I’m looking for help
I’m trying to help a loved one
After navigating her own recovery journey within the Hope Springs Therapeutic Community, Lindsay has returned as a residential support worker to show others what can be achieved.
“I was always a party girl. For me alcohol was my go to strategy. It made me feel brave, popular and confident – until things degenerated to the point that I was reliant on it.
“It started costing me. It cost me relationships, jobs and it very nearly cost me my home.
“I had been in and out of mental health institutions, I had seen psychologists, I had several attempts at detox.
“One day community mental health came out and visited me. One of the team had been to rehab herself and she got me a referral to Hope Springs.
“Getting up to Hope Springs – I’m not sure exactly how it all happened. It was the day I surrendered, the day I gave up. My dad had tried to call me, and then he called the police to come and do a welfare check. The only thing I remember is someone saying to me: ‘He’s trying to help you’.
“They took me to my dad’s apartment to dry out for a few days so I could go up to Hope Springs.”
A working holiday
“My brother gave me some advice. He said I should think of it as a working holiday, but that I would be working on myself. So I did that. I did every program, every activity, every job.
“In the beginning it was hard, but it was good. I got to learn a lot about myself and the things that made me want to drink.
“Around three months people started saying to me: ‘You’ve changed’. People noticed the change in me even before I had noticed. That’s where the therapeutic community is a real benefit.
“I immersed myself in the process, I wanted to see it through. I was a senior resident after a little while, and then I was in charge of the kitchen, which I loved.
“The serenity you get after a little while clean is amazing.”
Committed to recovery, finding purpose
“I left Hope Springs with a really solid plan, a great plan for continued recovery.
“When I left, things just fell into place. I found a rental so I did not have to go back home, back to where I thought things could go bad.
“Then it was actually two years to the day that I got sober that I put an offer in on a house here, so I have my own place in Geraldton.
“I go to five or six AA fellowship meetings a week, I have a sponsor who I am always in touch with. I know I’ll never be ‘cured’. There is no cure.
“I got a job working in mental health recovery. It’s incredibly rewarding. I’ve been with [my employer] for two years but I want to move more into AOD recovery.
“That’s why I’ve come back to Hope Springs as a [casual] residential support worker. I feel it is my privilege and my obligation to show that recovery is possible. I feel blessed that I have found a purpose in life. I want to show others that it is possible.”
Hope Springs Therapeutic Community is a long-term residential rehabilitation facility for those committed to their alcohol and other drug recovery.
