Chrissy
TRANSCRIPT
For a guy like myself to come out and tell you that there is a lot more to life than this false sense of security and this false sense of happiness because whenever the party stops, so does your happiness.
Growing up with ADHD and just down to the way I was, I was diagnosed when I was five. I was trying to make friends, I was just do do do do do. I was in people’s face. I was just… I didn’t really know and I wasn’t aware of my senses. It was sensory overload. So I wasn’t really part of a clique. I never really was invited out places. I was not… but then when I started taking drugs and partying, I was wanted and I felt part of a… I felt like part of… like a sense of, I don’t know a sense of comfort.
Things just escalated actually, it went from initially Saturday night maybe going to Kellys when I was seventeen/eighteen to now when I was twenty six last year. From then when I was twenty six to nearly losing my life over it and it wasn’t just a weekend thing like. It was maybe going on at one weekend and then at the end of the month my ma would see me again coming home from that same party.
Think my mum actually looked at me a couple months before it – and my mum has always always had my back and I really wouldn’t know where I’d be without her like – but eventually just looked at me one day and was like “look Son, it’s that lifestyle or it’s us”.
I used to do a bit of boxing whenever I was younger, but I was too much of a hallion to stick it out. As if he says boxing does put self-discipline in to you, so he recommended I give it a go. “Flip, right I’ll go in here for a wee session here to see what it is” and I really thought I was going to be a hard man and all so I went in and was “ah I’m class”. Twenty minutes I was out the back of the gym and I was boking my ring up and at the time I was affronted with myself.
Matty was like “Twenty minutes more than I thought you were going to do” and he goes “and I may book you in for two sessions a week ‘cause you’re gona need a lot of training”
I started running and that’s what got me to do this half marathon. I was like right… This time last year I wouldn’t have walked down to the off license from the party never mind sitting here thinking I’m going to be in a beautiful head space and I’m looking forward to doing this half marathon.
We went to the colour run for Inspire at Stormont and we all loved it. It was great craic and my wee girl came with me so I finished the run. I was, as I said, I managed to get just over a twenty two minute 5K then and I was up to speed. And the fella that just overtook me at the last, asked me about what competitions and runs I would have done and if I was a marathon runner and I just straight off the bat came out to him and said, “no, this time last year I was addicted to drink and drugs and I couldn’t get off the sofa” and his face just sort of went like “did he just say that there?”.
I’ll say it as comfortable as I like, because there’s no denying your past but it’s your future that matters.