From High-Functioning Success to Addiction

Moving away from a difficult childhood and battling teenage cancer, Shirley built a professional career as a financial fraud investigator, became a loving mother, and later set up an early-years childcare and education business. She enjoyed a rich social life filled with creative hobbies, diverse interests and travel.

But these decades of outwardly successful life were always marred by extreme anxiety and chronic low self-esteem, and Shirley relied on alcohol to cope. The slide from manageable alcohol use to achieve her goals, into full-blown dependence, was swift and devastating. Addiction quickly annihilated her family, her home, her mental and physical health and everything she cherished.

Discovering Recovery—and a New Direction

“I’d relied on alcohol since my teens to cope with crippling anxiety and feeling deeply fearful of people due to violence in my past and the disfigurement from my cancer surgeries. I simply didn’t believe I could ever live completely sober, it just seemed impossible for someone like me”.

With the help of dedicated individuals though, Shirley entered and completed treatment, she emerged elated, grateful, and determined to rebuild her life.

But she soon found early recovery difficult, with old anxieties resurfacing and now navigating life sober and as a single mother. She began to seek longer-term addiction support, but this search was unfruitful. Counsellors lacked addiction expertise and addiction services were unable to support the impact of Trauma on recovery.

Motivated by her experience of struggling through, and by her belief that she couldn’t be alone in this situation, Shirley began a resolute journey into the world of recovery support and ways to bridge these gaps to help others.

Turning Experience into Advocacy

Shirley volunteered in addiction treatment centres, mental health organisations, and worked in a residential trauma treatment centre. The statistics for clients returning to treatment following relapse were stark, and it became evident that difficulty choosing the right facility and a lack of comprehensive post-treatment support were huge factors. She became determined to build expertise in trauma-informed addiction recovery solutions that seamlessly support clients and families, from crisis in addiction, through to thriving in recovery.