Express & Star

Samuel back from the brink to help other addicts

Samuel Bennett paints a bleak picture of his teenage years.

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Homelessness can be a very lonely experience, says Samuel

"I started drinking at 13, I was what you would call an alcoholic by 14 or 15, and I was in rehab by the time I was 18," he says. In between those times, he began sleeping rough on the streets.

"The lowest point was sitting on the streets, being totally, ignored," he says.

"People just walked past me as if I didn't exist, I was hungry for food, and was generally having nothing."

Thanks in part to the help he received from a support group in Telford, Samuel – who grew up in Stourbridge – is now firmly back on the straight and narrow. And he is now using his experiences to develop a new internet social network and phone app for people struggling with their own addictions.

The phone app, which he expects to launch within the next eight weeks, will allow recovering addicts to connect with each other for mutual support, and put them in touch with organisations which can provide urgent support should they be away from their normal location.

It also includes a "sharebox", where people can share their thoughts without any danger of them being identified to others.

"It is something I know would have helped me, had I been around," he says.

"If you are, say in London, and you feel the need to go to a meeting, the app will put you in touch with other recovering addicts who can tell you where the nearest support meeting will be taking place."

Samuel says all posts will be closely monitored to ensure it is not open to abuse. The name of the network, Meet4acoffee, is also significant.

"If you are looking to meet someone, they will so often say 'let's go for a drink', and you then have to explain why you can't do that. It's not a dating app by any means, but if people want to meet others who are going through similar things, why not use it."

Samuel, now 31, and living in Sheffield, is actually not sure how long he has been clean from alcohol.

"It's been a while, a few years," he says.

"Having lost everything and everyone in my life I walked away from my cardboard bedding, my ankles swollen with poison from my alcohol abuse," he says.

"My mind was turning over of just how lonely it was to be left in the gutter and totally ignored, people sadly choose to ignore what they don't understand.

"As I walked, I set my mind to one thing, helping myself and then coming back to help the others."

While many addicts talk about how their problems stemmed from a troubled childhood, Samuel says his life was very different.

"I came from a good family, my mum and dad were great people, who always showed me lots of love and support," he says.

Growing up in Stourbridge, he attended the town's Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School, although he was never the most disciplined of pupils.

"I left without any qualifications, I was never really interested," he says.

"I began drinking with my friends in Mary Stevens Park. Looking back, I was always somebody who wanted too much of everything. No matter how much dinner I had, I always wanted more.

"When I started drinking, it was never about drinking because I liked the taste, it was always about getting smashed. It was fun, and it gave me confidence."

By the age of 17, his quest for more alcohol led to him starting to sleep rough so he could avoid parental scrutiny.

"I was always supported by my family, I would always have a place to go to if I wanted to, but a lot of it was that I didn't want to go home.

"I wanted to be out drinking, I wanted to be out getting smashed, and if that meant sleeping in an abandoned house so I could have a drink, that's what I would do."

It was the start of a downward spiral which would see Samuel leading a nomadic life, surviving from day-to-day from whatever people would give him.

"It is a common thing with addicts, they will not see themselves as having the problem," he says.

"They think it is caused by those who are around them, so they move to get away from it, but the problems are still the same."

He says that even when he was in rehab for the first time, in his late teens, it never really occurred to him that he had a serious problem.

"I was in rehab because I couldn't hold a plate in front of me through shaking, because I needed a drink," he adds.

Samuel says he believes it is disgusting that there are so many people living on the street, but accepts there are no easy answers. He says there are many charities which do excellent work in supporting the homeless, and adds that there is a small minority which actually chooses to remain homeless rather than accept available support.

"Some people are okay being homeless, and if that's how they want it, it's not for the rest of us to tell them how to live."

He admits that simply handing over money to a homeless person on the street will more often than not simply feed their addiction, but he says in many cases simply acknowledging their presence will mean more to them than simply money.

"If I see somebody at the side of the street, I will stop and give them food, but you can't help everybody," he says.

"Sometimes, if you just say 'good morning' to them it will mean far more than throwing money at them.

"I will sit next them on the floor, cross-legged, and have a chat with them."

His phone app ­is free to use, although people are invited to make donations. It provides resources not just for recovering addicts, but also for support groups. Another feature is that it helps people celebrate their "clean birthdays", which are very important to some addicts as part of their recovery.

"For many, 'clean birthdays' are very important milestones," he says. "They say they are reborn on the day they begin their recovery, and they celebrate 30 days of being clean, then 60 days, then 90 days and six months, then a year. They might decide to treat themselves to celebrate.

"The app will send them a message wishing them a happy birthday, and friends can send them birthday wishes."

Samuel says, though that birthdays were never part of his recovery:

"I don't think about the past, I just think about the future."

*For more information see the website www.meet4acoffee.com