A HEREFORDSHIRE woman who has been through her own journey of recovery to beat a 20-year addiction is encouraging others to come forward and get the support they need.

Michelle Miles has changed her life unrecognisably from an alcoholic binging for 48 hours at a time, to being happily married and offering other people in Herefordshire support.

Mrs Miles is the co-founder of the Herefordshire Service User Group (HSUG) which provides people who have been affected by a drug or alcohol issue a safe place to meet and find support and friendship from others in recovery.

The 37-year-old tackled her own substance misuse issues with the help of Herefordshire’s drug and alcohol services, which as of this week are being run by Addaction with a new strong emphasis on recovery.

Mrs Miles said: "My issue was with alcohol, but it started earlier than that with heroin. I had some painful experiences as a teenager and heroin took the pain away. My first husband took heroin and I followed his lead. He was a solider and as part of his job we moved to Germany in 2000. The heroin was rubbish over there so I bombarded myself with alcohol.

"I used to drink from after work Friday until Monday morning because there’s 24-hour drinking there. At my worst, I’d drink a litre of vodka before I’d even made it out the door on a Friday night. It’s the perfect place to breed alcoholics. I was hanging out with the soldiers and they can seriously put it away."

In December 2007 Mrs Miles returned to England after splitting with her husband to have treatment for moyamoya syndrome, a circulatory issue in the brain. She believed she was coming back to the country to die. Her drinking slowed for a while but then grew even worse.

It was when she reconnected and fell in love with a school friend, Lee, that she was motivated to get some help for her drinking. However, it was not long before the urge to drink more returned.

"I was still going through a box or more of wine a night, but I didn’t drink before work or at work," she said.

"I knew that I was drinking too much, but I was in denial and didn’t really accept that I was an alcoholic. It wasn’t until I was in a group listening to other people sharing their experiences that the penny dropped. This one guy was talking about his life and everything he said was exactly how my life was. I finally realised I was an alcoholic.

“When I told my mum I was an alcoholic she said ‘thank God you’ve finally admitted it’."

Mrs Miles’ case worker showed her how to use the tools she already had to deal with the alcohol and put her on a relapse prevention scheme three days into sobriety.

Since then she has married her partner, Lee, and has not had a drink for 20 months. Life, she says, has really turned around.

But she realised there was little in the way of a recovery community in Herefordshire to support people coming out of treatment and set up HSUG in August 2014.

The group holds free monthly open meetings for anyone who has been affected by a substance misuse issue to meet people in the same position and find support over a coffee and some cake.

"It’s somewhere people won’t be judged," said Mrs Miles. "We’ve set up a doodle bar at meetings now too so you can enjoy some adult colouring in, which has been proved to help lower anxiety. You don’t have to be anybody you’re not and you can take your time to get to know us all."

She added that she hopes that by working with Addaction, the county's new provider of drug and alcohol services in the county, a recovery community can be built in Herefordshire.

HSUG meets on the last Monday of the month at St Peter’s Church Hall, St Peter’s Square, Hereford. For more information call 07874 767433.