One year on: managing recovery through three lockdowns

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Chantelle, a peer mentor from Croydon Recovery Network Drug and Alcohol Service, writes about her own recovery journey and the challenges posed by three lockdowns.

My name is Chantelle, I’m from Croydon and I’ve been in recovery for almost seven years now. I live with son who is studying at college at the moment. I have a lot of mutual aid around me, my support network is my work, church, gym, friends and family who are all there to communicate with and help me when I need.

Before the pandemic I would drop my son at school, then go to the gym in the morning before going on to work. Later I would go back to pick up my son from school and go to the gym for a second time for an evening work-out class. Every Sunday I’d attend church where my aunties and uncles are elders, knowledgeable and experienced member of the church. Most Sunday afternoons I’d go and have dinner with my dad or someone else from my family.

Once the restrictions hit, they really hit me hard. My day-to-day routine went completely out of the window, I just wasn’t able to live my normal routine anymore!

Read the full blog post here.


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