I am so grateful to David for sharing the story of his addiction and recovery journey with me for the Recovery Voices Initiative. This film includes the time when David first accessed help for his drinking problem.
‘David eventually asked his GP to sign him off work through stress, as he thought he could tackle his problematic drinking when avoiding work. Instead, he started drinking in the mornings, as there was no reason not to!
David confessed his problem to his GP who told him he ‘wasn’t a drinker’—he had been drinking problematically for a decade by now!! He visited a psychiatrist who diagnosed his problematic drinking and referred him to an addictions psychiatrist who in turn arranged a community detox, involving librium and various other drugs. At one stage, David was taking between 20 and 30 pills a day.
This experience was one of the most unpleasant of David’s life. He was extremely anxious and agitated, and couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t stop thinking about alcohol, or focus on anything else. In retrospect, David is glad he had this experience, because he now understands what some of his patients go through when detoxing off alcohol.
David also mentions that his consultant did not think mutual aid ‘would be right’ for him. He is ashamed to say that he knew very little about mutual aid at the time.’
Bio: David McCartney is an addiction doctor with a background in inner-city GP practice. In 2006, after having recovered from his own addiction, he achieved a Masters degree in Alcohol and Drug Studies and went on to found the Lothians & Edinburgh Abstinence Programme (LEAP)—a residential rehab in Lothian, Scotland, delivered by the NHS and partners. He was part of a group which revised the UK’s ‘Orange Book’ national guidelines and has published several academic papers. For the last decade he has been part of advisory groups on drugs policy to the Scottish Government and currently chairs the Residential Rehabilitation Development Working Group for them.
You can see more of David’s films here.
