When Addiction Takes Everything

Addiction does not always look ruined.

Sometimes it wears fur and jewellery. Sometimes it wears an expensive watch. Sometimes it
makes everyone laugh. Sometimes it looks like a tidy woman with a good job, a husband and
children.

When Addiction Takes Everything tells the true stories of people whose lives were touched and
ultimately transformed by alcohol, relapse, trauma and hidden pain.
There is Helen, who repeatedly vanished from her respectable life and was found sleeping rough
in freezing conditions. Harry, a handsome and distinguished man whose knowledge, education
and years around recovery could not protect him when alcohol returned. Mr Potato Head, the
funny, welcoming friend whose private suffering remained hidden behind silliness and laughter.
And a glamorous, creative woman whose slow fall from fur coats and jewellery ended in
paralysis, dependence and a final release from years of misery.

These are not stories written to shame the people who were lost. They reveal how addiction strips
away dignity, security and identity - and how its damage spreads into the families who love, fear
and search for the person disappearing before them.
But one chair is not empty