Sean’s hands were trembling as he took to the stage on Saturday to share his story of recovery from addiction.
In June 2023, out of money and suffering from severe drug withdrawal, Sean tried to end his life while on the sidewalk on Pandora Avenue.
“I knew I needed help,” he told the Times Colonist. “I called 911. I couldn’t even tell them where I was. I just stayed on the phone until they found me.”
He woke up in Royal Jubilee Hospital to an outreach worker from the Umbrella Society offering help and support.
“She just seemed to appear at my bedside, telling me it was all going to be okay,” he said. “I could not explain the relief and sense of hope this gave me, simply being greeted with compassion and understanding.”
Today, Sean W., who asked his last name be withheld from publication, is an alumni of the New Roads Therapeutic Recovery Community that is run by Our Place Society.
Sean said he had been a “functional” addict for over four decades but finally broke free of a cycle of generational addiction after a 11-month stay at New Roads, which not only helped him to get sober but also understand the root causes of his addictions.
“We’re not just wanting to get high or wanting to get drunk. We’re trying to come with something and we don’t know how to do that,” he said.
He believes he turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with the aftereffects of repeated head traumas, divorces, and a childhood dominated by “violently alcoholic” parents.
Despite the nerves that he gets every time he shares his story, Sean said he is determined share with others his journey of recovery.
“It’s an honour to share my story with you, a journey that has transformed my life in ways I could not have imagined,” he told the crowd that gathered in Central Park to mark Recovery Day.
Now that he’s in recovery, the 56-year-old said his favourite thing to do is to spend time with family.
On Saturday, three of Sean’s grandchildren ran to give him a hug as he left the stage.
Zakk Bradley, a current resident at New Roads, said staying sober has been the hardest thing that he’s ever tried to do.
“I’m really wanting this one to be the one,” he said. “I’m putting my effort into trying to get it right.”
Bradley, 30, said he began using substances in high school.
“Alcohol has been a lot harder for me to quit than the hard drugs,” he said.
Bradley checked himself back into New Roads in June after a relapse.
“I was so concerned with getting a job, getting a car, you know, continuing my life,” he said. “I completely put recovery on the backburner.”
It’s a very humbling experience to go back to a treatment program, but he’s taking the time to work on self-expression and his music.
”I grew up in a pretty toxic masculinity household where you know — men don’t cry, men don’t talk about their feelings,” he said.
Bradley, who played some of his songs in Central Park on Saturday, said he hopes to use music to share his experience of addiction.
New Roads manager Lee Sundquist said the most important thing in the journey to recovering from addiction is connection.
“People that have gone through the same struggles as what we’ve gone through, we can relate to each other,” said Sundquist, who is now 12 years in recovery.
About 16 non-profit organizations came together for the first Recovery Day celebration in Victoria since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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