From Addiction to Recovery
One cold winters London night, Andrew Vincent, a psychotherapist specialising in addictions, had an epiphany. He suddenly realised that the weather was not conducive to help people deal with their demons. He and his wife, Sally, already had a villa in the Algarve and decided to move lock, stock and barrel.
Along with their multidisciplinary team, Sally and Andrew have been helping people at their English language recovery centre in the Algarve, for the last 10 years.
On arriving at the aptly named Nova Vida recovery centre, I am surprised that there are no outward signs that the pleasant pink-hued villa is anything other than a normal property. As I walk in it feels like a home and not a clinic.
As I settle down in a comfy armchair in the study I ask Andrew more about the move to the Algarve.
“At that time, I was in private health care and I saw the emphasis was on profit and not on the individual patient and I wanted to find an environment which would help the recovery process.”
Alcoholism and addiction have been accepted as a disease since the mid-1950s in the USA but there is less acceptance in the UK. Since 2015 the diagnostic criteria used by doctors to diagnose this illness has been renamed “chemical use disorder” or “alcohol use disorder,” however, Andrew tells me that many medical practitioners in the UK still do not treat it as such. This is in contrast to the US and Holland when it has been accepted as a medical condition and treatment can be covered by health insurance programmes.
The majority of Andrew's patients are there to recover from alcohol addiction although increasingly they are dealing with more and more business people or professionals suffering from burn-out. It is a surprise to me that around a fifth of their patients are airline pilots, who are being sent to the centre to recover from stress or anxiety also termed as “burn-out”. I ask them to define this and he tells me; “It is when there are too many demands on an individual and not enough resources – both within the person and the organisation. It normally affects diligent people who push themselves too far and eventually, it can be likened to a fuse blows in the head.”
The centre has worked with a major Asian airline, as well as other European, to help pilots who are struggling to cope with the demands of the job. Following the German wings tragedy when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was accused deliberately crashing the plane after suffering from depression, there has been increasing pressure on airlines to monitor their pilots. “Budget airline pilots are particularly susceptible;” says Andrew, “they have challenging shift patterns and this causes a lot of pressure on their bodies and minds.”
The centre focuses on individual care to suit each patient using a combination of group therapy and one-to-one sessions which can help people get through eating disorders, drug or alcohol addictions, sex addiction or gambling problems as well as other emotional disorders. Looking out over the villa's pool from its elevated position over the Loule countryside you can imagine why people would choose this place to help them recover. For addicts, the 28-day programme begins with a detox, medically supervised by a doctor and a 24-hour nurse. This is particularly important for alcoholics who can have seizures when they stop drinking.
Nova Vida offers equine psychotherapy with a special therapist, Andrew explains; “Horses have a similar emotional system to people and for those patients that find it hard to talk about their issues we can pick up on their anxieties through the way they behave with the horse. So not all therapies come from talking.”
They also offer Tai Chi, mindfulness practise and they have a nutritionist. Sally feels that a particularly successful part of the therapy is the family sessions where the patients are joined by a loved one where they attempt to rebuild the damage that has been done to relationships through their addictions. They can also inform the family on the facts about the illness and open new lines of communication. Sally tells me; “They need the support as much as the addict. We can also tell them how they should behave when the patient returns home and help them to rebuild their family life.”
This treatment does not come cheap though and would be unaffordable to many at €14,000 for the 28-day treatment, although Andrew who used to work in the famous Priory tells me their prices are now £1000 per day, so it is good value in comparison. Whenever they can Nova Vida try to help those who cannot afford the full fees.
The reason that anxiety, stress and depression is so closely linked to addiction is that in many cases the cause of the addiction is underlying mental health problems that the patient tries to self-medicate with alcohol or drugs. The route of the problem needs to be found before recovery can happen.
James Arthur is a regular on Algarve radio playlists but he is now a spokesperson for mental health problems and confesses his battle with anxiety has led him to drink and drugs in the past. He is quoted as telling Digital Spy: “Anxiety can be so crippling. It can make you feel like you can't take another step, or that you're going to fall over, or you might die. It's so taboo and the average person, they don't really know anything about it because we're not taught it at school. Education around mental health is still in its infancy."
Andrew tells me; “Performers or those in the public eye can suffer particularly from anxiety and stress because they are under the pressure of performing and being scrutinised under a lens.”
The centre mainly receives its clients from word of mouth or referrals from Doctors. “We are in an ideal location here;” says Sally, “We are a two-and-a-half hour flight from most major European cities so we receive patients from all over the world. It is incredible to see the difference in people from when we pick them up at the airport to when they leave. I sometimes wish we could take before and after pictures. We today received an email from a former patient telling us he has just had his second child which would never have happened without our help as his marriage would not have survived. Stories like that make it all worthwhile.”
I want to know why anxiety and depression are becoming so much more prevalent today. Is it just that it is being talked about more or is there more of it around? Andrew thinks the problem is growing and it is being contributed to by a number of factors such as social media and new mobile technology; “Professionals often feel they have to be available 24/7 on their phones or email and this can become overwhelming.”
Fortunately, this problem is now being addressed. Volkswagen in Germany switched off its Blackberry emails following pressure from trade unions. Under the arrangement, servers stop routeing emails 30 minutes after the end of employees' shifts and then start again 30 minutes before they return to work. France also gave employees the right to disconnect from emails after working hours. Andrew thinks this is a positive step forward towards improving mental health.
It is, however, likely that with the pressures associated with modern work conditions there will be a continued need for the care that Andrew and Sally offer; “We called this centre Nova Vida because it gave us a new life and a new start and we can do the same for our patients;” says Sally. “We never stop caring for our patients, we are there for them for their whole life so they can always contact us should then need us. We love doing what we do, it is a joy to give people the help they need.”
The centre offers outpatient treatment for those that live in the Algarve and they also have therapists specialising in relationship counselling and specialist outpatient care for young adults.
Let´s hope that the more we hold a magnifying glass up to mental health issues and talk about them, the more people will feel that they can talk about their problems and seek help from dedicated people that try to help them like Andrew and Sally and their team.
Novavidarecovery.com
(+351) 919357186 info@novavidarecovery.com
