The title pretty much says it all. Sports saved my life. It didn’t save my life in the way of I was headed down a dangerous road of drugs or booze and was brought back out of the gutter. It was more so in line with the theme of the site. Sports saved my life by giving me a normal life back.
If you go back to one of the first posts I ever wrote for this site, you will see my story. In that story I share that I was on the verge of locking myself up in my room, just about convinced that I will never be leaving the house again. I felt so isolated from my illness that I was borderline depressed. Nothing cheered me up because every time I was happy, my symptoms saw that misery and pain were soon to follow. Of course, medication and strong will took care of the pain, but it was the time period before the medication began to work its magic where sports swooped in to save the day.
Like I said, chronic illness makes the sufferer feel isolated. It is truly a terrible feeling, and for those who suffer from actual depression, if there is any way for me to help, I would be happy to drop what I’m doing to come and help because the feeling is almost crippling. Yet, for me, sports became the lighthouse to my stormy day to day life. It started with weight lifting, but even then I struggled to finish work outs as symptoms still occurred during training. But one day I read an article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2870580/Darren-Fletcher-crippling-illness-couldn-t-meal-watch-kids-play-football-went-feeling-invincible-told-game-over.html) about Darren Fletcher, a midfielder for Manchester United at the time of the article. He spoke about how when he played soccer, he felt as if he wasn’t ill. It inspired me. I turned towards sport and signed up for intramural soccer. Before long, I could see what Darren Fletcher was talking about. For the 50 minutes of game time, I was a normal person. My mind was no longer occupied by the thought of symptoms or pain, but rather on what was going on in the game. I was enjoying it. We may have lost the majority of the games, but at least I wasn’t suffering for that hour. It gave me hope.
This hope was enough to get the ball rolling and send me on the path I am on now. It is why I called this site Athletics For Life. It is through sport and athletics that I found my hope. It is my belief that we can all use sports as a form of therapy and as a gateway to healthy living and a road to recovery. It is for this very reason that I know anything is possible, because if I can play 50 minutes of soccer at a high level, I can sit in class for an hour and take notes, or ride the bus for 15 minutes without worry. Through sport I was able to regain control of my life.