In recovery? Best Life offers help with 'sobriety through connection'

"There are 20 million people waking up this morning in South Africa with a substance abuse issue."

That's Alistair Wilson, co-founder of the Best Life sobriety community, talking about the magnitude of the addiction problem in our country.

Marking Recovery Month, Sara-Jayne Makwala King chats to Wilson about the recovery journey and the new 28 Days That Will Change Your Life programme they're set to launch later this year.

Best Life is a  long-term sobriety community, powered by an mHealth smartphone app, that Wilson and his friend Brian Little started in Cape Town during the COVID lockdown.

"It was early in our recovery at that stage... We realised that a big part of that early stage is connecting with people that are looking to find a solution within sobriety; some people may find certain elements of it daunting, so we decided to create this soft touch, this space for people to be able to connect with others in recovery and have the real conversations they need to have..."

Alistair Wilson, Co-founder - Best Life

Looking at the numbers, they realised that the chances of recovery are very slim in South Africa, says Wilson.

Accordingly, one of the catchphrases of Best Life is Sobriety through Connection.

"One of the stats we've picked up on is, of those average 20 million, 10 000 of those are able to afford and receive treatment, and it's 85% of those I think that are going to be back in rehab..."

"We wanted to try and create a platform that people can access easily, and tap into and reach people that are in recovery or are just wanting to connect to live a sober life."

Alistair Wilson, Co-founder - Best Life

Best Life at the moment offers a variety of connection points like walking and coffee meetups to bring together people in recovery.

"We're trying to offer an ambassador programme to help people that want to get involved in things like trail running or mountain biking or surfing... poetry or sewing, or whatever it might be to open that sort of community within our community."

'We're trying to get some funding so that we can market the platform to the greater community in SA and get it into households to support the people who can't or don't know how to access the information that is available."

Alistair Wilson, Co-founder - Best Life

Best Life ran a pilot programme for 28 Days That Will Change Your Life and the feedback was 'phenomenal', Wilson says.  

They're planning to launch the official programme before the end of this year.

"We introduced a lot of people to a different way of waking up in the morning... at different points during the day how to remind yourself of what you're doing with very easy plugins to day to day life that you don't learn just by going to a meeting or talking to people."

"We had the professionals involved in developing this 28 day pilot, which includes a Monday meditation that changes the rest of the week..."

Alistair Wilson, Co-founder - Best Life

Find all the information on the Best Life website, or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the in-depth interview