THE Rangers Charity Foundation has been credited with helping turn the life of a Glasgow man around.
Alex Scott attended – and now volunteers at – the organisation‘s Recovery Drop Ins which are run every week in partnership with South Community Recovery Network.
Alex Scott turned his life around with help from the Rangers Charity Foundation[/caption]
Now he volunteers to help those who need it most[/caption]
These sessions provide a safe and friendly space for people, like Alex, who are recovering from addiction to meet and help each other.
Alex is from Possilpark and has been sharing his experience: “Growing up in the seventies in Glasgow, there was a lot of poverty.
“You could say my childhood was difficult. I grew up with alcoholic parents, which for me seemed standard. Going through school I was a shy wee guy and with alcohol being involved at home and there being fights and things like that, I was always quite reserved.
“I was introduced to solvents at the age of 12 and through using those, I started feeling a bit more confident in myself and rebelling in class. I ended up becoming the class clown and at the time, I thrived on that because I didn’t get that attention in the house.”
This led to a destructive spiral of increasing substance usage.
Alex had grown up dreaming of being a footballer, but being dropped from the football team dented his confidence – he left school and his aspirations became just to get by.
As a teenager he tried boxing to pass the time, but solvent use impacted his commitment. He said: “When I wasn’t involved in anything to keep me occupied, I started hanging around in streets and closes with the wrong crowds and before I knew it, I had a needle in my arm at the age of 16.
“From that point on, my life revolved around using hard drugs.
“I didn’t have any real role models in my life, so the only people I could look up to were the same individuals that I was up the closes with and that’s how I ended up myself.
“I found myself in a lot of codependent relationships and not knowing how to live a real life free of solvents and hard drugs. In fact, you could probably describe it as existing rather than living.
“In 1998 I heard about methadone, and I was on that for 25 years while still using different drugs because I didn’t know how to stop.
“I did try to stop, and I had mild success, if you could call it that, but I could never stay completely clean. I was in and out of hospital, and I was just isolating myself away from the world.
“My life just became monotonous, and my mental health took a real dip. I thought I was in control of my using but through working on myself and looking back, I can see that I clearly wasn’t.”
The “utter carnage” continued until Alex was 52, when he landed in hospital and told a nurse he couldn’t continue living that way. This led to an outreach worker bringing him to a Recovery Drop In.
Connecting with others and telling his stories seemed daunting at first, but the support from volunteers helped him towards recovery: “For me, the main thing coming here gave me was a chance to escape the isolation I was imposing on myself.
“Connecting with other people that were on their own recovery journey and getting a bite to eat and chat really put me on a better path.
“It also gave me some structure to my life and a purpose to get up and out the door in the morning and try break that cycle of monotony.”
Once he was consistently attending he was asked to start volunteering, which he says has changed his life completely: “It wasn’t an easy journey because when I came down at first my behaviour could probably be described as erratic, but the volunteering definitely helped with that, and I feel like I’ve matured a lot.
“What volunteering and chairing these meetings is teaching me is how to be responsible, punctual, committed and all these things are helping me prepare for employment because that’s probably my next step.
“My life has changed dramatically since attending Recovery. Just one example of that is that I had never had a passport before coming here.
“Now I can say I’ve been abroad and worked with Erasmus, which has been a great experience and something I never would have been able to do.
“I feel more at peace within myself, and I’ve got more self-esteem and self-worth which has turned me into the person that I am today. I am proud to say that as of a couple of weeks ago, I’m three years clean. It’s amazing to think that for 40 years I couldn’t go a day without using.”
The foundation’s Recovery Drop Ins take place on Mondays and Wednesdays, you can find more information here.
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