A recovering alcoholic has shared his own personal battle during Dry January.

Colman Pyne, a mental health manager at Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, has revealed how the onset of a withdrawal seizure and dash to the nearest pub made him realise he needed help.

He had tried to quit drinking several times but on each occasion, he had relapsed.

Colman said: “I knew I had to stop drinking. I had been trying to recover and stay well for some time but I had experienced a number of relapses.

“It was five years ago and I was on the tube and I hadn’t drunk for 12 hours. I was attempting to get to the point of complete abstinence on my own.

“I was doing ok at first, but then, as I sat on the Underground I started to sweat. I was looking at a picture in the newspaper of a jockey and a horse at Ascot, and I remember the horse’s head began to move.

“I knew I was hallucinating and that I was about to have a withdrawal seizure. As a trained nurse I knew the signs, but it was terrifying.

“Whatever my determination my body wasn’t coping.”

Colman described how his father was an alcoholic and his sister has been in recovery for some years.

Colman added: “I’m not sure when I first realised drinking was becoming a problem. But looking back I think I always had an unhealthy and dependent relationship with regards to alcohol.

“I didn’t recognise it at the time, but I probably spent a fair amount of time thinking about having a drink, or drinking situations.

“Drinking, then heavy drinking, and heading towards alcoholism, took the course of an insidious, progressive disease. It crept up slowly over the years and had a high cost in terms of health and sometimes relationships.”

Colman has been working for the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust for 15 years.

He has never drunk while at work and his work has never been affected.

However, hiding his condition was becoming more of a challenge.

Colman concluded: “I kept thinking that I could manage the situation if I just tried harder.

“At first, I never talked about my condition openly because I was afraid of what people would think, and I was fearful of potential consequences.

“I had to talk eventually and I had to trust that sharing my vulnerability would help me recover and that family, friends and professionals would be there for me until I became well.

“I want to help break down the stigma that surrounds mental health and if me talking about my experience gives someone the courage to get help, then I am glad I have made a difference.

“For years I fought alone with the problem of drinking, but there is lots of help available in many forms.

“I am so glad that I found a way through with my condition and now know so many others in recovery leading happy, fulfilled and purposeful lives.

“I feel liberated from this condition and am now able to appreciate all things I had lost in the latter stages of active alcoholism.”

England has an estimated 595,131 dependent drinkers, of whom 108,696 are accessing treatment.

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust offers a drug and alcohol service called Enable, in partnership with Blenheim, to help people struggling with alcohol.

People over 18-years-old in Enfield can access the free support, advice and treatment provided.

Call 020 8379 6010 or email beh-tr.enable@nhs.net for more information.