Shanna Whan is a born and raised true blue country girl. She lives and breathes by the heartbeat of the bush. But for years she lived with a secret that only her close friends and family knew. She was a high functioning alcoholic who had slipped through the cracks- a professional by day and a virtual derelict by night.
This was until she hit hit rock bottom on Boxing Day 2014. She was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs unconscious by her husband with a large cut to her head. What she has since discovered and started sharing with the world, is that there is a startling lack of resources and support groups for thousands of people living in rural areas who are affected by addiction and alcoholism. So she took matters into her own hands and started blogging about her experience.
In the time since she started her recovery, Shanna has helped hundreds of people who were in the same unfortunate predicament as her. She teaches self kindness, not self loathing. The truth is that no alcoholic should feel ashamed about their addiction- it’s almost always the case that some form of trauma always preceeds the onset of addiction.
Shanna has created a charity and support network titled ‘Sober in the Country’- a platform that aims to create awareness about alcoholism in the bush and steer the conversation towards the direction where ‘it’s okay to say no’. Sober in the Country provides channels for otherwise isolated and helpless people to reach out and get the connection they so desperately need. Shanna’ s story was featured on the ABC’s Australian Story last November, and she was kind enough to talk with Bertie from Show Radio. You can catch their conversation below:
