Published on: 19 September 2024
“I’ve learned to laugh again over the last 83 days.
“I used to be such a miserable bloke, but now I’m laughing again.”
These are the words of Marvin Richards, who spent 25 years addicted to heroin and crack cocaine and is finally clean thanks to help from Derby Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service.
Marvin was just 17 when he tried heroin for the first time. “I’d already been smoking a bit of hash and drinking,” he recalled. “But we moved to a new area, and at the bottom of the street was a block of flats. It seemed that everyone who lived there used heroin.”
At first Marvin and his mates stayed well away from the drug users in the flats but one by one, the group of five all succumbed.
It was an argument with his dad that finally pushed Marvin to try it. “We’d had a huge fight and I just thought, stuff it, I’m going to get a bag,” he said.
For around six months, Marvin took heroin on and off, but then came the incident that changed his life forever.
“My Dad took his own life when I was 18. The fact he killed himself made me so angry and I couldn’t talk to anyone. I just thought, I don’t care any more,” he said.
As his addiction grew, his relationship with his mum and brother deteriorated.
“I spent everything I had. And when I ran out of my own money, I stole from my mum,” said Marvin. “I knew it was wrong at the time but all I cared about was the drugs. I just wanted more heroin.”
Eventually his mum and brother moved out of the family home, leaving Marvin alone. “I wasn’t working, so everything I had, I sold. My stuff had all gone, so I sold my Mum’s stuff.
“It pulled me down a very dark path for years but it took the feelings away.”
For a while, Marvin managed to get his addiction under control, even building up his own business, but lost it all after relapsing. “I spent a long time in a cycle of getting arrested and being sent to prison and, although there was help while I was inside, there was no support with recovery when I came out.”
By this time Marvin had become a father but his relationship failed because the drugs had too tight a grip on him. “I don’t blame my partner for leaving me,” he said. “I wasn’t a nice person, and it was all because of the drugs.”
This year, Marvin, from Derby, turned 42.
“I thought, something has got to change,” he said. “My ex sent me details of a rehab centre and it was finally time for me to do it. My mum and gran had both offered to pay for me to go to private rehab in the past but I would say no, no, you can’t spend that much money on me.
“It was actually because I wasn’t ready to change – but this year, I knew it was time.”
A self-confessed “mess” whose weight had dropped to eight stone, Marvin said he knew if he carried on with the drugs, it would kill him. “I’ve got a kid,” he said. “I know how much it messed me up when my dad died – I didn’t want that to happen to them.”
He spent some time in rehab then got help from Derby Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service.
“I knew what I had to do, and that was engage with recovery. I had to go to Narcotics Anonymous, get a sponsor and follow the steps. I also had to accept that I can’t work while I’m recovering – I need to focus completely on myself so I get better before I can work again.”
As well as giving up drugs, Marvin has had to break ties with all his old friends.
“They’re not friends, people you take drugs with. They’re associates,” he said. “They don’t care about you, they only care about drugs.
“I’ve got proper friends now, who check in on me, who care if I’m ok. I’ve had to work on myself and recognise things about myself that weren’t comfortable, but I needed to be told.
“The staff at Derby Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service at St Andrew’s House have been absolutely amazing. I’ve gone to every meeting, I’ve done courses in skills for life and intuitive thinking and I’m learning how not to be an addict.”
Someone who has helped Marvin on his journey is Andy Fountain, who works at St Andrew’s House and is a recovering addict himself.
“I thought I was bullet proof when I was younger,” he said. “I thought I was Jimi Hendrix and was going to live fast and die young.
“My life revolved around using drink and drugs and everything else was on the periphery, even the huge important moments in life like my kids being born. I lived for the party drugs, for whisky, weed, and crack.”
Things came to a head when Andy started to experience suicidal thoughts and finally turned to his GP, who prescribed anti-depressants and referred him to Derby Drug and Alcohol Service.
He is now three years clean and employed as the Recovery Champion for Phoenix Futures, a partner of Derby Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service, leading a variety of groups from Recovery Through Nature to Cocaine Anonymous, Inside Recovery and a specialist women’s group.
“I am humbled to be a part of this service,” said Andy. “The support I have had from my managers and all the key workers has been phenomenal and it’s given me a second chance at life.
“I’m so proud of Marvin for what he’s achieved.”
And Marvin is now following in Andy’s footsteps, using his experiences as a drug addict to help others.
“I’m going to be a peer mentor for others going through what I’ve been through,” he said. “I have been there, done that, and I can show them there are other options.
“The sky’s the limit for me now.”
