A Clydebank man has been reunited with his family after a 20 year battle with drug and alcohol addiction.
Matthew Murie had not seen his big sister or young niece for five years as the stress of his addiction had driven the siblings apart. Matthew's relationship with his mum had also broken down and at one point he feared he had pushed all of his loved ones away.
The 44-year-old former soldier had struggled on and off with an addiction to heroin, cocaine and alcohol for two decades before seeking help from a specialist recovery programme.
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Matthew said: "At Christmas in 2021 I was really broken and I didn’t think there was any way out.
“I had nothing, no friends or family left because I’d pushed everyone away, and I had nothing in my flat apart from a tiny radio.
“I’d been in the army and became a lorry driver when I came out, but by that point I had lost my licence.
“My mum had been dragged through my addiction with me and it was breaking her.
“Me and my sister had broken ties about five years before, so I lost that relationship with her.
“I was dragging people down and I didn’t see any way out.
“I went to Safe as Houses almost a year ago and got myself a sponsor. I put in the hard work and then the opportunity to came up to join Recovering Voices.
“I’d never done anything like it before. They built me up and I got my confidence back working with the group.
“It gave me something to do every week, and it was all leading up to the performance at Oran Mor.”
Recovering Voices is a “drama therapy” programme for people in the recovery community who have no prior interest in drama or therapy, devised by film writer and director Mark MacNicol and the charity Creative Change Collective.
Matthew was overjoyed after his sister, niece and mum turned up to support him at a performance by the Recovering Voices group at Oran Mor in Glasgow last year.
Matthew added: “I was really nervous but I had a lot of people there supporting me that night – friends, family and people I’d met throughout my recovery.
“I could see my mum, sister and niece all sitting at the front, it was quite emotional.
“To see how proud they were – it’s one of the best moments I’ve ever had.
“They hadn’t been able to be proud of me, and we hadn’t had any special moments like that, for over 20 years.”
People in Glasgow’s recovery community are being encouraged to self-refer to the Recovering Voices programme, which begins again on Friday and runs weekly from 2pm-4pm. Anyone interested, or who would like to find out more, should contact info@ccc.scot.
Project director Mark MacNicol, who lost his own brother Jason to drug addiction, said: “Everyone at Recovering Voices is immensely proud of Matthew and the achievements he and all our past participants have made.
“We hope his story will inspire others in the recovery community to sign up to join our weekly sessions, which begin again in Glasgow this Friday.
“Recovering Voices is not a traditional drama group – most of our participants have no interest in acting or writing.
“Our sessions are designed to support people in their recovery through drama therapy type activities.
“We have been working in the justice space since 2014, and more recently with the recovery community for about 12 months, and we’ve seen some incredible results.”
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