Young man who overcame cocaine addiction shared his story with Tipperary teens and parents

Pictured above at the Stay Connected Substance Misuse Awareness Community Event in the Carraig Hotel were back row and middle: Carrick-on-Suir & District Lions Club members, Riona Green, Coordinator with South East Regional Family Support Network; Gda. Siobhán Hayes, Clonmel; Gda. Lisa Prendergast, Carrick-on-Suir; Gail Sheridan, Community Drugs Worker at Suir Valley Community Based Drugs Initiative, Carrick-on-Suir and Jim O'Dwyer, Development Worker, South East Regional Drug & Alcohol Task Force. Seated: Shirley O’Shea, Lions Club Young Ambassador Contest Coordinator; Stay Connected campaign founder Finn McLoughlin's mentor Linda Fahy of the Tudor Artisan Hub, Finn McLoughlin and guest speaker Conor Harris of The Other Side of Life Programme. Picture Anne Marie Magorrian

Conor Harris looks the picture of youthful health and fitness as the 25-year-old prepares to address a community substance misuse education and awareness event in Carrick-on-Suir. It’s difficult to believe in his late teens he was crippled with a serious cocaine addiction that nearly cost him his life.

The keen Gaelic footballer from Kildare, who is now six years free of drugs, has made it his life’s mission to prevent other young people succumbing to substance abuse and descending into the black hole of despair he fell into between the ages of 17 and 19.

After successfully coming out the other side of rehabilitation and appearing on RTE’s Davy’s Toughest Team television series, Conor set up The Other Side of Life programme through which he gives talks at secondary schools and GAA clubs around the country about his harrowing experience of addiction and battle to overcome its grip.

He visited Carrick-on-Suir on April 7 and 8 at the invitation of the town’s new Stay Connected substance misuse awareness campaign founded by his 16-year-old cousin Finn McLoughlin, who is Carrick-on-Suir Lions Club’s current Young Ambassador of the 21st Century title holder.

Over the two days he recounted his story of addiction and inspiring recovery to 4th and 5th year students at substance misuse education and awareness workshops at Carrick’s Comeragh College, Edmund Rice and Scoil Mhuire secondary schools as well as St Declan’s Community College in Kilmacthomas.

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His final talk was to audience of parents, local residents, Carrick Lions Club members and representative of other community organisations at the Stay Connected Substance Misuse Awareness Community Event in the Carraig Hotel.

For close to an hour, Conor spoke with raw honesty about his addiction and recovery. It was powerful and moving and he is a compelling and passionate speaker.

Those listening to his story were left in no doubt how drugs abuse ravages your body and soul and is the antithesis of cool and fun.

He opened the talk by thanking his cousin Finn for initiating the Stay Connected campaign in Carrick-on-Suir.

“At 16 years of age, I certainly wasn’t doing this, standing up in front of a community and tackling substance abuse,” he said.

Indeed, he wished when he was taking drugs in his teens that someone had this hard conversation with him and his peers about the impact of drugs on your life.

This is why he now travels the country talking about his experience to young people.

Conor, who played football for Kildare at underage level, described how he took cocaine for the first time at the age of 17 after being dropped from the Kildare Minor squad. To him it was like someone had “shattered his dream” and he didn’t cope well with the setback.

He began hanging out with boys who used drugs and his use of cocaine gradually increased. Taking the drug initially made him feel good as he yearned self-approval.

But the more he used cocaine, the more his life began to unravel. He started getting into trouble in school and was suspended during his Leaving Cert year.

He consumed lines of cocaine before one of his Leaving Cert exams, which he left early.

He stopped playing football and going to the gym and began selling drugs to fund his habit.

After leaving school, the spiral of addiction accelerated. He built up a €20,000 drugs debt, lost weight and spent long periods in his bedroom feeling depressed.

He lost two jobs, suffered a drugs induced psychosis episode while on a foreign holiday and on another occasion collapsed at his home and was hospitalised.

After both these health scares, he resolved to give up drugs but the addiction had taken too strong a hold on him.

“As much as a I wanted to stop, the drugs had control over me,” he said.

He recalls how he isolated himself from family and friends. His younger sister, who was six years-old at the time, came to him in his bedroom and asked if she could watch a movie with him. When he said ‘no’, she perceptively replied: “I just want the old Conor back,” before walking away.

The turning point came after a suicide attempt when he was 19 years-old.

While in Lakeview Acute Psychiatric Unit at Naas Hospital, he opened up about his addiction problems to a psychiatrist and his journey of recovery began.

“It was like someone lifting a weight off. She said a problem shared was a problem halved. That was the first time I thought maybe I will be alright.”

The day he began five months of addiction rehabilitation in July 2019 was the last time he took drugs or alcohol.

“When I came out, I quickly realised the world was not going to change. I was going to have to change. It was up to me.”

He said he had to accept he couldn’t overcome his addiction by himself.

He took a step back from the people he used to hang around with and any time he needs assistance to stay on the right path he picks up the phone and talks to those there to help him.

He grew up in a family afflicted with addiction and mental health problems with his father suffering from alcoholism and leaving the family when he was 11-years-old. Conor realises now that he suffered from mental health issues before turning to cocaine.

After coming out of rehab, he participated in the first series of Davy’s Toughest Team on RTE presented by well known GAA hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald.

In the television series, he spoke candidly about his experiences and was inundated with messages from young people suffering mental health and addiction problems. This is what prompted him to set up The Other Side of Life.

His message to parents worried their children are abusing drugs or alcohol to open up a conversation with them and to be non-judgemental.

He stressed the real problem isn’t the substance their child is using but how they feel and what prompted them to start abusing drugs and alcohol.

He pointed out it’s important for worried parents struggling to deal with a child’s addiction to seek support themselves.
Travelling around the country giving talks to young people to steer them away from substance misuse is now his full-time job.

He is back enjoying football with Rathcoffey GAA Club.

He says there are many negative role models for young people on social media but he wants to be a positive role model for them by telling his story.

“I know, I am not going to save the world but if one person gets something from this when I leave for my next job, that will be my work done,” he told those gathered at the Carraig Hotel.

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