The last night Matt Fraser drank alcohol was the eve of his third year of high school. He was 17 years old.
Currently, a retired CrossFit professional athlete and five CrossFit Games champions share his drinking story on a vulnerable YouTube video. In the video, the 32-year-old athlete remembered trying alcohol and narcotics as early as fourth grade, eventually becoming a teenage habit and embarking on an unsustainable path.
His awakening call came when he received yet another drinking quote at the age of 17. He brought it back to his father, who did not respond because he was accustomed to his summons. Fraser remembers what he thought.I can’t maintain these habits and call myself an elite athlete.“”
“I just said on the spot,’OK, I won’t touch alcohol again,'” he says.
Fraser said drinking was easier when he developed a safe and productive habit to replace heavy drinking and opened up an identity and personality that had nothing to do with alcohol. He is no longer “The Party Guy”, but embarks on devoting everything to his CrossFit and lifting career.
“Having this addictive personality can be beneficial if I’m addicted to something that has positive consequences,” he says in a video. “I’m not just an alcoholic. I’m an addict. Whatever I do, I’m going to do it to the extreme.”
But CrossFit not only made Fraser a positive exit, but also gave Fraser an established excuse not to drink without explaining his drinking.
“It’s normal for many athletes not to drink, because there’s data on how it affects your recovery and the next day’s training,” he says. “So people think you’re doing it for health reasons, and I don’t want to explain to each one that I’m crossing the road with it, no, I actually when I was 17 I stopped drinking. “
In a video recording Fraser’s recovery as part of his daily life, athletes visit Athletic Brewing, a craft brewery that produces non-alcoholic beer. So Fraser tries to fly (non-alcoholic) beer for the first time.
Fraser also joins a fitness recovery group called Phoenix, a “safe, calm and active community of peers who support each other on their way to recovery every day.” Fraser said he didn’t go to substance use disorder meetings often while in the group, but he kept in touch with the sober community of Vermont and first discussed the relationship with alcohol. increase.
“At this point, I want to go to a meeting for other people,” he says in a group. “Being new and calm, looking around the meeting,’What does it mean to be calm? No one here looks happy and seems to have been achieved. They don’t have the personality I want to aim for. 』 For me, I don’t want to drink. I’m very comfortable there. But I can be there to help someone else.”
This content is created and maintained by third parties and imported into this page so that users can provide their email address. For more information on this and similar content, please visit piano.io.
