Cade's story
Turning lived experience into somewhere others can land.
Cade didn't start drinking young. Growing up, sport was his thing, and alcohol didn't really enter the picture until his late teens and early twenties — a doctor told him back then he didn't have a problem. Then life happened. The loss of immediate family and a run of traumatic events sent him looking for something to numb it, and he found it in a bottle of vodka.
What followed was years of severe depression — some days he couldn't get off the couch. As a dad to two daughters, he had more than himself to show up for, and he tried to slow down and quit more than once. Every time, the depression and anxiety pulled him back under, and the physical toll piled up along the way. He presented to emergency more than once and rang around to rehabs while he was in crisis, only to be told there was nowhere for him right then. There were stretches of a few months sober at a time, working the 12-step program and going to counselling — but it ultimately led to multiple relapses.
On Christmas Eve, at his lowest point, Cade found the courage to call for help at 2am. He kept struggling through the holidays until, on January 13th — after his family and an Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer advocated hard on his behalf — he was admitted to the mental health ward at Sunshine Coast University Hospital. He spent 23 nights there, and it was during that stay that he met a psychologist who finally met him where he was and told him: I'll help you, but you need to commit. Cade took it on — he promised he'd stay as long as needed and do everything asked of him.
Those 23 nights were a journey in themselves — the good, the bad, and the really bad — but they made him who he is today. Before he left, he saw a dual diagnosis specialist, and together they mapped out his own "rehab at home" plan — and that's exactly what he did.
Now, Cade wants to be there for other people in crisis and guide them to sobriety. That's where Let's Get Sober was born — a mission to make sure nobody else has to scream for help and not be heard.
