Clean break

Personal testimonies highlight the sobriety successes of an Alcoholics Anonymous group in Charlottetown that is celebrating 60 years of helping people get their live in order.

Elizabeth wishes that she had joined Alcoholics Anonymous at age 16.

If she had, she believes she could have avoided several hellish, self-destructive years.

Elizabeth (not her real name), 26, of Charlottetown, took her first alcoholic drink at age 13. The introduction to booze was a simple “weekend thing with the friends’’.

Within three years, she was hooked on booze and drugs as a means to escape a young life filled with pain and isolation.

“Drugs and alcohol made me feel 10 feet tall,’’ she said.

Eventually, those vices would send her tumbling to the ground.

At age 19, heavily addicted to ecstasy and alcohol, Elizabeth left home, mom and P.E.I. behind for what would turn out to be a miserable existence in Calgary.

There, she did some waitressing and a little bartending. But mostly, she did drugs and drank.

“I basically worked to use — just to support my habit,’’ she said.

It got worse.

Elizabeth, a native Prince Edward Islander, became hooked on crack cocaine. She suspects that the guy who introduced her to the powerful drug was planning to get her into prostitution. He went on to physically, mentally and sexually abuse her.

Elizabeth ended up living on the streets. Her weight plummeted to 85 pounds. She lost contact with family. She was falling fast into a deadly abyss.

“I felt worthless and dead,’’ she said.

Finally, she decided to try to save herself from complete ruin.

Elizabeth entered a detoxification facility and then went into a recovery house for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

She relapsed after three months, then, “tired of it all’’, returned to P.E.I. in May 2004.

After meeting with a counsellor the following month at the Provincial Addiction Centre, Elizabeth made her way to the Queen Street AA. She hasn’t looked back — or slipped back — since.

Elizabeth has been sober and drug-free for two years. She has been able to, for the first time in her life, enjoy a healthy relationship with her mother and to connect with her father, who had not been part of her life for most of her life.

Today, her life is moving forward and upward. She is studying to be a child and youth care worker. She hopes to eventually become an addiction counsellor, just like her inspirational uncle.

“I want to give back,’’ she said.

“Helping others the way that people helped me . . . I really care a lot about people.’’

Elizabeth credits the Queen Street AA group for helping to instill in her a positive outlook. She knows that she can always turn to the members for support.

And the 12-step program itself — stressing honesty, faith, surrendering, soul searching, integrity, acceptance, humility, willingness, forgiveness, maintenance, making contact and service — is rooted in a spirituality that resonates well with Elizabeth.

“I love AA,’’ she said.

“It has given me a new life.’’

The Queen Street AA has been helping people from all walks of life for 60 years now. Elizabeth sees the diversity of members each time she attends a meeting with the longest-running Alcoholics Anonymous group in Charlottetown — the only AA group in P.E.I. that holds a meeting every single day of the year, including Christmas Day.

“Alcohol doesn’t discriminate,’’ she said.

“There’s lawyers and there’s doctors and there’s teachers.’’

Ted (not his real name), 77, of Stratford, is in his 44th year as a member of the Queen Street AA. He has not had a drink since Aug. 22, 1962. Still, he never takes his lengthy run of sobriety for granted.

“The disease of alcoholism is there from the beginning to the end of your life,’’ he said.

“It never ends. If I took a drink today, I would be back where I was 44 years ago.’’

Ted sees AA as the only true vehicle for success in combatting alcoholism for the long term.

He said Alcoholics Anonymous has given him freedom and peace of mind.

The group’s 60th anniversary was celebrated on Thursday night at St. Pius Parish Hall in Charlottetown. Ted said he shares with other members an unbelievable pride in the Queen Street AA’s long history of successes.

“It’s hard to believe that we have stayed together for this length of time,’’ he said.

“Alcoholics Anonymous is the most disorganized organization . . . people come and they go. Not everybody stays.’’

Elmer of Stratford never considered his decades of sobriety an excuse to quit coming to the Queen Street AA. Even advancing years —he’s 92 — haven’t kept Elmer from making at least a handful of annual appearances in recent years.

“I didn’t want to forget what I’d gone through . . . and I didn’t want to have to go back to drinking,’’ he said.

Elmer is so proud of his success in combatting alcoholism over the years that he was eager to be identified in this article, which goes against the anonymity trademark of AA.

One of 18 children, Elmer said his drinking had become so bad in the 1960s, he had to take immediate action if he didn’t want to face dire consequences.

“I know if I didn’t stop that I was going to be put in jail or something,’’ he said.

“So I decided to stop.’’

His long period of sobriety allowed him to enjoy prosperity, improved health and a good life.

“I had good jobs on the account I stopped drinking,’’ he said, breaking into a big smile.

Ted said that AA is not for everybody, just for everybody that wants it.

Elizabeth agrees. She turned to AA for herself, not for others.

“Some people they come in, they’re getting this over for their wife or their husband or their kids or family member or for a job or to get to go to school,’’ she said.

“Sure, that’s great, but if you’re not doing it for yourself, you’re chances (of succeeding) aren’t very good.’’

The Guardian