Regina city councillor shares his story of addiction

REGINA — Drinking was something Terry Hincks admits he was “good at”.

“In the end I was drinking every day,” said the city councillor for Regina’s ward 9. “Mostly beer, but a lot of beer.”

Hincks started drinking at a young age and over time it developed into an addiction. Many people around him, however, had no idea.

“I hid it well for a long time,” he explained.

That was not an easy task. Hincks has been on city council since 2003 and has a busy real estate business. As the years went on his addiction slowly started to take its toll and those closest to him realized something was wrong after he would show up somewhere late, miss appointments and smell like alcohol.

“In the last couple years it caught up to me and I wasn’t that good at what I did,” said Hincks.

Last July he decided enough was enough and entered a rehab program in Vancouver. Hincks has been sober since then, but at the back of his mind, the fear of relapsing is still there.

“I’m always conscious of that myself,” Hincks said. “I know there’s a danger for me to do that.”

The difficulties of beating addictions have been in the spotlight recently after the death of Glee star Cory Monteith. Earlier this year he completed his second stint in rehab, yet on July 13th he was found dead in his Vancouver hotel room due to a deadly combination of heroin and alcohol.

“It’s always easy to relapse,” said addictions councillor Rand Teed.

Recovering addicts are given the tools in rehab that will help them get better, but it is very hard to do. Teed said the important part is reprogramming their life.

“If you go back to doing what you were doing before and just try to do it drug and alcohol free, usually that doesn’t work very well, because there are so many pressures and so many triggers,” Teed explained.

He worked on a TV show called Drug Class, helping teens overcome their demons, but from what he has seen, drug and alcohol addictions are becoming more common.

“I believe it’s getting to epidemic proportions,” Teed said.

Exactly one year sober, Hincks spends a lot of time focussing on staying clean with help from a 12-step recovery group. He wants his story to inspire others to get the help they need for their addictions before it is too late.

“I’ve watched a number of people die from it and I really care that it doesn’t happen,” said Hincks. “Anything I can do, I would do to help.”