has full-time care of her children, and attends a parenting course and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting three times a week.
Jane credits AA with giving her the support and hope she needed.
The organisation is holding its first public meeting in Christchurch in six years on Saturday.
Looking back, the 35-year-old said she would have had a lot of answers had she gone to an AA meeting earlier.
‘‘If you had any questions, it was a great way to find out, even if you knew anyone with an alcohol addiction,’’ she said.
It took Jane a year to attend a meeting after a friend introduced her. ‘‘I did it, and I stayed . . . and now I just keep going.’’
The meeting, organised by two AA groups, is at Heaton Normal Intermediate School from 7pm until 9pm. The groups’ spokesman, who could not be named as part of AA’s anonymity protocol, said the aim was to help those affected by alcoholism to understand what they were experiencing and that help was available.
According to Ministry of Health data, one in every five adults in New Zealand drinks alcohol ‘‘in a way that could harm themselves or others’’.
The spokesman said one alcoholic could have an effect on dozens of others.
The meeting will feature five speakers, including Professor Doug Sellman from the National Addiction Centre at the University of Otago, a first-line handler of detox patients at City Mission, and a councillor for family violence sufferers.
The spokesman said AA members felt the public lacked understanding of alcoholism, and stigmas still existed.
‘‘We can’t stop – a lot of people don’t realise . . . It’s an illness you really do suffer from. The addiction kicks in, and you can’t stop drinking.’’
Another member won national cycling titles as well as representing New Zealand overseas while grappling with her drinking, and she said it had taken her a long time to realise she needed help.
‘‘Every morning I would vow I wouldn’t drink that day, and every day I ended up still drinking,’’ she said.
The 51-year-old said she reached the point where she no longer wanted to drink but felt she couldn’t deal with how she was feeling in any other way.
Morgan*, who has been sober for five years, said alcoholism was a ‘‘progressive disease’’. Alcohol had been a way to suppress his feelings of fear, anxiety and depression, as the binges got longer.
‘‘There wasn’t a part of my life that wasn’t touched by alcoholism,’’ he said.
‘‘Surrendering’’ to alcoholism gave him the opportunity to change his mindset.
‘‘You have to have enough, but from there a new life can be built.’’