Reading man shares rehab story as cost of living pressures drive more people to drink and drugs
Watch Rachel Hepworth's report on Kev Clark, as he describes how he turned his life around after falling into alcohol dependency. She also spoke to Faith Noone from UK Addiction Therapy.
Kev Clark started drinking as a young teenager.
First it was lagers and beer. By his early twenties he was on a two bottles of vodka every weekend. And then the whisky took hold.
"In the last ten years alone, I was drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels a day" he said, "along with six cans of foster and miniatures."
He tried to keep his addiction a secret - hiding bottles from his partner and three young children, who he lived with in Reading. But family life was breaking down. He was very ill.
"Cold sweats, shakes, suicidal thoughts, arguing with my partner all the time. I just thought, this is not the life for me."
So he took the plunge and booked himself into rehab - a week at Banbury Lodge in Oxfordshire and then a fortnight two hundred miles away in Runcorn.
They helped wean him off the alcohol as he began to confront how much he drank and how it affected other people.
"Since I came out of rehab, everything they explained to me was amazing. I thought, I've had my days of drinking. I've had enough now."
Kev is sharing his story as leading rehab experts reveal that they've seen a huge rise in the number of people seeking help since the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis.
"When you're a family and you're debating whether to feed or heat the house, for a lot of people, it's about what is coming next," says Faith Noone from UKAT.
"Alcohol and drugs take you away from that. It stops you feeling. It stops you worrying."
UKAT is one of the country's leading Rehab providers and has 190 detox and rehab beds across the country, providing treatment for all addictions including alcoholism, drug addictions and eating disorders.
Today Kevin lives by the clinic's mantra "one day at a time". He's not touched a drop of alcohol for two years.
"I'm never going back to that place," he says. "The taste on my breath. I've lost weight. I feel good.
"I'll never go back, mainly for my family who are so supportive, and why do I want to go back to that life when I've got a lovely life now?"
And his message to anyone struggling to cope is to reach out - someone will be there to help.
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