A RECOVERING alcoholic has shared his 12-year battle with drink and drugs in a new book.

Andy Sullivan has written a book about his first year free from alcohol and drugs after a decade-long addiction that took everything he had.

At the age of 28, Padgate-born Andy had a seemingly-perfect life living out in South Africa with his family and a successful business.

But unbeknown to those around him he was becoming addicted to drink and drugs.

He said: “I can look back now and know when the moment was where alcohol and drugs became more than just a social playmate and I became dependent on them to get through a week or a day.

“I had everything – a wife that I adored, a daughter and another one on the way, my own business and we were earning great money.

“As a young man I couldn’t have asked for more but inside I was in agony.

“In my immature thinking, the only thing I could do to eradicate the pain was to use copious amounts of cocaine and drink copious amounts of alcohol – it took 12 years to even get to the point of accepting that I had a problem.

“When I got to the end of my using I couldn’t imagine my life with drink and drugs and I couldn’t imagine my life without it.

“Everything had been taken away from me because of my drinking – I’d lost my marriage, numerous jobs and lost contact with numerous friends.

“In recovery we have what’s known as a sober date and mine is September 28 2014 – I lost a job and went on a three-day binge an ended up in a massive fight.

“I went home and sat on my bed and I decided that I was going to take my own life.”

Thankfully Andy was booked into a treatment centre by his former partner and began his recovery journey.

Since then he has enjoyed nearly two years of sobriety and is now sharing his experiences through talks across the country and his book.

Andy, now 40, added: “The drink and the drugs weren’t the problem – they were the solution to the problems that I was having and therefore the problem was me.

“The book in essence is me giving back what I’ve learned – it’s not me coming up with a new plan to keep yourself sober, it’s my journey in achingly-honest real time from day one to day 365.

“There was a time I came very close to relapse in the first six months after starting off so brightly and full of hope and purpose, but I managed to get through that incredibly difficult time and reap the rewards of that afterwards.

“The biggest problem for me was the thought of never watching Warrington Wolves or Liverpool again without having a drink.

“The thought of never drinking again was something that was so incomprehensible to me but actually life is so much better for me without it.

“I want to get that message of recovery out to more people and to give them encouragement if they’re struggling in their lives or if they’ve just started on this journey.

“I went through some real lows but they don’t kill you and you come through the other side a lot wiser and better for having experienced the pain.”

A Year Without Substance: Breaking Through the Wall of Addiction is available at andrewsullivan.biz or on Amazon.