Patrick’s Story
Patrick is a recovering alcohol addict who surrendered to alcohol and drugs on the 29th of July 2019. Something broke inside him at 8am that day after realising the impact that his drinking and drug abuse was having on the family.
Patrick had been awake for five days straight on a cocaine and alcohol fuelled binge that resulted in him realising his life was unmanageable.
He met with a psychiatrist consultant and was referred to the Priory Woodbourne hospital in Birmingham where he spent the next six weeks.
Patrick had started using cocaine, taking ecstasy and binge drinking at the age of 16 whilst in a college football academy. He was the original party boy and would be out like most young people every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but he never wanted the party to stop.
The next 16 years of his life were a rollercoaster that involved him falling through a roof on a building site, coaching football in the United States and moving into the sales industry at 21 years of age where he was earning a lot of money for his age and the problems started to spiral.
He worked for some of the biggest companies in the UK progressing up the ladder and selling various products and services into enterprise organisations.
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During this time, Patrick hid the problem from his peers passing himself off as a jack the lad who liked a booze and a bit of sniff, work hard, play hard.
During his sales career, he would go from winning awards for his performance to missing weeks on end signed off work by doctors because of the anxiety his addictions were causing him.
His problems escalated and before July 2019, he became homeless on three occasions, worked for around 15-20 different businesses jumping job to job trying to just earn enough money to feed his habit and at no time did he feel he could talk to someone. Ultimately despite his talents, his poor punctuality, absences and behaviour out on the town meant he would lose his job.
“Still to this day, my biggest regret is that I didn’t speak up sooner about what alcohol and drugs were doing to me, but I don’t think I was ready. I had relapse after relapse after first trying to get clean in 2018 but I truly believe that everything happens for a reason.”
“Businesses don’t understand addiction and the cost of alcohol abuse is unbelievable. We can help companies understand that they will lose some of their best staff to these issues if they don’t let them know they are approachable. It’s simple!
I want to share my experiences in the workplace and in return we hope that organisations put measures in place to support staff.
We aren’t anti-drink or the fun police but dependence can strike at any time, and it’s not just looking for the hidden alcoholics, it’s helping those that may just be going through a hard time, drinking more because of problems in their personal lives, a broken relationship, grief, a family illness or just poor mental health”.