Gloucestershire mum woke up from 'worst nightmare' after five days
Summary
A 42-year-old woman who had a successful corporate career, a husband and two daughters says her life ‘began unravelling’ and she could ‘no longer function’ because she became so addicted to alcohol. At her lowest point, Jess Fry, from Gloucester, was unable to work or do the school run, becoming increasingly isolated and despairing as she struggled to even leave her house.
Details
Jess says every time she ‘hit rock bottom’ she managed to find a new low. Jess said: “Everything started to fall apart. I could no longer function on a daily basis.
I couldn’t go to work. I couldn’t do the school run. My life had become completely unmanageable.
“You hear people talking about rock bottoms in addiction – I had quite a few of those. I woke up one morning and I fell to my knees, and the idea of going into treatment was put in front of me.” Jess was so low she jumped at the chance of rehab. She said: “I didn’t really hesitate.
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I just said, ‘What do I need to do?’ because I knew that I couldn’t get through another day as I had been doing.” Realising her life had become unmanageable, she checked into Abbeycare , a residential drug and alcohol addiction recovery clinic in Minsterworth, Gloucestershire, in September 2024.
She stayed for just over a month, initially going through a detox and then beginning her recovery, which she described as like waking up from the “worst nightmare”. “On the fifth day at Abbeycare I felt like I had woken up from the worst nightmare I’d ever had. I had spent years not wanting to wake up tomorrow.
Now I do want to wake up tomorrow, and that’s because I live a life in recovery. I realised that I had a future, and I had a place in the world again.” After leaving the facility Jess stayed engaged with Abbeycare’s aftercare community, and later became one of the first people to join its peer mentor programme as a volunteer.
After taking on night shifts to better understand the reality of the job, she eventually secured permanent employment and now works as a senior recovery practitioner. Jess’s role at Abbeycare now involves one-to-one work with people who are starting their own recoveries, taking them to medical appointments, and helping with their aftercare plans.
Report source: Gloucestershire Live