16 - From Addiction to Marathons: Adam Broughan's Journey to Recovery - Part 2

We're back for part two in our three-part series with Adam Broughan. We're in for another treat today. Let's get back into it and get back into the conversation that we started with Adam last week.

It's truly inspirational. Let's get into it. It got so bad that when I said I was fucked, I was fucked.

It wasn't to cry for help. It was, I don't know, whatever you want me to do now, I'll do it. Do you know what I mean? I was, I felt so bad that I was willing to do anything.

It didn't matter what it was. Yeah. I guess you'd, you'd run out of ideas and, you know, you'd completely lost yourself.

So you had no, nothing left in you, I guess is what I'm hearing there. So it felt like, yeah, it felt like the end of the road in, in many ways, I guess, really. So, yeah, so you reached out for that help and, you know, let's talk about that a little bit.

Help is, what help is out there? You know, what help did you get? So, yeah, I went to my family and I just said I was fucked. And I said, I have a problem with drink and drugs. And they said, you know, like that, oh, you know, you can go and talk to somebody about that or something like that.

You know, I was open to anything. So my auntie actually came up, Lily, she's a very good, we get on very well together. And she just went online and she started looking up things like, so I went to a treatment center in Loud, Smarramore.

And it was brilliant. Like, you know, when I went there, there was something happened. Like when I, when I said I was fucked, there was something just ticked at me.

Like, there's lots of different help, you know, there's lots of places you can go, lots of treatment centers in Ireland. But you can go, just get to a meeting, you know, if there's an AA or an NA or a CA meeting in any county in Ireland, there's more than one, you know, they're so easy to get to. If you just ask somebody around, they will know where to go or what's on.

If you go on the website, na.org or AA, you know, you'll find a meeting no matter where you are, any country, you know, it's, but it's terrible because when, this is another reason why I'm doing this podcast, because when you're in it, you don't know where to go, you don't know what to do. You know what I mean? You don't know, you know, you think that there's no solution, but there is a solution. And I suppose for me, back then, you know, I thought that, oh, if I could stop drinking and taking drugs and do normal day-to-day life, you know, it'd be great, like, but it's so much better than that.

You know, what I have now, like, is, you know, I feel like I live my life to the most now, like. That's amazing. I really do go enjoy life now.

And back to what I was saying about wishing my life away from Monday to Tuesday, I just want that to be the weekend, you know, it's not like that now, like, I enjoy every day now. And I know that might sound stupid to somebody, you know, but say yesterday was Wednesday, I was looking forward to going for a run yesterday evening. That's not something I would have ever dreamed of.

If you had told me that when I was drinking and taking drugs, I would have said, you're out of your mind. Yeah. I want whatever drugs you're taking.

Well, you know, we haven't mentioned that yet, but that's what's so inspirational about this story, that not only now, you know, are you doing okay? You're actually one of probably a minority of people actually that really do enjoy life, you know, a huge percentage of the time. And I was just thinking there with your running, you know, you're now running marathons. I mean, this is the inspirational, truly inspirational part of this story as well, you know, that you've gone from a real victim of addiction to not only surviving, but thriving and helping others.

Because I know now that when you go to the meetings that you help others as well, you know, you've been there and done that and wore the t-shirt sort of thing. So, you know, you know, how challenging it is, you know, what it feels like to go through that. So I guess I was just thinking there as well, you know, we talk about relationships as one of the six pillars on this podcast.

How important were the relationships in your life to get through this and to get to where you are now, your family, your friends? Brilliant. You know, my family have been so good. You know, they always stood by my side.

And there was times when I thought that they mightn't or they wouldn't, you know, and they were always there no matter what I needed. And my friends, like, I lost some that I needed losing. You find out who your real friends are.

And, you know, my friends were great. I have numerous friends that I rang when I was struggling and when I was after telling my family, like, you know, and they were all here straight away, you know, like, at the drop of a hat, they were here, you know, and like that, you know, whatever I needed or, you know, they were always checking up on me and things like that. So I have great family and friends, you know.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we know from research that if we have good, if we feel that we've got a few people in our corner, we don't need many, you know, people that really have our best interest and they're not judging us, they're just there for us.

If we have a few of those, then the statistics show that we are more, far more likely to thrive in every aspect of life. So. Well, I do have to say though that, like, like the friends that I've created in NA and AA and from going to meetings and around the country, like, they are my best friends too.

Like, you know, the friendships I've created in there are just brilliant, you know, and people, like you're telling them people your deepest, darkest secrets, you know, things that you've done that you're not proud of, you know, and they want to be your friend, like, you know what I mean? Cause they've done similar things or, you know, they've struggled the same way you have, you know? So if you go to a meeting or things like that, you know, nine times out of 10, it's not what you're going to expect. Everybody there has been through what you've been through or is struggling like you. So, you know, don't be afraid to go or pick up the phone or tell someone cause everyone has a bad day.

That's, that's powerful stuff, isn't it? It's, it takes so much courage to be that vulnerable in a relationship to show your real self warts and all, so to speak. But when we do that and then people love us, that's, that's the ultimate. We feel truly loved.

If we're presenting, you know, a sugar-coated version of ourselves, then we can, we can never really feel fully loved, truly loved because they don't, you know, people don't really know us, not the real, the real us. So it takes so much courage to do that because, um, you know, we all want to be liked, we all want to be loved, their basic human needs. So it kind of, it's kind of counterintuitive.

Yeah, a hundred percent. Like, do you know, like I suppose years ago I would have like put on the brave face or I would have, uh, do you know, like nothing, um, I didn't see things clearly or like I'd have friends that I maybe shouldn't have or be hanging around with people because of something and I think I care about what people thought of me, you know, and now I don't care what people think of me at all. Do you know what I mean? Because, and then then people can see that and, you know, that's the way you come through as yourself, I suppose.

I think what you find out is that you end up with really good people. You end up with really good quality relationships because you, you, you end up all by the wayside, don't they? Uh, the ones that maybe are judgmental, um, but you end up with some really solid people when you change the way you conduct yourself and the way and what you start to expect for yourself. I really liked something that you said in our previous chat and that was that you do something for yourself every day and you do something for somebody else every day.

Yeah, so it was suggested that you do something for, for somebody else every day, you know, when I went to treatment and so like it can be something so small but it means a lot, you know, and when you're, when you're in addiction or something like that, you know, you can become very selfish, you know, so by doing something for someone else every day, you know, you're not selfish that day then, you know what I mean? You've done something for somebody else and you're not looking for anything in return. It doesn't count if you're looking for anything in return. It doesn't count if you told somebody that you did it either or it doesn't count if there's a condition.

You just have to do it and that's it. I like that because that, you're doing it for you then. Yeah.

You're doing it to give yourself evidence that you, that you're not this bad person that you believed yourself to be. Yeah, that, that's it and by doing something for yourself every day, like for me, it's going for a run, going for a walk, go to the gym, it might be something like, or going to get an ice cream. It might, you know, it can be something small like, but you know, you've done that thing for yourself, for someone else and then you've done that thing for yourself.

Yeah, love that. What you're, what you're touching on there as well, I guess this, this podcast is about the six pillars of living medicine and I know that you've, you do some of the six pillars, if not all of them, in order to help yourself as well, such as, you know, you've mentioned, I mean, you know, you're running marathons, you're going to the gym, your nutrition, nutrition's good, your sleep's good now and everything like that. So, tell us a bit more about that.

What, what helps you keep going? What helps you, this level of lifestyle that you've managed to achieve now? Yeah, so what keeps me going, what keeps me going to meetings and keeps me going things like that is, you know, helping people who are struggling and realizing that I felt like that at one stage, you know, but what I get great energy is running and I suppose that's just, you know, trying to be a better person but I get great energy out of running and I get great enjoyment out of running and going to the gym and things but yeah, I've discovered like, you know, early on like that, you know, if you're feeling, if you're feeling bad or if you have a bad day, you know, I can look at why that might be now. Did I have a good night's sleep the day before? What has my eating been like? Do you know, like, have I been talking to anyone lately? Have I been to a meeting? You know, just general things like that and you can see, like, if you're training or if you're running or even if you, like, take it for someone who isn't into running and they go for a walk every evening of the week or something like that just to get in their steps, nothing wrong with that but they mightn't be feeling like going for a walk this evening but what did they have for dinner yesterday evening or when's the chipper? What was he sleeping like the night before? Bad. Of course you're not going to want to do anything and then it's a domino effect, it's like the drink and the drugs, you know what I mean, and then you're feeling like you don't want to go.

Oh no, I won't go today and then you're into next week and then you're more tired and it's just a constant, it's like you're on the wheel again. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's really important to say that, you know, in order to keep going, in order to sustain what you've managed to achieve, to be considering what you're eating, your nutrition, your exercise, your sleep, the relationships, the people that you have around you, your stress levels, you know, all those types of things really.

You're giving yourself a lot better chance of being able to sustain it. Yeah. Energy levels up really.

Yeah but, sorry, I just think that, like, I suppose that's the thing we're trying to say here is that, like, out of the six pillars or out of things that you can do for yourself to make your life better, you know, if you're not doing any of them or if you're doing one of them, you know, it's not good. But if you're aware of all the good things you can be doing for yourself, like if you do one, if you don't do one or something is affecting you, you know, you can probably get by if everything else is going good. Yeah, your resilience levels are much higher if you incorporate these six pillars, then your resilience levels, they're just higher.

So, you can take a stressful day at work or you can take, you know, that challenge that comes along. Yeah, I like that. That's hugely important.

We're literally strengthening ourselves and giving ourselves as much chance as possible to be able to cope with those days where, you know, challenge, life comes with challenges, doesn't it? That they're going to come. That's the nature of life. So, yeah, no, that sounds absolutely brilliant.

That's it for part two in our three part series. Join us next week where we continue our conversation and we hear from Adam of how he stays motivated and how he manages to inspire others and also what's his secret formula to living his best life? What are the things that he does on a daily basis that keeps this momentum going?