Emily finds faith, hope and a future
Emily has a new faith in Jesus and has joy and hope for the first time in many years. (Photograph courtesy Natasha Scott)
“I believe God goes in search for the one lost sheep and God came and found me.”
– Emily
Emily struggled with depression and low self-esteem throughout her teenage years and turned to alcohol in an attempt to escape the stresses of life.
At 18, she tried to end her life, but her failed attempt at suicide only plunged her into a deeper hole which lasted another seven years.
At 26, she is now on the road to recovery, having completed eight months in rehabilitation at The Salvation Army's Dooralong Transformation Centre on the NSW Central Coast. She has also re-enrolled at university in a bid to finish her degree in Early Childhood and is making a serious go at getting her life together.
“In my early teens I constantly compared myself to others and never felt pretty enough, smart enough or successful enough. I felt like a failure,” she says. “I never felt like I belonged and I’d had depression and anxiety since I was 15.”
Emily started binge drinking around this time “to gain peace and happiness, to block out the negative thinking – and for a time, alcohol gave me what I thought was freedom”.
Instead of freedom, Emily found herself increasingly trapped.
“I have a good family,” she says, “and I went to a good all-girls boarding school – but there was an abuse incident when I was younger. I went overseas for a year – working, living in the UK, working on a travel visa and then I came back, went to uni, but was drinking to control the stress. I was (always) stressed out.
“I just knew that I couldn’t keep living the life that I was living,” she says, “and I was ready to give up, end it. I was just crying out (for help). I just couldn’t stop drinking and I tried everything. I just wanted to be happy and not need alcohol to fill the emptiness and sadness I felt inside.”
Eight months ago, Emily entered rehabilitation at Dooralong, on the advice of a friend, Ally, who had previously found sobriety and a deep faith in God at Dooralong.
Emily was started on the 12-step Bridge Program and Ally became her mentor. With the support of Ally, along with the management and staff at Dooralong, Emily has been sober for 10 months. She has also committed her life to Jesus.
She calls Ally “my gift from God”.
“Now, instead of choosing to follow the ways of the world, I choose to follow Jesus Christ, a pretty good role model, I think! I have now come to know true freedom, peace and perfect love,” Emily smiles.
“Nothing else ever worked. I realise God has done for me what I couldn’t do for myself and I feel free, joyful and alive and now I want to share what I have by helping others who are lost.
“I feel a weight has been lifted. I have no logical explanation for it, and that’s because there isn’t a logical explanation. It has been a spiritual experience!”
Comments
Proud of you lovley 💜 💛 💚 💖
Well done em. So very proud of you. Always knew you could do it :) keep up the great work and goodly with any future endeavours
Emily,
Your comments and strength is awe inspiring. It made the hairs on my arms my hairs stand up on end and well up into tears.
We've always known you're beautiful in every way but now that you are starting to notice it yourself, it makes you even more beautiful!
It's a long road ahead and it's paved with temptation land mines everywhere.. the art is to learn how to see them and before you stumble into them, you'll be skipping around them like a rabbit in a field of green pretty soon!
Hey Emily, you don't know me, but I know of you. I am Ally's brother in law. I am so happy to here that you have found a peace and happiness that many people may never achieve. I Bet it was a bloody hard road, well done, I am proud of you. All the best, John.