It's the most wonderful time of the year? Not for everybody.
In a month filled with parties, alcohol and other drugs, the holidays can be a rough ride for those on the road to recovery or clean from addiction.
For Vancouver resident George Pick, that road took almost 10 years and two relapses before he was finally off his drug of choice - opiates - in 2008.
"The holiday season is the toughest time, bar none for people out of recovery," said Pick, who has been clean for over four years.
The 44-year-old said his problem began when he was 18 and the holidays were often a time of secretive and spirited drug use with cousins. It took the death of one of those cousins, found cold in an apartment several days after a heroin overdose, before he and his family gave voice to his problem.
"Many, many people feel so uncomfortable during the holiday season and AA, and NA and other various 12-step programs have recognized this and so they have set up social events," Pick said.
There are hundreds of meetings each week in the Greater Vancouver area, with more than 550 put on by Alcoholics Anonymous and several hundred through Narcotics Anonymous, offered free and at all hours, seven days a week. Many offer "gratitude nights" in December, and Pick said this time of year draws a bigger crowd in need of support.
John, a worker at Vancouver's AA helpline, who couldn't provide his last name, said AA doesn't keep statistics in regards to participation levels. AA does, however, print 12 tips in its December newsletter to help those in recovery during the season when, it says, "holiday parties without liquid spirits may still seem a dreary prospect."
A man at the Greater Vancouver chapter of Narcotics Anonymous who wouldn't identify himself on the phone said he noticed more people crowding the rooms at his meeting. But he echoed John's comments that recovery is a year-round commitment experienced differently by every person. "It depends on where people are [in their recovery] on that day," he said.
Pick has dedicated his life to healing others. He worked for three years as a support worker at the Orchard Recovery Center on Bowen Island where he got sober, is training to be an addictions counsellor and plans to pursue a masters in clinical psychology.
He's been challenged since. Pick has Crohn's disease and had to leave his job at the Orchard last year to undergo two serious operations, which required he take the very drugs he was once addicted to. This time there was no relapse and he credits a supportive partner and the survival tips the 12-step program drilled into him.
Lorinda Strang, Orchard's executive director who is 23 years sober, said she experienced many "dark and depressing times at Christmas" after losing her brother in December 1984. She helped organize Vancouver's first recovery day to highlight the stigma associated with addiction.
"Thousands of people are walking around in Vancouver in long-term recovery," Strang said.
Pick only has one message for those on the road to recovery. "Put yourself into the hands of people who have been there before, because the stories are all the same," he said. "Give yourself a gift."
For info or help, contact: Alcoholics Anonymous 24-hour helpline: 604-434-3933. Narcotics Anonymous helpline: 604-873-1018.
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