OLDS — Michele Langmead says if she hadn’t stopped drinking or using drugs she’d likely be dead by now.
Instead, the Sundre resident now enjoys her life, working as a communications instructor at Olds College and as an addictions counsellor online.
Langmead is one of several speakers for the Conversation Has To Happen, an annual conference for people affected by suicide and depression.
Normally that conference is held one day each fall in one room. However, due to COVID-19 pandemic protocols, iit was held until Nov. 27 on two local radio stations: 96.5 CKFM and Rock 104 after the 10 a.m. news and in a series of stories in The Albertan newspaper.
Langmead began drinking and using drugs when she was 14.
In an interview, she said from then on, it was “just full-on partying for 10 years, until I was 24 and I hit what we call in the Recovery Program – rock bottom.”
"It was a matter of belonging," she added. "I didn't feel like I belonged at home and although that really wasn't true, it was how I felt. I didn't feel understood or accepted at home.
"Drinking and using drugs was my way of being a part of a group that accepted me, although it was fragile and unhealthy, which I didn't realize at the time."Some friends recognized that Langmead had a drinking/addiction problem and persuaded her to go with them to an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting.
After going to about six meetings a week and getting a sponsor to help her, Langmead stopped using drugs and alcohol.
She said at AA "I found belonging again, but in a healthy way."
All the same though, the decision to stop drinking and using drugs wasn't an easy one.
“All of my friends, when I was using, drank and used drugs like I did. So when I stopped drinking, of course they all told me that I was over-reacting and I didn’t have a problem – primarily because it meant that if I did, they did,” she said.
“There was a lot of pressure on me to drink again. And I knew if I didn’t leave behind my drinking friends – who I really cared about, and who did care about me – but if I didn’t leave them behind, I was going to be – I would have drunk again.”
After she stopped drinking, ironically, Langmead got a job as a bartender, but quickly realized that wouldn’t be a good idea, so she quit and got a job as a receptionist.
After staying sober for about two years, Langmead decided to go back to university where she eventually obtained a graduate degree in counselling psychology.
Langmead then worked as a mental health psychotherapist for about 30 years.
She did much of that work at the Shalom Counselling Centre, including about six years at the Shalom Counselling Centre in Olds.
However, now Langmead works primarily as a communications instructor at Olds College and runs a private counselling practice in Sundre. She works with OnlyYouForever, an online counselling service.
Langmead said her decision to stop drinking and doing drugs revolutionized her life.
“It was an absolute life-changing event and put me on a completely different path, where really, choice was returned to me,” she said.
“I gained the power to choose whether I was going to drink or not. I chose not to and then did what I needed to do in order to make that choice stick.
“If I had kept drinking, I might actually be dead now – either by my own hand or car accident because of drinking and driving, overdose.”
Now, Langmead enjoys sharing her story at conferences like The Conversation Has To Happen.
“I think it really helps people to face their own addiction, to realize they’re not alone and there is some help for those who want to get better from addiction, want to recover.”
