Drink to die

Photo Daniel Mallard
Peter Pronovost, speaker at the House of Job, is sober for 20 years.

Dominique Lelièvre

Sunday, 22 October, 2017 00:00

UPDATE
Sunday, 22 October, 2017 00:00

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“In the background, I used to die. I remember, I was on my couch, I was using, me it was safe, then I always took my pulse and saying to myself, one day, it will turn off. “

Peter Pronovost is back from far away. “Once productive” for twenty years, as he says himself, he has a job for all these years and gets to keep the head out of the water even if it is not ” lack of [opportunity] to eat “.

Things fail over when he is dumped by his wife. This is the beginning of a lapse of four years, during which he ends up on social assistance. He can drink up to 16 ounces of whisky per day. “I eat non-stop. I stop eating when I fell to the ground. When I get up, I start again, ” recalls the man of 63 years old.

“I knew that I had a problem, I wasn’t that stupid,” he said. I had cut a small advertisement of alcoholics anonymous published in The Journal de Québec. I had put it on my answering machine […] and then, at a given moment I said it is beautiful. [I was] desperate, completely, and I’ve said : I’ll call. “

The save

In the end, it is a work of a volunteer in a drug rehabilitation center that is going to save him. Immersed in an environment where nobody consumes, it is also said to be clinging to her spiritual beliefs to overcome his addiction.

Sober for 20 years, he is now speaker in the House of Job. “It is possible [to get by]. It is possible for everyone. I’ve seen different people going to be here in therapy, we spend 200 clients per year […] and they will come “, expresses he.

Need help ?

► In the National Capital, the Centre de réadaptation en dépendance de Québec is the only public institution devoted to the dependencies. A dozen non-government organizations and community-based services are also available. A comprehensive directory of resources is available on the government website: hss.govt.qc.ca