DRAMATIC INTERVENTION –
Nov. 30, 2025 – Kit, now 41 and five years sober, recalls the terrifying moment in the Caribbean as something she’s fortunate to have survived amid her 12-year battle with booze addiction. I was waiting in a taxi to pick up drugs with a friend.“I was drunk in the back, being silly and verbally impatient.
“The dealer started shouting, telling us to shut up, and then pointed a gun at us. “I was very scared and became quiet very quickly. But I continued to drink.”
“There’s a history of alcohol abuse in my family,” she admits.
“My father had a difficult relationship with alcohol and while I didn’t like it when I first tried it at 16, by the time I was 19 and went to university to study music in Lancaster, I was drinking a lot. “It was a mixture of exposure to it at home and friends drinking too – back then you stood out if you didn’t join in.”
Priory consultant psychiatrist Dr Niall Campbell, leading addiction treatment expert at the clinic, says Kit’s story is – unfortunately – a familiar one.
“Every day I see either new patients or follow-ups whose families are deeply affected by addiction,” he says.
“Our new research shows that half of those who’ve sought support for addiction in the last three years believe it has impacted multiple generations of their family.
