Nottingham continues to have some of the highest levels of problem drinking in the UK – with the death rate for chronic liver disease nearly double the national average, and tens of thousands of people in the city struggling to control their intake.
As part of Alcoholics Awareness month, Notts TV News has exclusive interviews with Nottingham people battling addiction. All identities have had to be concealed and names changed. Here Katie, a single mother, tells her story to Sharon Walia.
“Unfortunately, I was sexually abused by my step-father – although I wouldn’t blame it on that.
“I think I realised when I was 14 when I had my very first drink of cider was that it made me feel something; I think it became a habit that I got used to.
“I think being a single mum, I wasn’t happy.
“My job was stressful – I’ve always had really high-powered jobs; I was really lucky that I never drank in the day.
“As the children got a little bit older I would rush through the stories, miss out parts of the fairy tale – anything to get downstairs at seven o’clock to have that drink.
“And then I started hanging around with other single mums.
“I rapidly realised that I was rapidly drink three-five bottles of wine a night, and they were having probably one or two.
“I think I was a functioning alcoholic.
“I was drinking on my own in one particular part of the sofa – I’d moved on to boxes of wine because they were easier to hide when you took the bag out.
“There was a situation in July 2008 when I was drinking heavily, my son, who was a teenager at the time, had said something to a current boyfriend that I didn’t like and I got really aggressive, which was uncontrollable after a few drinks.
“I physically harmed the boyfriend, the police were called and I knocked out a couple of police officers.
“I was arrested and taken to a police station where I was kept overnight, charged in the morning and when I woke up in a cell, I thought, what is happening?
“I didn’t know whose blood it was or what I had done.
“I went back to an AA meeting and I’ve got to be honest, I’m glad I went because then I carried on going and now I’m eight years sober.”
To contact Alcoholics Anonymous in Nottinghamshire call 0115 941 7100 or visit the organisation’s website.
Specialist support for those struggling with alcohol is also available from a range of other local organisations including Recovery in Nottingham and APAS.
