Noel Mulkey: How fitness helped me beat drug addiction
TikToker and triathlete Noel Mulkey shared how triathlon and exercise saved him from his substance use disorder.
Video Transcript
NOEL MULKEY: I done pretty much every drug in the book. There is no better high in the whole world than winning a race. There are-- even just finished or even just doing good at at a race.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My name is Noel Mulkey, and I am 26 years old. In middle school, I was actually on the swim team. In eighth grade, I started off drinking, just the regular experimental drug use. It was in ninth grade where it kind of started really taking off in terms of frequency.
I have a very addictive personality. I actually had never been properly diagnosed. Without being properly medicated, this was me self-medicating. Once I found drugs, I just couldn't-- it was crazy how it's, like you have tunnel vision, like nothing else mattered.
I was no longer exercising. I literally only looked forward to getting high. Well, the first time I went to rehab was through an intervention. After I got back from rehab in Florida, I was actually more of an addict than when I left.
I got to a $500-a-day heroin habit. I had pawned all my mom's jewelry. I was forging checks. I truly believe the addict will never get sober until I want to do it myself. First time I was forced into this rehab, I was not ready to give up drugs.
It wasn't until the second time I went to rehab because I wanted it. That's why it worked. I was tired of living like this. It had been eight years. I actually started gaining a lot of weight because I replaced my daily heroin with food, like a flip switched on one day. I was like, I want to lose weight.
So what happened was I went on a run at like, 8:00 at night, and I loved it. And I went from that to running 60, 70 miles over the next four months. My dad suggested maybe supplement running with some biking with some swimming. And remember, I had been on a swim team in eighth grade and feel like it completely come full circle.
I did have a passion for exercise. I did love sports. And along the way through getting into heroin, through getting into drugs, I completely lost sight of that. Triathlon and exercise saved me from drug addiction. It saved my life.
This triathlon is my new addiction. Back when I was on drugs, tunnel vision was, what's next? What am I going to get high with next? Tunnel vision, now, it's my race is in four months. We have a training plan to follow. I have to stick to the training plan. The program I use has these boxes of all the workouts that my coach puts in. And when you complete a workout, it turns green.
[DING]
If you don't complete it, it's red.
[BUZZ]
My goal, my tunnel vision is until my race is to make all those boxes green. And so people who are out there struggling, who are in the thick of it, who are in tunnel vision, who I know you get up every day. You're not necessarily liking what you're doing. You're smoking. You're drinking every night.
Look back at your life. And what was something besides whiskey? What was something besides heroin that you were one time really passionate about? And I would say, look into it again. See what that world is-- what's new in it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
