Chasing Recovery Part Two

Chasing Recovery:

A Story of Aroha

PART2

We have a korero to Billy’s partner Edith about the in’s and out’s and high’s and low’s of walking alongside Billy as he navigates his way from the dark to the light.

Chasing Recovery: A

Story of Aroha

is what we have been waiting for. For so long many of our whānau experiences with addiction has been kept out of sight, swept under the rug and hidden in the shadows. But why aren’t we talking about it when so many of our whānau are affected by it? Mainstream support services often speak of confidentiality, anonymity and privacy.

But we say that is not our way of healing. We say let’s move this thing from the dark into the light - bring back our own method of mainstream - shine a light on it and sort out the true issues within our whānau and communities. Supporting each other - our rough, rugged, and raw hero’s. The realist ones that aren’t afraid to make a change, the ones that are ready to heal - the one’s making a real difference in our communities.

Billy Mihinui and Edith Te Papa are just two of those hero’s.

Over the next few days we will be releasing their story in three parts, so give the page a follow to make sure you don’t miss out on their incredible story!

How did you stay so hearty while you were going through all this with Billy?

I was at rock bottom with him, either one of us were gunna die or one of us was going to jail. We were toxic for each other, even though I wasn’t on the pipe but I started to wear the behaviours - I was out of control, not the loving person my hapū knows me as. So I had to step away and leave Billy.

What was the final straw for you?

For me it was seeing him with another woman at the gas station, I lost my shit. I leaped from my car window to his car window, I wasn’t thinking of my own safety. He could’ve just driven off and my body probably would’ve just snapped in half. That was it for me. I needed to go and get help for myself, so I had to leave and stay away from Billy.

What did you do then?

I went to the doctors, coz there’s nothing out there for us, he prescribed anti-depressants but that’s the last thing I wanted to do. So I reached out to the Legacy sisterhood empowerment programme. At first I was judging them like ‘Hmm, Church, Destiny’s’ but I had the courage to reach out to them. I went and done the 12 week programme, three weeks into it and I started to empower myself. Then I knew I had to come back for him. The destruction he brought our relationship was huge, but I held on to that little bit of hope, because I remembered him before he picked up the pipe.

How did that programme help you?

So I graduated in September and I asked him if he wanted to come. He’d been gone about a week but he managed to turn up and I remember him looking at me after and he was saying how beautiful I was on the stage and how proud he was of me. That was the first time in a long time that I heard him saying something nice to me and just broke down crying.

Then he looked at me and said, “I don’t know what to do”, and I knew that was my chance.

So I turned to him and said, ‘You’re probably not gunna like it, you’re probably gunna resist, but you need to go back to rehab”. He didn’t say anything and he just nodded his head, and that’s when I got on the phone to Tūhoe drug and alcohol counsellor Nika Puru, who told us about the new Mana Enhacing hui in Whakatāne.

How hard was it to get Billy to go to that hui?

I was on the phone to Nika Puru on a Sunday, and the meeting was Tuesday. From Sunday to Tuesday is like the longest day of your life, coz it only take a knock on the door Billy will be back out those doors again and into that world.

So I put a plan in place. I walked to work, I’d go hide the truck at my mums. I did everything I could to make him safe that he wouldn’t walk back out into that world. Tuesday came and Nika Puru picked us both up and went to our first Mana Enhancing STOP hui in Whakatāne, and it was powerful everyone sharing their stories.

So it was powerful enough to make you go back for more?

Yeah, Billy used to run around chasing meth by himself, but the hui were powerful for both of us so we started chasing recovery together.