Fresh start Former addict tells how he transformed his life
I want people to know that there is an alternative. I didn’t realise there was a way out but recovery is possible Matt Ingram
MATT Ingram blew £100,000 on drink and drugs in just six months. Just one of the shocking admissions Matt, from Cheltenham, makes in a book he has written about his battle against addiction.
The 29-year-old is proud to say he has managed to go from being rock bottom to being free of the perils of drink and drugs.
Now holding down a steady job, he has turned his life around and found the courage to recall his dark times in the book.
He said his aim was to help other addicts – to show them there is hope for them that they too can kick their habit.
It took Matt about six months to write, with the help of a ghost writer, ‘Endless Possibilities: My Fresh Start.’ It is all about his life, growing up in Cheltenham, his struggle with mental health and addiction and how he pulled through.
He had previously opened up his heart by writing a personal blog, called Endless Possibilities, on Facebook. It has attracted more than 30,000 followers and aims to raise awareness of the issues that affected him and to try to break the stigma attached to them.
Having now avoided drink and drugs for two years and four months, Matt said: “I’ve gone further in the book than in the blog. There’s much more about the accident in March 2008.”
That was when he stepped in front of a car travelling at around 60mph in Cheltenham when he was 15.
Although he didn’t break any bones, he suffered damage to his head and face. He later realised he had untreated post-traumatic stress disorder and had been self-medicating with drink and drugs to try to cope.
The former Pittville School pupil suffered from depression and anxiety after the accident, but it was the alcohol and drugs that put his life on a serious downward curve.
He said: “The book is a much better timeline of events. It goes into the nitty gritty of what was behind the drinking and the drugs.”
Having moved up from cocaine to crack cocaine, there was a time when he inherited £100,000 from a family friend, who didn’t have any children, but spent it all in just six months. It happened in late 2018 and early 2019.
He said: “I spent a fortune. I’m lucky to be alive.”
When times were really bad, at the height of his addiction, he led a chaotic life. He gambled too much, made himself physically ill by abusing his body and let down his caring parents, Jennie and Mike.
An example of the madness came in November 2018 when he was arrested for having an imitation firearm on a busy Saturday morning in Cheltenham town centre.
He and a friend had been taking drugs and drinking and started pretending to shoot people with a life-size plastic rifle that they had stolen from a shop.
Matt said he couldn’t believe it when armed police turned up and told him to stay where he was.
He ended up on his knees, with his hands behind his head, in an incident that he can laugh at now but which he realises could have seen him get shot dead.
A successful period in a residential rehabilitation centre and the continuing support of his parents, with whom he lives in Wyman’s Brook, have enabled Matt to lead a happier and healthier life.
He works part-time at an Asda warehouse in Bristol and is delighted to have already sold hundreds of copies of his book, which is available on Amazon.
“I go out running, eat healthily and concentrate on being a good person,” he said, adding that he was listening to the “good voice” in his head and not the bad one.
He hopes to work in a residential rehabilitation centre in the future and maybe even open his own facility one day.
“I want people to know that there is an alternative. I didn’t realise there was a way out but recovery is possible,” he said.