The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
CASE STUDY: Chris
“I JUST vanished. I went underground. For two years nobody knew where I was. Not my family. Not my friends. Not the government. Not charities. Nobody.”
Chris, 42, pictured right, grew up in Dumbarton — the youngest brother from a family of known troublemakers. He was expelled at 14 and after moving to Wales he met an American girl who fell pregnant with his child. “I went to America with her but I couldn’t stop going out and drinking so when our daughter was six months old I came back to straighten myself out,” he said.
Chris — he is happy to be photographed but doesn’t want his surname printed — carried on drinking. He moved to London where his brother Paul lived and, sadly, died.
Chris was 25 when his brother’s alcoholism killed him at the age of 31. This loss drove Chris into a downward spiral that lasted two years.
He explained: “I didn’t sign on. I didn’t want anyone knowing where I was. I was happy sleeping in doorways. I just wanted to be on the piss all the time. I went on like that until I fell apart.”
His stomach ulcers burst and he was rushed into hospital. Coming close to death himself, he spent a week in hospital, but resumed drinking the day he got out.
Chris lost 15 years to alcoholism. He entered rehab five years ago and was dry for three months. During that time he found out his daughter was still in America and set up an email address to contact her. When he returned to London he lasted five days before he started drinking again.
“Two days after that I had lost my phone, my new clothes, my money,” he said. “I forgot my email address. I was back sleeping in doorways and drinking full time again.”
Two more years went by. There were more trips to hospital. More times when his life hung by a thread. He was beaten and robbed. He developed jaundice, cirrhosis of the liver, a litany of other health complaints.
“I was in such a bad way that other down and outs were calling ambulances for me,” he said.
Finally, he got a place in rehab and today he hasn’t had a drink in two years and eight months. “When I went into rehab before it was always just to clean myself up a bit,” he said. “I didn’t know it was possible to stop drinking for good. I didn’t know anyone did that. I couldn’t have done it without the support of organisations like Turning Point and Scotscare.”
These charities have supported Chris both emotionally and financially as he tries to rebuild his life. fe.
Now Chriss volunteers as a “bletherer buddy,” chatting to vulnerable elderly people.ople. He is also learningng sign language and wants to work with the deaf. f.
And he has made contact ntact with his daughter ughter Treelah, noww 20. “I told her I’mm sober now and keeping busy,” he said. “And she told me she hasas a little boy, who just turned one. ne.
“So now I’m’m a granddad!”