02 October 2026
After several years of turmoil, WithYou client Julian has started keeping a routine again.
He gets up at the same time each morning and often spends the day working on his home and garden. These are all small things. But 12 months ago, none of them felt possible.
“So many things have started to come back,” he says. “My appetite, my sleep, my motivation.”
It's a long way from where Julian was.
Julian trained in law and spent years doing casework for a charity, work he was passionate about, helping people who were socially excluded.
For years his drinking was easy to overlook, a glass or two of wine most evenings, nothing that got in the way of work or life.
Then two things changed. He was promoted into a management role, and he lost much of his hearing to COVID-19. Working from home and increasingly isolated, what had been a couple of glasses in the evening crept into something heavier.
"I'd learned to use alcohol as a coping mechanism," he says. "I was still functioning, so I thought that was fine."
It wasn't. Julian was temporarily signed off work with stress and anxiety. But the drinking didn't stop, and months on, back at work and still struggling, he tried to quit on his own, without medical advice.
Days later, with his body in withdrawal, he began hallucinating, convinced there were intruders in his house. Paramedics recognised what was happening and took him to hospital for a week's detox.
There, Julian was referred to WithYou's East Ayrshire service in Kilmarnock. He was introduced to his recovery worker, Rosie, and started working to reduce his drinking with her support.
But the pressure of trying to control something he couldn't yet control led to a mental health crisis, and a second hospital admission.
I would go as far as to say that if I hadn't been supported by this service, I could quite easily have been dead," Julian says. "I tried to manage it myself, and it didn't work.
Even with support, Julian's drinking continued for the best part of a year.
He followed a self-imposed rule, stopping drinking by mid-evening so he'd be clear to drive by lunchtime the following day.
It didn't work. Breathalysed at a routine appointment, he was over the limit. He was arrested and later convicted of driving under the influence. He lost his job.
It would take a third, residential detox before something changed for good.
"They allowed me to explore what my issues were. They never once told me what I had to do," he says. "If they had, I'd have walked away from it altogether."
With WithYou's support, Julian built a routine from nothing and eventually joined a recovery group.
"I did an online recovery programme with their advice, and that really helped," he says. "It's a lot about looking at your past, your behaviours, your decisions."
Julian is now several months sober.
He's rebuilding his life, his home and his relationships. He's also enrolled on a sign language course, a step towards managing his hearing loss on his own terms.
I've got a brain, and I want to channel that," he says. "I've got quite a few years of work left in me.
If you or someone you know needs support with drugs or alcohol, WithYou is here to help. Find out more about our free, confidential support in East Ayrshire at wearewithyou.org.uk/local-hubs/east-ayrshire .
