ben

1st August 2023

“I finally feel as though I can be free.”

When Cara Delevingne uttered those words in her recent interview with Elle magazine, we thought, that’s it! That’s what recovery is all about, but how does one get that?

Last year, the internet was littered with videos and photographs of the famous model, looking lost and dishevelled and acting erratically in public. You may have seen interviews from her friends and family members, who were clearly concerned for her well-being.

Today, she speaks openly about her struggles, but the most interesting bit is she is now nine months sober after finally surrendering to herself that she had a problem. After attending treatment, and regular 12-step meetings, she continues to work on herself, and the result? She feels freedom and can live in a way she never thought she’d be able to.

When we’re in active addiction, our daily lives are tied to the daily struggle of finding the next drink or drug or fix of whatever behaviour or substance we are chained to. It can feel more than a full-time job, or maybe six full-time jobs that we must do all at once. It is exhausting, demoralising, and quite honestly, a terrible and desperate existence.

We put our drug of choice before everything else. Everything.

It is possible to live a life where we can let go completely and be free of the daily grind of addiction. Imagine what amazing things we could do without its constant demands. Life in recovery can give us freedom to do whatever we want if we choose to accept help.

But what does freedom really mean? Cara explains her sobriety and recovery like this, ‘I’m able to live in a way that I never thought I would be able to, where I can really experience things and engage with them. I never thought I would be able to enjoy anything this much.’

We want you to know we are here if you need us. The freedom Cara talks about is possible for everyone. We offer free, time-unlimited group therapy to anyone struggling with addiction in Hertfordshire. To find out more about what we do, or to book an assessment with one of our Counsellors – who all have lived experience of addiction and recovery – please do get in touch. We are here to help.

Famous footballer, Dele Alli recently talked very openly about addiction, abuse, rehab and recovery in a recent interview with Gary Neville at The Overlap.

He bravely spoke out about how childhood trauma led him to use sleeping pills to numb his emotional pain. He also revealed he is now in recovery after receiving treatment for his addiction.

In the interview, Alli details how he hit rock bottom and realised that everything in his life – including his glittering football career – was falling apart due to his addiction.

He knew that taking sleeping pills brought him to that rock bottom. And he realised he was taking the pills in the first place to forget abuse and trauma from his childhood that he had never been able to talk about or get help for.

This realisation helped him see that it was time to seek help, like the interview is aptly named, ‘Now is the time to talk.’

Dele Alli said entering rehab was scary and the biggest thing he had done in his life, but upon reflection he couldn’t believe how much treatment had helped him and his mental health.

In rehab, he was given space to open up and be honest, which helped him learn to see the root of his problems, the things he was using substances to numb.

We think it can be helpful for people in the public eye to be honest about their experiences.

Sometimes hearing their stories can open our eyes to things that might need addressing in ourselves. We can also gain strength and hope from their recovery journeys.

People speaking out so openly helps to beat the stigma of addiction. It can affect anyone. It does not discriminate.

You might be thinking, it’s alright for him, he’s an extremely wealthy famous footballer and can access any treatment he wants.

We want you to know that recovery can be for everyone too, we offer free, time-unlimited group therapy to treat all addictions at our hubs in Stevenage, Watford and St Albans.

If Dele Alli’s story has struck a chord with you, and you feel like you need help, please get in touch.

You may have seen the recent emotional and moving storyline in Eastenders of Lola passing away from brain cancer.
The father of her child, Ben Mitchell, has been struggling to cope with his reality, and is living with an eating disorder.

In real life, when we go through times of grief, or stress, like Ben, it is very common for our eating to become chaotic and disordered. We may forget to eat, lose our appetite, or turn to food for comfort or as distraction from reality. We might self-sabotage or even hurt ourselves. Sometimes, we can develop behaviours and coping mechanisms which can numb our painful feelings and alter our brain chemistry in the same way drugs and alcohol, or any other addiction can.

Sometimes disordered eating can occur from unhealed past trauma, things we haven’t dealt with, or things buried within us. Sometimes we have never had a healthy relationship with food, and we would really like to learn how to be kind to ourselves and live a more fulfilling life.

At The Living Room, we offer free, time-unlimited group counselling in our Disordered Eating Group, for those who are finding their relationship with food and body image is unhealthy or addictive.

We don’t diagnose eating disorders, but instead we help clients look at how disordered eating is affecting their life and general well-being. Recovery is achievable with the correct treatment and support. Therefore, we focus on the root cause, to help understand our feelings and what is really going on underneath the behaviours.

Through belonging to a non-judgemental, loving and accepting group that enables people to learn from each other’s experiences, our help provides clients with the tools they need to deal with negative emotions and cravings. Our aim is to enable anyone living with disordered eating to develop structured eating, gain a support network for life and the tools to deal well with stress or periods of grief that may arise in the future.

Maybe this blog post, or Ben’s struggles in Eastenders have affected you? Maybe you feel that you would like our help. If you’d like to know what addictions we treat, or think our Disordered Eating Group can help you, please get in touch.