{"id":48157,"date":"2026-03-31T14:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/?p=48157"},"modified":"2026-04-01T07:52:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:52:41","slug":"choosing-to-move-forward-one-decision-that-changed-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/choosing-to-move-forward-one-decision-that-changed-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing to Move Forward: One Decision That Changed Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"lead\">Hello,<br \/>It will always be my pleasure to share my story for Portage.<\/p>\r\n<p>This was my first experience in therapy, and it truly changed my life forever. I had been trapped in the cycle of addiction for 12 years. I wasn&#8217;t a chronic user: I always worked and continued my studies. I&#8217;m fortunate to have a wonderful family, which helped me tremendously, even though I often felt misunderstood.<\/p>\r\n<p>As far as I know, no one in my immediate or extended family struggles with problematic substance use &#8211; whether alcohol or drugs. Yet my own consumption had subtle but real consequences in almost every area of my life. But somehow, there was never a &#8220;problem.&#8221; It was never my fault. And despite that, I hurt people who mattered deeply to me.<\/p>\r\n<p>After twelve years of use and the end of a third serious relationship, I decided &#8211; on the recommendation of my psychotherapist &#8211; to turn to Portage. Since that day, I have not used again. As of June 16, 2025, it has been exactly 1 year, 4 months and 20 days.<\/p>\r\n<p>Since then, I&#8217;ve started producing electronic music, specifically <strong>Dubstep. I&#8217;ve had the chance to meet sober people in that scene who have helped me learn and grow.<\/strong> Today, I have a mentor &#8211; a well\u2011known artist in this community &#8211; and I even had the opportunity to perform in Calgary, Alberta.<\/p>\r\n<p>I am soon completing my Multidisciplinary Bachelor&#8217;s degree at Universit\u00e9 Laval, and I intend to apply for the Master&#8217;s in Social Work. None of this would have happened if I hadn&#8217;t made the choice to put myself first and reach out to Portage.<\/p>\r\n<p>I will be eternally grateful to this organization, and especially to my wonderful counsellor, Laurane. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I have tears in my eyes as I write these words.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Simon, Quebec Day Centre<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Ricard Simon1\" src=\"https:\/\/portage.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Ricard-Simon1.jpg\" alt=\"Ricard Simon1\" width=\"1240\" height=\"1240\" \/><\/figure>\r\n<h3>RELATED CONTENT<\/h3>\r\n<p>Share this article:<\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/?p=48157&amp;fl_builder&amp;title=Choosing+to+Move+Forward%3A+One+Decision+That+Changed+Everything\"> Share on Facebook <\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/?p=48157&amp;fl_builder&amp;title=Choosing+to+Move+Forward%3A+One+Decision+That+Changed+Everything\"> Share on Linkedin <\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello,It will always be my pleasure to share my story for Portage. This was my first experience in therapy, and it truly changed my life forever. I had been trapped in the cycle of addiction for 12 years. I wasn&#8217;t a chronic user: I always worked and continued my studies. I&#8217;m fortunate to have a&#8230;  <a href=\"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/choosing-to-move-forward-one-decision-that-changed-everything\/\" class=\"more-link\" title=\"Read Choosing to Move Forward: One Decision That Changed Everything\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":48153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[364],"tags":[367],"class_list":["post-48157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonial","tag-sobriety"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48157"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48165,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48157\/revisions\/48165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}