‘Rock bottom was raiding a bottle bank for the last drops to numb the pain’

A BRAVE Navan man has opened up about how his battle with addiction spurred him on to help young people access the tools needed to cope with their mental health.

Daryl Noonan (30) spiralled into alcohol and drug addiction following a dark period as a teenager when he was involved in a car accident in which two of his friends tragically lost their lives.

At his lowest, personal trainer Daryl would spend up to week in his bedroom drinking and taking drugs and on one occasion in a desperate attempt to access more booze even raided a bottle bank to get the last drop out of glass bottles ready to be recycled.

But it took hitting rock bottom for the Navan man to realise he needed help and after spending time in a treatment facility battling his demons, he came out determined to try and stop other young people from going down a destructive path.

Together with his brother Cormac the pair have created a number of well being programmes for secondary school students through their education company ‘The Wolf Academy.’

Speaking on the journey that led him to want to share his experience with young people he said:

“When I finished school I left Ireland and went down a terrible road with drink and drugs and caused absolute havoc for myself.

“I thought if I left Ireland everything would be fixed but back then I never knew that unless you sort out your own head you are bringing the same head with you no matter where you go.

“I got to a point where I would easily spend five or six days if I wasn’t working literally locked in a room just drinking by myself, that is how bad it got.

“I would literally be screaming at myself in the mirror at what a waste of space I was and I absolutely despised myself for what I was after letting myself become.”

It was in one of those harrowing moments that the well being advocate decided to “save his own life.” He added:

“Something switched in my head and I thought I need to go into treatment and take it seriously and I did and while I was there I just got this thought in my head about how unnecessary so much of the past ten years had been if I had just known the stuff I was learning in there like expressing yourself and talking about things.

“I got this idea that I was going to go around the schools of Ireland when I got out and talk about alcohol and drug addiction and expressing emotions.

“The alcohol and drugs were just a crutch that is what I used to cope with my own thoughts.

“It’s about trying to deal with the situation before it comes to manifest and become something that is ready to destroy your life and take everything away from you which it almost did to me.”

Daryl describes a defining moment that led to his life spinning out of control.

“I was in an accident when I was fourteen and two girls died in the accident and one girl I had been very close to at one point.

“I lost respect for life because I saw how easily it could be taken away, it triggered something in me of this not give a shit attitude so I just started delving into everything and I didn’t have to think about those things, I could be this other person.

“It was only in the last few years before I stopped it all that is went so far down hill to the depths that I didn’t think were even possible.

One particular moment will always stand out as a one of the lowest moments for Daryl and made him realise he needed help.

“One night I had been on the drink and and when I woke up I would always be reaching around to see what was drink was there to kill the savagery that was going on in my head.

“But I didn’t have any this night and the off licences weren’t open so I got this thought in my head to go to a bottle bank because people obviously throw out all of the empty bottles but most people would leave a little bit in the end or so I was thinking.

“So I went there and went through the whole bin just to get every last drop out of whatever was there because I thought if I got enough stimulation it would actually just dull whatever is going on in my head.

“When I was actually sitting there I wasn’t thinking about how messed up this was; I was thinking how had I not thought of doing this before when I had been shaking in the room not able to sit still.

“I went into treatment not long after that. That thing will never be fully gone from me but it is just learning to live with it. I can’t go back down that road.

“Whatever damage I caused, I learned so much that I can use now and I might as well share what I know because it will help someone if they are in that sort of position.”

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Daryl and Cormac have created a number of wellbeing programs specifically aimed at helping Senior Cycle students are offering a number of their modules free of charge during school lockdown to help young people with their mental health.

The two founders of the Wolf Academy, an Irish education company says they wanted to play their part to help young people during the pandemic.

Cormac commented that:

“Although our courses are still in the beta testing phase in a number of schools, given the current situation with school closures and the risks it poses to the mental wellbeing of young people, we have decided to release four of our online wellbeing programs for free to all secondary school students across the country for the duration of the closures.

“Both Daryl and I wanted to help young people and inspire them to discover who they are before they figure out what they want to do and listen to their intuition as apposed to just their logical mind.”

Find out more at www.wolfacademy.ie