Former Liverpool keeper Kirkland on dealing with addiction and getting help

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Former Liverpool goalkeeper Chris Kirkland on dealing with addiction and the importance of getting help Marine AFC, Crosby, Lancashire, UK

Transcript

00:00Obviously, Chris needs no introduction. Welcome down. How honored are you to be here today for

00:05such a good event? Well, listen, it is. Mate, I was here last year as well. It was a bit windier last

00:10year. I was having to pop up one of the goals, but listen, all the credit goes to all the staff

00:14involved from today, from all the organisations. This doesn't happen without them, so they deserve

00:18all the work to put on events like this. It takes a lot of planning, a lot of work, and all the staff

00:22at every one of them deserves all the credit. But for me to come down, listen, I've lived in

00:27in Merseyside now for 24, 25 years, so this is home for us. My daughter was born here,

00:32so anything that I can help with to try and make our community a safer place,

00:37to try and educate people, obviously, today we're here about the dangers of drugs,

00:41particularly ketamine, but also other drugs as well, to try and educate them about the dangers of that,

00:46being able to say no as well, because there's a lot, you know, there's a lot of peer pressure,

00:50particularly when your kids are growing up, but to make them realise that drugs kill, as simple as

00:55that, and the devastation that leaves behind if somebody does die, it's not just the person

00:59that dies, it's the families, everything like that as well, so all the clubs and everybody involved,

01:04all the organisations are doing an amazing job. You spoke to Emily previously, the PCC,

01:10about Liverpool being one of the only cities that sort of hosts an event like this, so obviously,

01:16how horrid would you say you are that Liverpool are one of the only cities to host such an amazing event?

01:21Well, for me, I can't understand why, I mean, listen, you can only do what you can do in your

01:26community, you know, it just proves how special Merseyside is, how special Liverpool is,

01:31and we are extremely proud, this is our home now, as I said, we are extremely proud to be up here,

01:36but you can't make other people do things, all you can do is look after the people in your community,

01:40in your base, and that's what the organisations here, all of them here today are trying to do.

01:45I hope you don't mind me, I'm touching on your addiction, in the past, you got an injury,

01:53yeah, well my addiction was more, a little bit, but it was more for anxiety, so in the end I was

01:58using it because I was anxious and not feeling great, but then with addiction it gets holding

02:03very quickly, so that was over a period of 10 years, back in 2012 it started, so I always say now

02:09I'm going to talk this morning to a few schools, my biggest regret is not saying I've got an issue,

02:14I've got a problem, I need help, back in 2012, because for the next 10 years it certainly had a major

02:20impact on my life and my family, so yeah, my advice is, listen, no matter what the problem is,

02:27no matter how bad you think it is, what people are going to think of you, how embarrassed you are,

02:30it's not about that, it's great, and it has for our problem, make sure you say no,

02:35yeah, make sure you say no, say no to drugs, because you might seem big at the time and funny,

02:41you know, you're into the crowd in the lab, but listen to drugs again, you know, we don't want

02:46that to be any of these people here today, and the more we can raise awareness on there,

02:51as we say we can stop these needless deaths, then that's why we do things like this for.

02:57So how important would you say it is to speak up, obviously with addiction some people sort of get

03:02embarrassed or sort of hide it, so how important would you say that people need to do this?

03:06Well listen, nobody needs to do it, you know, and for me it was, listen,

03:09nobody forced me to put the tablets in my mouth, that was me, because of certain things that I was

03:13feeling, but it's, once you get addicted to it, because it gets on, you can, you can come around,

03:22and I've managed to turn it around, I've managed to turn it around, that only comes from willpower,

03:30yes, but also support around me, the support I've had has been amazing, the Liverpool Foundation,

03:34the club itself has been absolutely amazing, I wouldn't have got through it without them,

03:38so I tried many times to stop on my own, many times to do it myself, and it never worked,

03:43and thankfully when I did reach out and told people the real truth, that's where I got the

03:47help that I needed, and standing here today, I say it's been over three years, it's great,

03:51so that'll be days where I think I've grabbed it, but I've got a great routine and great people

03:55around me now, they're keeping me on straight now. And just for someone who's, who's struggling

04:00with addiction, what would you say is the first step that they need to take? Telling people,

04:04telling people you're addicted, you know, that's simple as that, when I told people the truth,

04:08it's a massive weight off my shoulders, there's no hiding place, I think when you're with addiction,

04:12if you can hide from it and keep it secret, that feeds the addiction more, because that's what it

04:16wants you to do, but once I told people the real truth, it's a huge weight off my shoulders,

04:21and if you tell people closest to you, they'll help you, and they'll want to help you as well,

04:26and I've certainly found that out. How hard was it to take that first step to tell people?

04:31It's the hardest thing to do, but it's also when you've done it, you kick yourself saying,

04:36why didn't I do it before, why didn't I do it years and years and years ago, but yeah,

04:40it's the hardest thing to do sometimes with asphalt and say you're in trouble, but it's the best thing

04:44you can do as well, so be brave and do it.

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