My first assessment, you know it was absolutely fine you build yourself up for, you know thinking oh you know what are they going to ask me, you know what, am I going to want to answer the questions, you know it’s hard looking at yourself honestly but you know all the questions are about you, they’re about what you’re doing with your substances, there’s nothing hard to answer, you know it’s all about yourself so, you know what it was really laid back, the person that I seen was, you know, really lovely I felt like supported through it, really

So my first assessment at Whitby Street was, to be honest it was quite easy because I was ready, I was ready to stop.

My recovery coordinator is, like, the first point of contact. So you know, you can call start, and you know I can ask to speak to my recovery coordinator, all my appointments will be with that person. So you get to build a relationship with this person. You know and I’d see my recovery coordinator weekly and you can phone them at any time if you’re struggling. And obviously create your plan with that recovery coordinator, once you’ve built up a bit of like, you know, a relationship with them.

What’s best for you? Like, I mean, it could be certain times like the school time and things like that, they work round that for you, yeah, a difference, but some things might work or yeah, some things might not just finding that balance like what actually is going to work for you. And it took a little, it took a while but with the help of them at start, I finally found that balance. I don’t know what I’d have done without start though.

Imagine there’s a person in the middle of a circle, and this circle has 100 lines coming off it, so it kinda looks like a sun yeah, and each one of these lines is a resource that somebody has. So let’s say they’ve got family support, let’s say they’ve got, their finances are in check, let’s say that their housings in check, they’ve got housing support, let’s say that their mental healths in support, let’s say that whatever terms they are with their children, they’re at ease with that whatever that is. I don’t know, things like, is everything to do with their learning disabilities being accounted for, what’s their social network like, what type of people are they hanging around with? Like all these things around, like these positive factors, like if all these things are positive, then that can contribute, heavily contribute towards the prevention of a relapse. If there’s anything that can be identified, that’s lacking or missing? That may well be the one that causes a relapse? You know.

And they teach you all that in relapse, you watch slides and stuff of how to change your brain’s way of thinking some people can’t but its changing into positive, because obviously when you’re drinking alcohol it’s constant negative on your brain and then depression sets in and everything else and it’s just relearning, relearning to train your brain into positives.

I got amazing housing support from start, the housing worker, and I wanted to move away from the house that I’d used my substance in and they helped me to fill an application in for thirteen housing and they supported me like, so there’s different bands that determines how quickly you get a house, you know and they were really good at getting me housed quite quickly to be honest, house that I’m in now, and I love my house. So yeah they helped me get appropriate housing.

I now access one of the local gyms with a swimming pool, which that’s probably been one of the better things that I kind of wanted the support with that, to acquire that. That’s been a regular thing for me since, like it’s helped keep me on the straight and narrow for the most part or at least accelerate, if I’m bad it will get me well a little bit quicker, keeping that kind of routine in my life, you know.