Huge love and respect to Tom, who is one year sober today. To celebrate, here is Tom’s video about life beyond addiction. Please call +44(0)208 191 9191 or contact us here to discuss addiction treatment for you or a loved one. We have Dayhabs in London, Winchester and our Online Rehab.
Life Beyond Addiction: In Tom’s Words
‘Three words to describe myself today: aware, sober and grateful. Right now, it’s very much finding out about who I am and who I’ve been these 33 years because that’s something I’ve never really been able to focus on.
‘At the age of 14 or so, when I first went to the pub with friends and got that little bit of tipsiness from a couple of pints, that was the first time I felt like I was truly connected, not just with the people I was with, but with everyone else in the pub. And something went off in my mind. The neurons aligned and said this is how you do it. This is how you find a connection – it was almost electrifying in the moment.
‘To sum up the impact of my addiction, I would say it slowly took away everything from my life until I was left with one thing – and that was the alcohol and the cannabis.
‘So, while I was at Help Me Stop, the thing that most impacted me was the group sessions. When people sit down together, even if they don’t know each other or they’ve known each other for a very short period of time, that ability to be completely honest and vulnerable made me feel connection with them in a way that I hadn’t before.
‘When it’s yourself alone, with far too much alcohol, you never really get to form any actual concrete relationships, because that will always get in the way. It got in the way of my school work. It got in the way of my romantic relationship. It got in the way of my friendships. And today, without it, those things are things that I can slowly start to get back. And that’s a really positive and really quite beautiful thing to be able to be in that position today. And to be able to receive the forgiveness from the people I had harmed or damaged from my drinking.’
Want a Life Beyond Addiction?
- Get in touch to get connected to your real self.
- Help Me Stop provides intensive addiction treatment in our London Dayhabs, our Winchester Rehab, and our Online Rehab.
- Call +44(0)208 191 9191 (London/ Online), 01962 217 090 (Winchester), message us on live chat or contact us here.
- We offer a free and confidential addiction assessment.
- Our programmes are affordable, offering high quality rehab for addiction in a real world setting.
- We can help you stop alcohol and/or drugs safely, understand the nature of your addiction, develop self-awareness and build strategies for addiction recovery.
- You’ll recover along side peers who want the same thing as you, guided by an expert team of psychotherapists who have been there themselves.
