In 2024, Lifeline implemented a groundbreaking shift in its service delivery, adding in-house group therapy meetings as part of its treatment plans for adult addiction clients and youth clients as an essential part of their recovery journey. While we have run successful groups throughout our history, the full integration of regular group sessions as a standard component of our treatment program has had a tremendous positive impact on outcomes across the board.
As part of Lifeline’s Group Therapy Support, counsellors ask participants to write a farewell letter to their addictions. By describing their emotional journey and affirming their commitment to sobriety, clients are able to define and concretize new, healthier ways of dealing with their issues with substances and behaviours. The following example is shared with client permission, with identifying details altered to protect their anonymity:
Dear Alcohol,
There was a time, not long ago, where the idea of parting ways seemed impossible. You were a fact of life. But I know now that you’re not a friend. You were a crutch, an escape. And I won’t keep pretending that you’re the answer.
I was only a teenager when I first found you. I didn’t know how to cope with my worries, my fears, or the voice telling me that it would always be impossible to truly connect with anyone. Even when I became a mother, I couldn’t conceive of a way forward without you. You were my way of escaping the constant pressure of raising two kids, trying to balance everything, trying to be everything to everyone. When the house was deafening, and the burden was too much to carry, you were always there, offering that familiar way out.
You made me numb, which I confused for healing my pain. That numbness left me disconnected. I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t listen, I couldn’t be the mother I needed to be. Most of all, I couldn’t bear to take an honest look at how my addiction was hurting my family. Until the day I could no longer deny it.
One afternoon, I passed out after drinking straight vodka at lunchtime. I was so thoroughly knocked out that I didn’t pick up my kids from school. After failing to reach me, the school called my husband, who then left work early to go get them when I didn’t answer his calls. When I finally woke upon their arrival, the headache that came with my hangover throbbed in time with pangs of shame. A mother who can be relied on to be conscious is a very low bar to clear, and I hadn’t even managed that.
My husband and I looked for help online the next morning. And it wasn’t until I started going to Lifeline that I saw the truth about you. And that realization hurt, because in a way, I’d always thought of you as someone I could count on. But in reality, you were just a temporary fix, always leaving me emptier and more broken.
Lifeline was the first place where I felt I wasn’t alone in this battle. The free counselling and the group support allowed me to break free from the false comfort I’d convinced myself I’d die without. In the very group I’m writing this letter for, I was given the opportunity to connect with and learn from others who had been through what I’d been through. Whether they had struggled with drugs, alcohol, sex, or gambling, we always shared common ground. I started to understand that my addiction wasn’t just about you, it was about all the underlying fears, self-doubt, loneliness, and anxiety I’d buried deep down.
And it wasn’t just me. My husband and kids were able to get support too—something I’m so grateful for. They needed help to process what we’d been through. We’re healing together.
I’m not all the way there yet, but for the first time I can see the path. I deserve better than the emptiness you gave me. I deserve to feel fully alive, even if it hurts sometimes.
Goodbye, Alcohol. You were once my way out, but now I have a real path forward.
Sincerely,
Olivia
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