A man who is turning his life around after addicition is on a mission to set up Belfast’s first wellness hub, to offer a safe space with wraparound support services.
Rory Sloan struggled with substance abuse from the age of 13, and after a few years began taking cocaine “every single day.” He got involved in the crime side of drugs, and masked mental health issues with drug taking.
After getting involved in personal training after dropping out of school and tech, the Belfast man began to turn things around. However, when the coronavirus lockdown happened, he found himself soon relapsing.
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Rory hit a new low when, just after his 21st birthday, he was arrested and sent to Maghaberry Prison. Since being released, he has set up his own non-profit organisation, Resolute Minds, and has shared his story with thousands of young people to deter them from drug use.
Speaking to Belfast Live about his story and his hopes to set up a wellness hub in the city, the 25-year-old said: “I struggled with substance abuse and my mental health from the age of 13. It started off with the usual smoking weed every so often, which then turned into every day.
“All of a sudden, weed wasn’t strong enough, so I started on cocaine and as I grew up, cocaine was my drug. I started taking cocaine then every single day.
“In my younger teenage years, I dabbled in selling drugs, and I got invovled in the crime side of it. Back then talking about mental health wasn’t really a big thing, so I turned quite early on to self-harming, and I used drugs to mask that.
“I left school and started tech, and partied the full first year. I was doing sports science, but it was just to keep my family happy, after I got kicked out of school.
“I left after the first year and started doing personal training. When I was about 17, I fell in love with the gym, cleaned myself up, I was never out of the gym.”
Four weeks before a bodybuilding show, lockdown happened, with Rory saying he “spiralled.” During this time, he got back into the crime side of drugs, eventually ending up in prison.
“I was depressed, I lost my job because I couldn’t go to work at the gym. So I started drinking and taking drugs, and got back involved in the crime side of it,” he said.
“That was me for the next few years, I got wrapped up in all of that. I got arrested just after my 21st birthday and went to Maghaberry.
“I was held on remand for a while, got out and went through the whole court process. I got back in touch with my family, and that was my biggest sort of turnaround.
“They reached out to me when I was inside, and all of a sudden I had something to lose again. I got out of jail and left the whole crime side behind, but I still struggled with drugs and drink for about a year.
“I was hiding it, I was working a full-time job. That was my first time admitting to myself I still had an issue, because nobody knew I was still on it. It is three years since I touched any sort of substance now, which is pretty cool.”
After getting out of jail, Rory began volunteering and attending therapy. He was invited to share his story at the One Young World conference, speaking in front of a huge crowd.
From then on, he said that was the spark he needed, and has since set up his own organisation, Resolute Minds, in a bid to help others and deter young people from drug use.
“I told my life story in front of like a thousand people; I was sitting there with a tag on,” Rory said.
“I’ve got this really big passion for sharing my story. I nearly became addicted to being sober and learning about why people become addicts, why people make these choices, and how people get into recovery.
“I thought I could definitely help people, so I set up my own organisation, Resolute Minds, which is now a non-profit. It was originally just going to be conferences sharing my lived experience, but I thought surely I can’t just help people for an hour then let them go.
“I developed the organisation to have a ten week programme, and in the last year we have helped over 60 people get into recovery, some of them hitting the year sober mark. I’ve told my story to probably over 10,000 people, especially young people.”
Rory is hoping to create a wellness hub in Belfast, that will be a walk-in centre, offering a safe space for people to come and get help.
He said: “Emmett, my therapist, works alongside me now and does the trauma therapy. I was saying we need to get this all under one roof, so that’s where the idea for the wellness hub comes in.
“The idea for the hub is driven by lived experience, and will focus on physical fitness with therapeutic trauma focused therapy all under one roof in the middle of the city.
“We want to do it in Belfast as it is really struggling with the drug pandemic, I believe we need a hub like this here. If you’re struggling, this a safe space where you’ll meet someone who’s like-minded, you won’t be judged, and you can come and get help.”
In a bid to spread the word and raise funds, Rory and two others who are in recovery, alongside his brother Cody, are taking on a 70 mile walk from Derry to Belfast on January 31. They are hoping to complete the walk in 24 hours.
Rory said: “I wanted to do something to the extreme. The walk is three of us who are in recovery, and we want to show people in recovery and getting through addiction aren’t weak. We’ve done a few practise walks and I feel we can do it within 24 hours.”
You can donate to Resolute Minds’ 24 hour walk by clicking here.
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