Amanda’s Story
Meet Amanda.
Her life was transformed with the help of treatment.
Now she wants others to have the same chance.
If you met Amanda today, you’d see a strong, active athlete and nursing student with a bright future ahead of her.
What you might not see are the years she spent struggling with alcohol addiction. Or the long, difficult road she and her family travelled navigating to find the help she needed.
Going back a few years, Amanda was a competitive rock climber who began competing as a teenager and went on to compete in several World Cups. She was a daughter, a sister and a friend. She was smart, determined and, as her mom Julie describes her, “the bravest person I know.”
She also struggled growing up. She was bullied, often felt misunderstood and experienced significant challenges and trauma during her younger years. When Amanda first started drinking in her 20’s, alcohol initially helped her feel more comfortable being herself and more able to be present.
But gradually, something that had once helped her cope became something she could no longer control. Amanda was experiencing physical symptoms of alcohol dependence, including shaking in the mornings. “I didn’t want to have an addiction. I didn’t want that label,” Amanda says. “So I tried to control it myself. But I knew I needed support.”
Amanda first sought help in 2012. What followed was not a straight path to recovery.
Over the next decade, she estimates she went through detox 10 to 15 times. There were periods of sobriety and periods of relapse. Time and again, Amanda would reach the point where she was ready for help, only to encounter gaps between detox and the longer-term treatment and support she needed.
For Julie, those years brought a different kind of struggle.
“I wish people understood how difficult it is when you can’t help your daughter, or anyone you love, who is struggling with addiction,” she says.
Julie had family and friends supporting her, but there were moments when Amanda was, in her words, “at death’s door.” There were also painful boundaries Julie had to set to protect herself and her family. “The hardest part was knowing I couldn’t fix it,” she says.
Amanda wanted the help she so badly needed. She was ready for treatment, but getting there was not simple.
Her family helped pay for private addiction treatment facility, but the cost was significant. “I remember thinking, I can’t keep paying for this,” Julie recalls. For many families, private treatment simply isn’t an option.
Amanda’s experience showed both her and Julie how easily people can fall through the cracks. Not because they aren’t ready for change, but because the next level of care isn’t always there when they need it.
Eventually, with the support of her family and access to treatment, Amanda found the combination of care and recovery supports that worked for her.
Today, Amanda has been sober for five and a half years.
She has returned to school and is months away to a completed program to become a psychiatric nurse. You may even see her completing one of her practicum placements at NRGH.
Her own experience is a large part of why she chose this path.
“I want to be part of the solution for every person and every walk of life, not just people who look like me. It truly can happen to anyone.”
“I couldn’t be prouder of her,” Julie says. “She has purpose in her life and is going to make a huge difference for so many others.”
Addiction does not have one face. These are not strangers, they are often the people we know. That is why the new Parksville Treatment Centre matters.
For people in Central and North Vancouver Island who are ready to seek help, it will help fill a critical gap in this region between detox and longer-term recovery.
With your support, the Parksville Treatment Centre can give more families like Amanda and Julie the chance to reach the other side of addiction and the hope that recovery is possible.