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Stories Narrative research project stories The Bottle, the Dog and the Three Musketeers
Stories Narrative research project stories The Bottle, the Dog and the Three Musketeers
The Bottle, the Dog and the Three Musketeers |
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alcohol | anxiety | coping strategies | depression | exercise | healthy eating | hearing voices | housing | money | pets | self knowledge/learning/growth | self management | statutory mental health services (+) | stress | support from friends | support from mental health professionals
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Published: November 2005 This story highlights how the friendship and support of a key worker, the key worker’s husband, and the key worker’s colleague have been invaluable to recovery. When I moved back to Scotland I was a mess, I think in my head I had come back to die. I’ve had depression since the age of 17, and by the stage I moved back I’d started drinking and was trying to cope with the depression, plus stress, anxiety and hearing voices. Eventually the doctor came out to see me and referred me to the Mental Health Team - their answer was basically, if you stop drinking you’ll be all right. I knew that was shit. They sent me onto a support service, I went along to my interview and I was pissed because I needed a drink just to leave the house, so I turned up much the worse for wear and they didn’t turn me away. One of the workers took me into the office, gave me some coffee and just chatted to me. She never judged me, never thought, ‘Oh this is just a drunk let’s send him away’, she accepted me. People were so ready to give up on me, including myself, but my key worker from the service, her husband and her co-worker could see that there was a lot more to me and my situation than a bottle. Their support helped me begin to believe in myself again and start to accept that I was ill, but that I could get better, I just needed some help to do that. When we talk about it now the three of them always say that I made them work to show that they wanted to help me. Learning to trust people again was one of my biggest lessons. A lot of the time, if there is drink involved, services say they’ll give you three months and if you don’t stop drinking in that time they drop you and move onto the next person. They didn’t do that with me, my key worker saw that I had to decide to stop drinking myself, and when I was ready to stop they were ready and waiting to help me with my mental health problems. I’ve been off the drink for three years now and I keep myself busy at the day service four days a week using the gym or getting on with my computer courses. When I came up to Scotland I was twelve thousand pounds in debt and getting my finances sorted made a huge difference to my life. The Benefits Officer arranged it so that I paid off a set amount a week, and that in itself made me feel better about myself because every week I could see the debt was coming down. It made me feel proud that I was paying my way again. When I first moved up again I was sitting day in, day out in a flat with a 14” black and white portable TV on a box, half a carpet and some cane furniture with the arse out of the couch. In the last year I’ve moved into a little bungalow; I’ve furnished it, got a plasma TV and a dog, and my key worker’s always taking the piss out of me because I’m house proud, but my home means a lot to me. When I was drinking, half the time I couldnae eat and the other half I’d be eating rice or pot noodles because they were the only things that I could keep down. Now it’s totally different, I have a main meal every dinnertime at the day service and then I have something at night when I go home; I have a freezer full of food. I’m a lot healthier physically now - every couple of weeks I was getting colds or bugs but I’ve not even had a cold in two years now, which is an achievement with the wind from the cliffs howling in through my windows all winter! If the start of my recovery boiled down to being accepted, the rest has been about feeling the hand of friendship, getting out of the house and having a purpose to my week. If I’m left to my own devices for a while and don’t see people I can start finding it hard to go back out. My key worker makes sure that I don’t get the opportunity to do that. I’m not forced to go out or anything, I’m just gently coerced. When I go home at night I sit and I watch TV, or sit and cuddle the dog, that time means something to me because I’ve not sat in the house all day. If I feel myself getting wound up when I’m out, I’ll go home and I’ll lie down for an hour. I’ll turn on some music, shut the curtains, stick on the headphones and just chill out and slow my brain down. Other times, I can pick up the phone and speak to people that I trust; I phone my key worker or invite her or her husband or co-worker round for coffee or whatever, just friendship like. They make me feel like I’m not just a job to them, I actually feel that they do worry about how I’m getting on. Sometimes I’ll be sitting in the house and her husband will phone and we’ll talk about whatever games we’re playing on the Xbox, stuff like that. I honestly don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t met people who were willing to help in and out of normal nine-to-five hours. I think it’s just a lot of little personal touches that have really made the difference and I do realise how lucky I’ve been, it’s just a shame everyone can’t have that. I can sit at home at night and my dog will look at me as if to say, come on dad let me up on the couch, and I’ll let him up on the couch and I’ll think, I’m here and I’m safe and I’m still alive. I still miss people, I’ve known a lot of people die in my life which has been hard, but I do value my life, and I enjoy my life. I go out places, and on the weekend I’m able to go shopping or out on trips, and I appreciate it because for a lot of years I couldnae do that because I just couldn’t bring myself to go out of the house. I still get low times, but everyone gets them, and on the whole life is pretty bloody great. This story was written based on this individuals interview for the SRNs narrative research project entitled, 'Recovering Mental Health in Scotland'. More information about the project can be found in the Narrative Research Project section of our website www.scottishrecovery.net. If you’d like to share your own experience of recovery please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 0141 240 7790 to discuss. Click here to go back to previous page |
Story Tags
activism community/socialising/inclusion coping strategies creativity depression employment (+) exercise female hospital male medication medication (-) peer support (informal) and befriending seeing things differently self knowledge/learning/growth self management sense of self support from family support from friends support from mental health professionals supportive spouse/partner taking control talking therapies voluntary mental health services volunteering Story disclaimer
The stories presented here are for information only. They are meant to inspire hope and show that recovery can and does happen. The stories highlight various examples of recovery and we do not advocate any of these experiences as the ‘right’ way to recover. Recovery is an individual and unique process, each person must decide for himself or herself what will work for them. Please carefully consider any decisions you make about your own recovery and consult with someone you trust if you feel unsure. See our Submit Your Thoughts pages for details on how to submit a story to us or you can contact us.
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