Lex (39) Ernest from Eindhoven was addicted to alcohol and drugs, dealt in cocaine, attempted suicide and ended up on the streets. At the age of eighteen he lost an eye: while going out someone stabbed him in the eye with a knife. By taking up sports he crawled out of the deep valley. As an expert by experience he now helps others who struggle with addictions or suicidal thoughts.
Lex’s youth was anything but carefree. “I came into contact with sex at a young age. I had suicidal thoughts and I also attempted suicide. I started escaping into drugs and alcohol when I was twelve. I smoked weed five times a day. When I was fifteen, I started using XTC and when I was sixteen, cocaine”.
When he was eighteen, he walked out of a café and was stabbed out of nowhere. “It was senseless violence. The violent boy had been thrown out because of a fight. The first person who walked out became the victim. That was me. The eye was removed with an operation”. Lex also suffered brain damage. “My left brain was damaged. It caused depression, concentration problems, forgetfulness”.
After he was discharged from the hospital, things got worse. “I have a past in which rejection played a major role. Because of this, I really enjoyed the attention I was getting at that time. I was not at all concerned with my recovery. I numbed everything with drugs and alcohol”.
Selling drugs
Lex started selling drugs. Until his mother found bags of cocaine in his room. She called him up crying. He had to flush it all down the toilet. “Because of that, I had a debt of €3,200 to the dealer. I didn’t dare tell anyone. I was ashamed. I was threatened with a knife to my throat and a gun to my back. In the end, I shared it with my brother and he lent me the money”.
When he was twenty, Lex was thrown out of his home. He ended up on the couch with friends. Eventually, he ended up on the street and slept in his car. “I was a homeless person with nothing and no one”.
Sports
Sports became his salvation. “I had literally screwed everything up. Until the day I had to make a choice. Either I break down or I fight. I don’t know why I started exercising, but I noticed that it gave me a healthy dopamine. I started feeling more self-confident. I didn’t have anyone left, so I had to do it myself”.
He went from gym to gym, because he didn’t pay for a membership. He decided to try giving some lessons himself. “I started a boot camp outside. Within three months I had 38 people. So apparently I was good at it”.
Lex got his papers and became a personal trainer. He now has his own gym in Eindhoven-North where punching bags are hanging and weights are ready for use. He helps others by guiding them in exercising. But he prefers to call himself a coach, because he helps others change radically. “I learned that no matter how far you fall, there is always a way up. That’s what it’s all about: that you always get up one more time than you fall”.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
