'Life is good now. The best it has been in a hell of a long time.'
A Belfast personal trainer is determined to help others after overcoming his own battle with drink and drug addictions.
"It was more the cocaine. I turned to drugs to get away from what I was facing in life at the time. It was a way of detaching myself from things. "From the age of 22 to about a year-and-a-half ago I was taking cannabis regularly. I think it was the end of February or March last year when I got off it."
"Even after my partner and I had our baby six months ago, I was feeling constantly tired and rundown and I started feeling anxious with life and slipping into my old ways. "When that happened, it was like a rocket was stuck up my backside. I was absolutely buzzing to be in that environment."Without Paddy and Gary Arthurs, I would have been lost. They do regular check-ins with me and we meet up for coffees."You can sometimes hold yourself back, but you also let other people hold you back. I could have been a personal trainer years ago but it never happened.
"I just thought I can't do this anymore. I don't talk about it very much, and I went to counselling back then."I was still smoking cannabis then, because I thought it was helping me get over the harder stuff like cocaine, and even alcohol. Paulie has adopted a 'one day at a time' mantra to his recovery, and admits he has slipped up along the way."I had one slip-up where I thought I needed to test myself and try cannabis to see if I would be more in control of things," he said.
"I take medication for anxiety and depression and have been on that for about eight years. I was taking those tablets on top of the drink and drugs which was madness.Paulie says a major turning point in his life came last Christmas when he decided to follow his dreams of becoming a personal trainer. He added: "I call myself The Mindful Coach. I always preach to people to be mindful of their choices.
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