rob_667minus1
Joined: 17 Jan 2006
Posts: 2031
Location: North Wales
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| Tell a Friend Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:17 pm Post subject: Inspiration |
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“Test of Strength”
James Salant on how the gym helped himbeat drug addiction
The first time I took drugs was in high school when I was about 14. My friends and I were experimenting with smoking weed. There was nothing unusual about it but then I got into it much more heavily than they did.
At the beginning it was fun and it gave me an identity. I’d never been particularly involved in sports, I wasn’t all that active with girls but I was willing to try the drugs that other people weren’t willing to try.
Then one day I was caught trying to sell drugs to an undercover police officer. I was arrested and my parents sent me to a rehab centre. Most of the people there were drug addicts, dealers and convicts and, to me, it was kind of romantic.
I lied about how serious I’d been back home. I started doing push-ups and weights because I wanted to look scarier. The people there seemed glamorous but in an odd way. Glamorous in that they had absolutely nothing to do with the values of my middle-class upbringing.
Dark days
When I got out of rehab I moved into a sober living house with a friend I had met in rehab. At first we looked for work but we were really just floating and, once we weren’t surrounded by that recovery atmosphere, I realised my life hadn’t really changed.
One day I was driving with another friend and I knew we were going to get high. We ended up going to someone’s house and shooting crystal meth. It’s always scary trying a new drug but it felt good.
The life was seductive but then it became pretty seedy. The places we frequented were pretty dangerous - slums full of junkies and prostitutes. I moved from one couch to the next or I’d stay in cheap motels populated by other drug addicts.
I was shooting meth to get up and heroin to get down. I stated awake for long periods and I kind of went a bit insane. A lot of the people I was hanging out with saw the opportunity to take advantage of me so they stole my car and drugs.
I was wandering the streets and felt completely alone. I was sick and I thought the police were after me. I ended up at a train station and there were people getting off the train. They were hugging but it didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t understand why people would be happy to see each other.
I tried to call my parents to ask for help. I went back to rehab but I was wild. I started picking fights and I got kicked out for headbutting someone. I went to stay at a friends house until my parents sent me a ticket so I could get back for my court date. My parents were very supportive and tried to get me healthy. I had my court date in a month and I started working out a bit.
Cleaning up
I wasn’t sure I wanted to quit. There was still temptation. Then I ended up going to jail for a week and spending six months in a drug rehabilitation programme. The longer I was there the healthier I got and each day I gained resolve.
I started lifting weights when I got back out but I was still pretty fragile. When I lifted weights in the rehab centre it was to look tougher rather than to get clean and healthy. But once I got dedicated to turning my life around, it really was just about the fitness.
I had dropped about 40lb during the six-month rehabilitation programme by having a salad for dinner, doing push-ups when I woke up, lunges, crunches and dips between bunk beds. Then I went to my dad’s gym and some trainers befriended me. They gave me free training sessions and invited me to work out with them. They taught me about weightlifting and different exercises - deadlifts, squats and pull-ups.
I was working out there for over a year and I got pretty strong. I started running, then I started working with teenagers who were using the gym. The management saw me helping people out and saw I was passionate about it so they offered me a part-time job as a floor trainer. It was just a rewarding feeling to help those kids. I don’t think I’d have been in a gym as a teenager, but if I had been I may have had something to do to counterbalance the desire to do drugs.
MF
“Leaving Dirty Jersey” by James Salant (£10.99, Edbury) is out on 5th April |
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