"My experiences of the service"

Before my admission to new beginnings, I really felt that my life and health had fundamentally reached an end.

Whilst not suicidal, I really couldn’t see a way out of what felt like a trap. This trap involved drinking a litre of spirits a day, barely getting out of bed, not eating, not sleeping and generally just going through the motions of being physically alive , but no more than that!

Whilst I very much wanted to stop drinking , any attempts to do so left me feeling wretched with significant withdrawal effects, for instance vomiting, cold sweats, confusion and total lack of energy.

My admission to New Beginnings was literally that, a new beginning! The care I received from the unit was phenomenal. I felt that the staff , and the other clients , really did care about me and my progress towards stopping drinking. I always felt able to approach staff with any concerns but also to discuss any difficulties I was having with withdrawal effects. They were always very warm and understanding coming up with effective interventions to reduce my distress and move me towards success in my withdrawal from the alcohol.

Following discharge from the unit, I’ve been completely free from Alcohol and this has produced imaginable benefits to my health and life generally. Whilst on the unit I affectively produced a bucket list of what my life needed to be on discharge.

As a result of the fantastic care I received from the unit I am now able to re engage with life and activities. This includes socialising (without alcohol!), going out with friends and engaging with the range of cool volunteer activities. For instance volunteering at local model steam railway (Learning to drive a steam train), crewing on canal barges and volunteering as a teaching assistant in a forest school.

Just to say thank you so very much to the staff, and clients, at the New Beginnings unit.