Harm Reduction Worker in RBKC

Hello. I am Syed, the new Harm Reduction Worker at Build on Belief. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Where do I start? From the beginning I guess. We are all products of family history and the environment that we find ourselves in; so stemming partly from genetic inheritance but also from my upbringing in a Syhletti Bangladeshi household in the London of the 1970s and 1980s, I developed a profound sense of unworthiness and self- loathing. This manifested in obsessive compulsive and addictive behavioural traits which I can recall from my earliest days. So, whether it was gorging on a box of crisps containing twenty four packets, which my father had bought from a cash and carry, or bar after bar of chocolate until a chocolately lava studded with crumbs gushed uncontrollably from my mouth; or the irrational phobias and bizarre rituals which an inner voice exhorted me to follow to prevent inevitable catastrophe; or my repeated forays into the use of illicit substances and relationships, nothing bought me the inner peace of self- acceptance but only the ever deepening hell of self-destructive behaviour. At times I felt on the brink of madness at the other moments gripped by a desire for self- annihilation.   

My road to well- being began like countless of others with the 12 streps programme, some therapy and finding ‘my own family’ at Build On Belief. Creativity and a purpose to try to do some good in this world, however small, has given me sense that I deserve to live, and have a place in this world. And that when things good happen to be grateful and not feel shame, guilt and automatically hit the self-sabotage button.

Contact Details

Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 07511 161047