I was different and that was OK

When I was 17, I played football and in my junior year I broke my arm. I got prescribed Percocet painkillers and Vicodin. I became addicted to those. Through my addiction I lost out on a track scholarship to go to college, I stole from my mom, my family. I lied, cheated, and stole. I eventually became addicted to heroin. Through that I went to jail. I did seven months in jail the first time. And when I got out I really wanted to stay clean but I slowly came to realize that the people I hung out with in high school didn’t want to hang out with me because I was a drug addict. So I really didn’t have anyone to hang out with but my mom. I love my mom to death but when you’re 21, 22 years old and the only person you have to hang out with is your mom eventually you feel like a loser, and you get bored, you get depressed. Eventually I ended up hanging out with the people I used to use with. I had every intention of not using with them but I was a drug addict, of course I did.I went to jail a couple more times, got out and tried to stay clean and ran into the same problem. The first time I got out of jail I overdosed. I made it through that, then two weeks later I overdosed again. That was about two years ago. That time I had to be hit with Narcan twice. I actually died. My mom was the one who had to give me CPR to bring me back. After that you would think I would want to get clean. I did but I just didn’t know how. So eventually I had to go to jail again.

My mom came to visit me in jail and she said, “Richie, I have some bad news, your friend, Bryce overdosed and died.” I remember the look in her eyes when she told me, when she said “I just thought about how that could’ve been you. I could’ve lost my only son.” I thought about Bryce and I’ve known him since we were in fourth and played Little League together. When I went back to my cell I did a lot of self reflecting and I decided I was going to do whatever it took to stay clean, even if I just had to hang out with my mom all the time. I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to do that to her because she had been through too much and has literally saved my life.

When I got out I started to go to the 12-Step meetings and I actually found a group of people that I could relate to and that were like me. Everybody had the same problem. They kind of taught me a way to live and a way to deal with my problems and to understand and accept the fact that I was different and that was OK. I’ve seen a lot of my friends die since then.

When one of my friends passed away I started to do Mixed Martial Arts because he did it. He was a state wrestler. He was a really good guy with a really bad problem. I won my first fight in 38 seconds. I realized I was kind of good at it. After I won they put a microphone in my face and they asked me who did I want to thank. I told the whole crowd I was fighting in honor of my best friend, Charles Buchanan who overdosed on heroin. I told them he was a good person and I was a heroin addict and not all heroin addicts are bad people. We’re just good people with a bad problem and I was here living and breathing. After that I had a lot of people come up to me and say that my story inspired them and gave them some hope.

Today I’m 3-1 in MMA. I run a nonprofit called Fight For Recovery. I try to get people into rehab and get them help.

When I was little I had this Mickey Mouse doll. And that was my dude until I was 4 or 5 years old. He was my best friend when I was a little kid. I was an only child.