In episode 271 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Aaron Pearson.
Aaron is the husband of previous guest and Co-Founder of Menstrual Health Project, Gabriella Pearson.
Aaron works as an estate planner and as a car salesman and has been with Gabriella for 10 years.
Aaron’s mental health journey started when he was between seven to 11 or 12-years-old when he was sexually abused and the majority of his mental health difficulties he’s experienced in life stem from this moment.
Aaron then struggled with alcoholism and drugs from a teenager and also had severe issues with anger, likely stemming from the abuse as well.
In Boxing Day 2014, he went away with Gabriella to Brighton to celebrate the day and had his drink spiked by a group of men who offered to buy him a drink. The drink was spiked with a mixture of Rohypnol, ecstasy and rat poison. He had no memory of the night after that moment. When they went back to his hotel, he smashed the room up, high and poisoned.
The police were called and he ended up fighting them in his poisoned state and was subsequently arrested and taken to the local police station.
Once he was at the police station, he had a seizure and woke up in hospital 12 hours later. He later discovered what he had been spiked with, what had happened and even more alarmingly, he had actually died for four minutes, before being brought back.
He woke up in a full body brace, couldn’t move his entire body and this was the first time he wasn’t in full control of his body or actions. Aaron says this is the moment when his mental health started spiralling.
He started speaking to a counsellor and began exploring his anger management issues and his addiction. However, he didn’t find counselling helpful and after seeing several therapists, decided to deal with his issues on his own.
The alcohol addiction took him to breaking point where it was affecting his friendships, his relationship and people began to avoid social situations with him, because of his unpredictability.
He decided to give up drinking for 10 months but then decided he could cope with an occasional drink. As you’d expect, the addiction got even worse.
Around the time of the Covid-19 lockdown, he started working from home and had no separation from work and home and became drinking heavily again as well as overeating.
Thankfully, he’s now over 450 days sober at time of recording, he hasn’t touched a drug in over two years. He also hasn’t smoked a cigarette in a year and a half.
He credits the gym, changing careers and the support of his wife Gabriella as key to his recovery.
Since childhood, he has now been diagnosed with a Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI) and has self-diagnosed himself with ADHD, after struggling to get assessed through the NHS.
Aaron also suspects he has OCD, which we explore.
In this episode we chart his journey of trauma, diagnoses and recovery from start to finish and how we better listen to men like Aaron as a society.
As always, #itsokaytovent
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Music: @patawawa – Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk
TRIGGER WARNING: this podcast contains discussions about sexual abuse, suicide and self-harm which some listeners may find distressing or upsetting, so please listen with caution.
