Community champion, Anthea Parker, was in hospital with depression 10 years ago when the doctor also told her she needed to stop drinking.
I’m Anthea and I’m 49 and from Dorchester in Dorset. I recently started volunteering for Alcohol Change UK as a community champion as I’d like to help bring people hope.
It was 10 years ago when I was in hospital that the doctor told me I needed to stop drinking.
I had lost my career as an occupational therapist and things felt really overwhelming.
After I got discharged, I was still under the mental health team, and I tried mindfulness and therapy but continued drinking.
My drinking continued and escalated to daily drinking, and I experienced blackouts.
The mental health team recommended AA and I tried many meetings, but I just didn’t get it. It made me feel low and ashamed. I didn’t want to call myself 'an alcoholic'. I tried this for a few years, being in AA and out of it but I still felt hopeless.
My drinking continued and escalated to daily drinking, and I experienced blackouts. Finally, in October 2020, I read a book that changed my whole outlook: ‘Alcohol Explained’ by William Porter. Porter explained how alcohol affects us in a chemical and psychological way and how to tackle it.
As well as this, I got advice from my local alcohol service, and they told me to taper down the alcohol in a controlled way. I kept a journal documenting where I was with alcohol and gradually reducing the alcohol and then stopping, after it was safe to do so.
I also joined some Facebook support groups and I joined some of their smaller communities via Zoom, sometimes with only four people including me, and this kept me accountable. I decided to attend the Zoom each week and before I knew it, I was 90 days sober. I started to really appreciate the online support.
Before I knew it, I was 90 days sober. I began to ask my friends in the online sobriety groups to send me postcards sharing their newfound freedom and support.
Still, I felt like I need something more.
So, I decided to set up a project that would be more physical – and not just on social media.
I began to ask my friends in the online sobriety groups to send me postcards sharing their newfound freedom and support. I would then copy and laminate them and put them up in public spaces. I wanted to reach out to share the joy to a passer-by who might just need to see that there are alternatives in finding a new way of living, and that they could seek support for their drinking.
The post office box was open for six months and attracted around 100 people to write to me. It was so exciting!
I have since created eight pop-up exhibitions in the South of England. One was during Dry January® last year, where I used the cards to decorate an abandoned phone box.
I have also done a few pop-up exhibitions in Hyde Park in London. These have been a fantastic opportunity to invite others along and have a meet up too. I’ve met many new people – both online and in person.
Life is good now, and I’m looking forward to being 50 in January.
Life is good now, and I’m looking forward to being 50 in January and celebrating both a big birthday and two years of sobriety, as I stopped drinking on my 48th birthday.
I’m opening the post box again for October. Here’s the address if you’d like to send your postcard of hope to someone that could do with finding it:
Sober Inspiration Project, PO Box 9693, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 9JP, UK
