- 47 year old Joanna is a freelance stockmarket trader and mother of two. In 2020, she successfully completed Help Me Stop’s Digital Dayhab programme for help with alcohol addiction.
- Speaking to the Mail Online, Joanna describes life as a ‘functioning alcoholic’. She was holding down a demanding job, juggling motherhood and high pressure work demands, drinking wine every day and champagne at weekends.
- Help Me Stop’s Digital Dayhab programme is an affordable, flexible and effective 6-week programme for people with alcohol addiction, including for busy working people and parents like Joanna.
Joanna’s Alcohol Addiction: Work, Motherhood and Daily Drinking
‘Every morning, without fail, I’d get up at 7am for work. I’d blow-dry my hair, put my make-up on and get the kids ready for school,’ Joanna says. Then, after rushing to drop the kids off, get to work and then collect the kids from school, every evening Joanna stopped off at the supermarket for wine. This was Joanna’s pattern for years, which resulted in alcohol addiction.
‘The kids didn’t think anything of it,’ Joanna told the Mail Online. ‘It was just accepted that Mummy drank lots of wine.’ She described leaving the children in the car while she rushed into the supermarket to buy wine. She would open the first bottle at 4.30pm and finish it by 6pm.
Joanna also spoke about drinking during the working day too. ‘It wasn’t uncommon to polish off five bottles of wine during a midweek lunch with a couple of colleagues. It was the lifestyle we were used to.’ Then, at the weekends, Joanna would visit friends and drink champagne, not eating very much food.
This habit of drinking alcohol every day, whilst juggling multiple responsibilities, continued until Joanna blacked out one evening. She had no memory of conversations she’d had with her children whilst drinking. Her cravings for alcohol increased to the point she could no longer control when she had the first glass. She would often pour some wine after dropping her children at school. Joanna knew things were spiralling. ‘I joined Alcoholics Anonymous and a friend I met there told me about Help Me Stop,’ she said.
Joanna’s Alcohol Addiction Treatment with Help Me Stop
In 2020, Joanna joined Help Me Stop’s Digital Dayhab, an innovative online addiction treatment programme that delivers the same intensive therapy course over 6 weeks as the face to face programme. It’s a very flexible format that fits around even the busiest lives including working people and parents. ‘During therapy sessions, they help us learn how to deal with stress and boredom, and not to rely on that glass of wine,’ Joanna said.
‘I accepted that I had an issue – an illness that needed treatment. And slowly, with the support of the therapists at then clinic, the urge to drink disappeared. I can finally concentrate on things. I do Pilates and meditation regularly. I feel like I finally have a clear head.’
At the time of writing, Joanna has been sober for over a year.
Do You Need Help with Alcohol Addiction?
Asking for help with alcohol addiction can feel overwhelming but it really doesn’t have to be. The simplest way to start is with a phone conversation with us. Please call us on 0208 191 9191, chat now with us via webchat or fill in our contact form. You’ll be put through to an experienced member of our admissions team for a confidential chat.
The admissions process at Help Me Stop is simple and friendly. We’ll address your concerns, answer any questions and, if you decide our Digital Dayhab or onsite Dayhab in London is the right solution for you, we will guide you through every step.
The choice is always yours about whether to proceed. If you’re happy to go ahead, we’ll then take you through a pre-admissions assessment. This gives us a clinical evaluation of your problem with alcohol, to decide if our alcohol addiction treatment programme is the right solution for you. Our assessment is free, unbiased and confidential. If you decide the Help Me Stop Digital Dayhab or onsite Dayhab programme are not right for you, then we will refer you elsewhere.
More about Alcohol Addiction Treatment with Help Me Stop
- Help Me Stop is the UK’s leading alternative to residential addiction treatment. We are an alcohol and drug Dayhab, delivering many of the same services that you could expect to receive in a residential treatment setting, at a fraction of the cost. This includes group and individual therapy, addiction recovery workshops and written assignments, as well as a thorough introduction to the 12-step model of recovery.
- We are an abstinence-based Dayhab centre and we follow the principle that addiction is an illness, not a moral failing. This illness may be kept in remission if abstinence is adhered to. Our ethos is ‘Rehab in the Real World’, which means that our programme equips people with the tools to maintain alcohol recovery in everyday situations. From day one of our alcohol addiction treatment programme, you’ll be learning the strategies to manage alcohol cravings and deal with the challenges of everyday life in sobriety.
- To find out more about the Help Me Stop Dayhab and Digital Dayhab programmes, please contact us here or call the admissions team on 0208 191 9191. Alternatively you can chat live online with the Help Me Stop admissions team.
To read more about Joanna’s alcohol addiction and her treatment with Help Me Stop, visit the Mail Online.
