The NHS estimates that every two people out of one hundred in the UK have a panic disorder and a third of those people will go on to develop agoraphobia, a fear of leaving safe environments.
Agoraphobia is twice as common in women as in men but both men and women find themselves choosing to use drugs and alcohol to manage their anxiety. Katie was once one of those people.
Three years ago, as lockdown hit, Katie thought everyone else had finally come around to her way of thinking: forced to stay at home.
“Now I can get everything delivered to me without leaving the house, including my vodka from the off-licence, and it’ll be normal,” she said, with self-deprecating irony.
But as Katie’s anxiety worsened and her alcoholism deepened, she felt she’d hit rock bottom and needed help. Trouble was, she didn’t know where to find it, saying:
“I felt so isolated and desperate that I would never get the treatment I needed.”
A resident of Faversham, Katie heard about Forward’s drug and alcohol service in East Kent from her GP and called for help. At the time, as part of our adaptation to Covid, Forward had developed an online version of our well-established structured day programme, offering intensive, abstinence-based group therapy and support. Katie joined the programme and immediately felt at home.
“It was a great experience. I really connected with the others [enrolled] as well as the counsellor. Slowly, session by session, I began to understand the reasons for my anxiety and my use of alcohol, and to realise that recovery is possible.”
Katie completed the 12-week programme and graduated online in July 2021.
As lockdown restrictions were lifted and the world slowly returned to normal, Katie’s recovery strengthened, and her confidence grew.
She decided to apply for a job at the restaurant across the road from where she lived, becoming a pot washer, and progressed to assistant chef. She then applied to become a volunteer for Forward, helping with our Reach Out online chat service and as a peer mentor for the online day programme.
Fast forward to today and Katie works for the Forward Trust as a Volunteer Coordinator, giving back and supporting others with their recovery. Katie gained the OCN in Peer Mentoring and has completed the Award in Education and Training so she can teach others.
Katie has also completed a Level 2 in Counselling and has started on Level 3, stating that:
“This is my new normal, as opposed to laying in bed drinking vodka”.
As Forward’s services also returned to normal - with the day programme running at the hub - we realised that in-person support wasn’t feasible for everyone. Many people were still, in effect, experiencing their own private lockdown, unable to travel or to leave their homes – through conditions such as agoraphobia, mobility problems or childcare commitments. We were hit by the realisation that millions are missing out on drug and alcohol recovery, prompting us to launch Recovery Online.
Building on our experience in East Kent, Recovery Online is a structured programme enabling people to access group-based therapy and tailored support from their own home, anywhere in the UK. We offer the same therapeutic benefits of residential rehabilitation or in-person day programmes – everything is the same aside from the way in which it’s accessed.
Through Recovery Online, our ambition is to reach people like Katie no matter where they live, connecting them to structured support and, crucially, to others on similar recovery pathways.
