The learner becomes the tutor!

Growing up, OV never smoked or drank alcohol and was never really interested in doing so. That was up until she suffered a skiing injury, which she had to undergo two surgeries for.

The first surgery went well and she was prescribed codeine to ease the post-operative pain. At the time, OV only took a third of the dose she was given as she did not feel the need to take any more than that and felt fine.

She then had to have a second surgery, where she was accidentally given morphine due to a mix-up at the hospital. As a result of this, OV ended up staying at the hospital for a week, even though she was only originally scheduled to stay there for one day.

OV was prescribed oxycodone, morphine and codeine – enough for a six month period. After finishing her prescription, OV wanted more and turned to online pharmacies to get it. This became a regular occurrence until a new legislation came about whereby no pharmacy could sell these substances online anymore.

As a result of using, OV was facing financial problems, along with mental and physical struggles. She did not want to spend time with her family and friends and preferred being alone. She was experiencing a lot of stress and decided to quit her job.

Her physical health started to get much worse to the point where she started suffering with seizures and had to stop using. OV also lost her licence and had to wait a whole year to be able to drive again.

She was then referred to the Intuitive Recovery course in December by her GP, but was not interested in participating in the programme as she thought the only way she would be able to stop using was to be ‘locked in a room’, away from substances.

OV later changed her mind about the programme and re-referred herself, this completely changed her life.

OV says she has learned many valuable skills from the course, such as:

• Addictive Desire Recognition, which helped her cope with her borderline personality disorder.
• Transposing, realising that it is not her who is suggesting to use and that she can make the decision not to.

The programme changed every aspect of OV’s life, she started spending time with her family and friends, saving up money previously used on substances and caring for her dog who had previously been staying with a family member. OV’s physical and mental health improved immensely.

OV has now joined the Intuitive Thinking Skills team as tutor and is also completing a degree with The Open University part-time.