Who we are
Feelings
Do you recognise these feelings?:
Powerlessness, anger, shame, fear, confusion, despair,
hopelessness, panic, guilt, resentment, loneliness, isolation, hate.
We have found that many of us who are affected by someone else's
alcohol
or drug use, have experienced similar feelings. Sharing these feelings
with others who understand helped many of us.
The In Touch Project
was formed by individuals affected by someone else's drug or
alcohol use.
We are an independent project launched in 2007. We aim to reach some
of the estimated 8,000,000 "Forgotten people" in the UK, who are
affected by someone else's drug or alcohol use.
Our aim is to "reach out" to others in need, over the age of 18 and living in Somerset.
Our links pages do also include some sites that may be useful for
young people, and we will try and update these regularly.
"I never thought this would happen to my family"
"I was desperate to find help!"
"The shame kept me isolated and I started to live a lie"
"I convinced myself I could cope"
"When substance abuse affected my family I felt devastated - I needed
someone to listen"
"I felt angry with everyone, including myself"
Stress takes its toll and often we found ourselves suffering from health problems ourselves, including anxiety and depression and many of us also had experienced suicidal thoughts.
We found we spent our whole time focussing on the person using alcohol or drugs, and we completely lost sight of our own lives. We needed to learn and understand that by doing this, we had sometimes been doing things that had not helped the other person to take responsibility for themselves. It often took great courage to change what we had been doing.