SEAMUS Begley first took drugs when he was 12 years old. For him, cannabis was an escape from the trauma of his life.
His mother and father had struggled with addiction and his home life wasn’t easy. He says the drug was a gateway to a habit that would consume the next 20 years of his life.
The 33-year-old father-of-one from Derry’s Waterside says at one stage he was spending £1,000 a week on cocaine.
He admits drugs brought him to the lowest point a human being could go – stealing from his loved ones and getting into trouble with the police – but now four years clean, he is using his experience to help others out of the darkness.
He says from a young age, he ‘liked the escape’. But by his mid-teens, cannabis had been joined by alcohol and harder drugs.
Weekends were spent drinking in fields and school days were spent taking Methamphetamine.
“My moods in the house, as a young boy, were outrageous,” he says.
“I was horrible to my family. I didn’t listen. I would disappear for the weekend from Friday to a Sunday. My mother didn’t know where I was.
“At 17 she had had enough and locked me out. I went to stay with my father.”
Seamus Begley PICTURE: MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN (MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN COPYRIGHT / )
His father helped him get a driving licence and find work. For a while, Seamus thought his life was changing, but addiction wasn’t ready to let go of its grip on him.
“I was in London and I started taking cocaine,” he says.
“Initially just at weekends, then during the week after work, then at work to get me through the day. I moved to Dublin then and was spending £1,000 a week on drugs.”
Seamus Begley on Derry’s walls PICTURE: MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN (MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN COPYRIGHT / )
Covid saw the work stop. Seamus came home and became increasingly involved with people supplying drugs to fund his own spiralling habit.
He was arrested and charged with possession and offences concerning the supply of Class A and Class B drugs.
He says sitting alone in the police cell, facing jail, he met his lowest ebb.
His then girlfriend was pregnant with his first child and in the silence of the cell he began to confront his life choices.
“I had this feeling of intense fear,” he says.
“I’d been caught. I was facing jail. My girlfriend was pregnant. My relationships with my family had deteriorated.
“My grandfather, who had previously washed his hands of me, intervened.
“He came to my Mum’s house, sat me down with my mother, grandmother and pregnant girlfriend, and suggested I seek help with the Northlands Centre. He said it had to be my decision, that I had to make the call and I had to want to go.”
Seamus agreed – but not immediately. He found it hard to give up drugs.
When he came home to find his mother was crying in the living room one afternoon, he decided to pick up the phone. It was the first step towards a different life.
He entered residential treatment in May 2022, undertaking a six-week programme. There, he says, the tough exterior he had built around himself began to fall away.
“I had this hard man persona,” he says. “But they broke that all down. I did group therapy, one-to-one counselling and family sessions. I began to understand the impact my addiction had not only on myself but on those closest to me. That was painful.”
Seamus completed the six-week programme and continued with aftercare. His daughter was born shortly after he finished. He has been sober and free from drugs since March 2022.
“I was insistent that my daughter would never, ever see me in addiction,” he says.
“It has not been easy. It’s not just about stopping drinking and taking drugs. I had to learn to live again. My social circles had been around drugs. I felt really isolated. My counsellor referred me to ARC – Addiction Recovery Coaching – in Derry and it honestly saved my life.”
Seamus Begley in Derry. PICTURE: MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN (MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN COPYRIGHT / )
ARC’s mission is to ‘restore hope and recover lives through physical activity, therapy and community’.
Seamus completed their recovery programme in June 2025 and has remained a community member ever since.
“My ambition is to give others the kind of support I received,” he says.
“To help others out of the darkness. ARC literally saved my life. They’ve saved my relationship with my daughter. They’ve saved the relationships with my mother, my grandfather, my father.”
“I am a Community Member with them at the moment and I hope to one day get a job there. I feel like that’s the only job that I could safely say that I would enjoy waking up in the morning to go and do.”
Looking back at the young boy who first used drugs as an escape, Seamus says he wishes could tell him that he deserved better and give him a hug.
And for anyone now caught in the darkness of addiction he once knew, Seamus has a simple message.
“Reach out,” he says. “Speak about how you’re feeling. All it takes is one step.
“And you don’t have to get it right the first time. Just make the first step towards recovery and it could change your life.”
For more information on ARC, see the website arcfitness.uk.
Seamus Begley PICTURE: MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN (MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN COPYRIGHT / )