NIC DE CAIRE, SPECIAL TO THE NEWS JOURNAL
John Mabrey never considered himself a runner, but he recently found himself among a sea of 2,000 people on a frigid Saturday morning in old New Castle.
He was part of the record-setting crowd at the second annual AtTAcK Addiction 5K, and even though John doesn’t much like running, he was grateful for the opportunity to move his body in a healthy way – an example of what’s possible through recovery.
Mabrey, 31, of Wilmington, grew up playing football and competing in wrestling, but an addiction to prescription drugs not only changed how he looked but how he felt about himself. Now in recovery, Mabrey uses fitness to stay clean.
I’m grateful he was willing to share his story with me so I could share it with you.
I’ve learned a great deal about addiction and recovery in the past few weeks, thanks to my connection with this event. I was hired as race director for the AtTAcK Addiction 5K, but as I and the others in the crowd that day discovered, this event was more than a race – it was a rally.
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It was incredible to see the many different teams that came out to remember their loved ones lost to addiction or support someone else in recovery. There’s a lot to be said about teamwork in sports, but in this case, the teams were united with the goal of using health and fitness to aid recovery and awareness.
“The miracle of sobriety is that we can rededicate our lives to the things we loved and may have lost when we were using,” said Mabrey, who ran with friends and family on a team called Sarah’s Smiles.
AtTAcK Addiction was founded by Don and Jeanne Keister after they lost their son, Tyler, to an overdose. Their mission is to educate students and the community about addiction, assist families affected by the disease and support those in recovery.
For Mabrey, what started out as a night with friends to see Naughty by Nature at Kahunaville became life-changing. Only three days earlier, he had graduated from college. But that night, he got into a fight.
Then he tried cocaine for the first time. And in the days and months after that, the man who had previously prided himself on how he looked eventually stopped caring. His focus turned to using whatever substances he could to feel good.
“The only reason I tell you this is to show that no matter how much you love something – and I love exercise – you won’t care about it in active addiction,” he said. “After years of heavy drinking and drug use, I no longer felt like an athlete and most certainly didn’t look like one.”
Mabrey said his moment of clarity came when he overdosed on prescription drugs. Luckily for him, someone called an ambulance after finding him unresponsive and not breathing. He was revived.
“That was the last time I consumed drugs or alcohol, and it may have been the best thing to ever happen to me,” he said. “After I got sober, I realized I needed to work on myself physically to help make myself better mentally, and vice versa.”
Mabrey now exercises six days per week. He takes a rest day once a week, even though he doesn’t want to.
Several studies have shown how exercise can help with the recovery of drug addiction. But Mabrey warns against the idea of physical activity as a cure-all, especially for those with a disease that can manifest itself in other areas of a person’s life.
“I’ve seen people often make the mistake of filling the void left when they get sober with an addiction to the gym. It happens. I’ve done it myself. We are extremists,” he said. “We want to be able to squat, bench press and deadlift more than our peers the same way we used to want to be able to be the last man standing at a party or drink our friends under the table.”
Most people think of fitness as a way to stay healthy and look good. Mabrey thinks of it as a way to stay clean and live a life worth living.
And while he may hit the weights to build his physical strength, he’s grateful to be strong in other ways as well.
“People often call addicts cowardly and weak. I’d like to make it clear that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said. “It takes a lot of guts to admit you need help and a tremendous amount of strength to become a much better version of yourself. I still fall short in many areas of my life. The difference now is that I can do what’s necessary to better myself.”
Nic DeCaire, owner of Fusion Fitness Center in Newark, has been training clients for more than a decade.