“Don’t waste your pain.”

Those words, spoken by someone at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting years ago, have helped Christine Brayshaw turn a drug addiction into a desire to help women in the same situation.

Six years sober, the Chilliwack mom recently opened a private women’s treatment centre in a heritage home in Chilliwack.

“I wanted to open a centre for women from the demographic I came from,” she said Tuesday. “They’re not living on the streets yet — but the key word is yet ... This is early intervention.”

Brayshaw has had inquiries from mothers “who still have their children and still have their jobs,” in addition to nurses, teachers and even the human resources departments of large companies.

“The women in this demographic are not homeless or prostituting themselves for drugs, but people are beginning to notice they have a problem and need help,” she explained.

Called Tranquil Waters, the treatment centre fills a need in B.C. The three-month program is longer than most government programs and deals with the issues behind addiction to prevent women from “knocking on the door of another recovery house in the future,” said Brayshaw. Other B.C. recovery houses help women who are “furthest down in their addiction” and have become “street-entrenched.”

Tranquil Waters strikes a balance between government and welfare funded programs and the pricey private coed treatment centres that can charge up to $10,000 a month for services.

Women at Brayshaw’s house pay about $5,000 for help and a foundation is in the works to help those with financial difficulties.

The small group of women — up to nine at a time — eat dinner together at a big antique dining table, go for walks in the country and participate in one-on-one and group programs.

“We love them until they can love themselves,” said Brayshaw.

The mother of one knows firsthand how difficult that can be.

After suffering sexual abuse as a child, Brayshaw became addicted to pain and anxiety medications.

“When [son] Justin was born, he was my purpose,” she writes on the Tranquil Waters website. “I read all kinds of books, determined to give him a better childhood than I myself had ... As Justin grew up, he needed me less and less, and the less he needed me, the more purposeless I felt.”

Brayshaw fell deeper into addiction and was “drugged out” all day, everyday. She and her husband Rod eventually divorced.

A first treatment attempt at a government-run 28-day program in 2002 ended in failure.

A second attempt, in 2004, led Brayshaw to discover her dream of helping women with addictions.

She began working on a degree in counselling and reconnected with her husband. They remained friends until he emailed her to say he hoped they would someday be together again.

They were remarried on their anniversary date three years ago.

“It really is a fairy tale story, but it is my truth,” she said.

Brayshaw hopes to give other addicted women the chance to dream again.

Tranquil Waters can be found at http://tranquilwatersaddictiontreatmentservices.com/