Our clients come from all areas of London and the South East, and all walks of life, to join our community.

 

Jacqui’s story [photo]

“For the first six weeks I came here, I didn’t talk. I was cut off from the world completely. I didn’t feel worth anything, or worthy or help. But the people here care, and I’ve now been coming for over two and a half years. They are compassionate and genuine, and 1NE has become like a family.

“I learnt here that everyone is worthwhile, just some have lost their way. I didn’t want to live when I first arrived, but through 1NE I had the opportunity to want to live again. Everyone helps everyone else, and with counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy I learnt coping mechanisms for the future. It’s not all doom and gloom, and if you relapse you are welcomed back with open arms.

“1NE is helping my children too, the future generation. People think children are resilient, but every addict was someone’s child. Without this place, I wouldn’t be on the planet and I don’t know where my children would be.”

 

Del’s story [Photo]

“I’m an alcoholic, but haven’t had a drink for ten years, thanks to 1NE. I was in hospital on a life-support machine after my last drink. I worked as a publican, and would booze all day long. What started as a social drink with customers progressed to not wanting people to leave at closing time. In 2000, I lost my business and my house, my wife and my dog. I was made bankrupt, with nowhere to live, and had a suitcase with all my belongings: five shirts and two pairs of trousers. Alcohol is the great remover – it strips you of everything.

I was starting to have seizures, and woke up in hospital a couple of times, but I’d always justify it – wet leaves, tripping on the pavement, it was always somebody or someone else’s fault. I came to 1NE in 2005. The downside to recovery is there is no one else to blame.

From the moment I walked in I had a sense of belonging. I felt comfortable and supported as I was speaking to other people who understood what I was going through at that time. I was given the tools to maintain my sobriety, and I found that in group therapy I started looking at the similarities between me and others, rather than the differences. I began to see I had value, and wasn’t a pointless waste of space. Once I accepted the disease model of alcoholism, and could see it wasn’t a weakness, my recovery started. If it wasn’t for 1NE I’d probably be dead by now. Instead, I have a sense of purpose and sense of achievement. And I got my sense of humour back.

Five years ago I went back to college, studied counselling, and helped develop Friends of 1NE, putting on additional events over and above the treatment programme offered to clients, including self-development workshops and meditation days.”