Beth Burgess is a Life and Recovery Coach, an author and an NLP Practitioner, as well as an alcoholic in recovery.
Beth lives in North London and runs her own business, Sort My Life Solutions (Smyls), which she set up to empower people who have suffered setbacks in life to move on and find happiness.
As someone who has herself recovered from alcoholism, social anxiety disorder, bulimia, self-harm and Borderline Personality Disorder, Beth has an empathy and insight that allows her to reach people in the darkest of places.
Specialising in Addiction Recovery, Beth has also been sought out to help people overcoming illnesses, mental health problems, redundancy, divorce, bereavement and eating disorders, among other issues. In addition to her work with individuals, she also offers consulting and runs workshops.
Beth is the author of The Recovery Formula: An Addict's Guide to Getting Clean & Sober Forever and has also published a mini ebook, What is Self Esteem?
Her areas of expertise include Alcoholism, Addiction & Recovery, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Recovery Coaching, Stress Management, Self-Esteem and Overcoming Obstacles.
Beth has written articles for The Royal Society of the Arts, The Big Issue, The New Statesman and various other publications. She writes her own 'Mind Mentor' blog as well as blogging for The Huffington Post and Wired In and she has most recently been featured in Tesco Magazine.
Beth has a unique way with words, which she uses to touch, inspire and educate. She regularly shares her thoughts on social topics, such as addiction, alcohol, criminal justice and mental health as well as what it takes to live a healthy, happy life.
Beth's Story
"I almost became an alcoholic on purpose. That sounds quite strange, but when I started drinking all day, every day I knew exactly what I was doing and had no intentions of stopping. I started drinking alcoholically because I had an anxiety disorder. It started off with being afraid to eat in front of people and progressed to me being scared to go outside.
"The symptoms of my anxiety disorder started to emerge very strongly at around the age of seventeen. By eighteen, I was drinking every day. And by nineteen, I was already physically dependent and a full-blown addict.
"Throughout my years as a 'voluntary' alcoholic, I did try all sorts of things to deal with my anxiety disorder. Eventually I came across a cure that took just ninety minutes and I haven't been afraid to go outside ever since. It was an amazing day, not just in terms of the fact that I now felt no fear in the course of trying to function, but I thought that I would just return to drinking like everyone else.
"Cue another five years of being absolutely unable to drink like everyone else. Being a rational person most of the time, it didn't make sense to me at all, and I refused for a long time to accept that this was it; I just was an alcoholic now and there was nothing I could do to change that. But I did have to accept it in the end, and so began my quest for recovery.
"I am happy to say that after a long battle, I have found a solid, stable and incredibly happy recovery - and now I help others to do the same. Using the same tools that helped me get over both my anxiety disorder and my alcoholism, and that enabled me to grow as a person, I now help others to overcome their own limitations and go on to lead amazing lives.
"I believe that we can use our pain to find meaning and learn to value our experiences, no matter how challenging they are; we can use them to become the people we were always meant to be."
(Adapted from The Recovery Formula)
