Dave Mullen was ingesting 15 pints a day and consuming 1000’s of kilos’ value of medication every week
Man’s exceptional restoration from habit
A celebration animal was nearly killed by a five-day cocaine bender – leaving him in a coma and with such bloodshot eyes that aged folks thought he was the ‘satan’. Dave Mullen snorted his first ‘naive’ line of the Class A drug on his seventeenth birthday after being supplied it in a pub.
The previous carpet fitter admitted he acquired a style for it, sniffing it whereas ingesting on soccer away days and lads’ holidays. However the occasional dabble rapidly spiralled into an habit by 19 that at his worst noticed him sink 15 pints a day and snort 1000’s of kilos value of cocaine in seven-day benders.
A surprising photograph taken in August 2021 reveals Dave with bloodshot ‘satan’ eyes after waking up from a coma in ICU following a drug-induced psychosis. His eyes remained such a startled pink months later that when he went again to work, finishing a job in an outdated folks’s residence, a person chased him with a bible fearing he was the satan.
Regardless of nearly dying, Dave admits he solely managed a number of months sober earlier than falling again into his harmful habits for 3 extra years. It was solely after a hospital journey in March 2024 the place medical doctors stated he may die that he determined to give up and on March 3 started his path to sobriety.
Dave is now 15 months sober from alcohol and medicines and says he has lastly been capable of escape the ‘jail’ he’d lived in for 15 years. The content material creator is now sharing his story to warn others in regards to the risks of substance abuse.
Dave, from Salisbury in Wiltshire, stated: “Cocaine goes hand-in-hand with alcohol and at a weak or naive second as I used to be younger, somebody supplied me a line and I took it. I’d get some for the weekend soccer and earlier than lengthy this was turning into an habit and it wasn’t for enjoyment anymore.
“I used to be happening lads’ vacation to Ayia Napa at 17 and it was just like the Inbetweeners ‘lads on tour’ and it was simply relentlessly pushed down your throat as quickly as you hit an age. At 19 I seen it had turn into an habit. It was clear not solely to me however my pals and folks round that I had a little bit of an issue with it. “Yearly it acquired worse and worse and would have an effect on so many individuals round me as a result of psychological well being episodes I’d have. I’d undergo durations to flee my psychological well being and I’d simply exit for 5, six, seven days and I’d simply be gone. It is a troublesome one as I at all times discovered a means that I may put myself in a state of affairs the place I may get it without spending a dime or for very low cost, however the quantity I’d do could be 1000’s of kilos value.”
Whereas hooked on cocaine, Dave says he suffered many psychological well being episodes, misplaced pals and struggled to maintain a job. When he ended up in hospital in August 2021, he says folks thought this was his turning level as he was so near demise – but it surely took one other hospital journey to be the wake-up name he wanted.
Dave stated: “In my case, these images I’ve shared the place I ended up in intensive care was not my turning level. This was a results of a 4 or five-day bender and I ended up going right into a drug-induced psychosis and I fully misplaced my thoughts. I used to be fully blind and had no imaginative and prescient. Six weeks later my eyes had been nonetheless bloodshot and my eyes had been like this for 2 months.”
Since going sober, Dave has swapped his cocaine habit for the gymnasium and has arrange a TikTok web page to doc his sobriety journey. He says he has been left with loads of psychological trauma following his years of drug use however says a relentless runny nostril is his solely bodily set-back to this point. Sooner or later, he hopes to arrange a assist group below the title ‘Darkish Days 2 Brighter Methods’, to assist others struggling with habit. Dave stated: “I wish to unfold consciousness because it actually did destroy my life. “[In March 2024], they informed me I used to be going to die once more and one thing about strolling out of that hospital alone, I stated I did not wish to do that anymore. I used to be trapped in a life that was a jail with no enjoyment. “I’d have walked out of the hospital and gone straight to the pub however I believed to myself, ‘I am not going to have a drink right now’. 15 months later and I am right here and I’ve a TikTok account and I nonetheless have not regarded again. I really feel fully reborn and I am now excited for my future. “I do not suppose we’re educated sufficient in regards to the risks of those medicine or alcohol. We’re informed the medicine are unlawful however nowadays nobody actually pays consideration to the legislation and does not care if it is unlawful. “I feel my story and the images specifically present that it is harmful and I do not need cocaine to be so normalised and acceptable in society.”
