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New beginnings possible

Support and encouragement are available for people who wish to deal with substance misuse.
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Chelsea Braby

Support and encouragement are available  for people who wish to deal with substance misuse.

Following a successful first year that stretched from eight to 16 weeks at participants’ request, Interior Health is again holding a program for people in various stages of recovery from substance misuse.

“New Beginnings is a stepping stone that helps to open doors for people,” says substance use clinician Chelsea Braby. “So sometimes it enables people to seek more intensive treatment or therapy.”

Braby and fellow clinician Jackie Evans strive to offer people a message of hope and encouragement. And potential members should not feel threatened, as the group is built on an atmosphere of acceptance and non-judgment.

“Relapse is very much a part of the change process and I don’t think people are aware of that,” Braby says, noting those with addiction issues get demoralized and discouraged. “If people don’t understand relapse is part of the process, it just contributes to so much more shame, which fuels the cycle.”

Braby says celebrating small successes are important as they act as catalysts for further change and, over time, become the ingredients for lasting change.

Echoing Gabor Maté, renowned Vancouver doctor, author and leading addictions specialist, Braby says addictions originate in pain.

“Whether felt openly or hidden in the subconscious, they are emotional anesthetics,” she says, noting that far beyond a pursuit for pleasure, chronic substance use is a person’s attempt to escape distress. “Rather than turning to people whom the person has learned to distrust, they turn to a substance he or she has learned will numb the pain.”

Braby and Evans guide discussions, but the most meaningful aspects of the group are what the clients contribute, she says.

Quoting Maté, Braby says “the question is never why the addiction, but why the pain?”

The women are hoping to offer a three-week intensive, outpatient treatment group to address underlying issues and root cause of substance misuse.

In the meantime, New Beginnings launches Tuesday, Jan. 13 and will include practical information and strategies for coping with the many aspects of substance misuse. The group will meet from 1 to 2:45 p.m. Tuesdays at Mental Health and Substance Use Services. Call 250-833-4103 to register.