Hi there, Tyson here. I suppose this makes my first official blog post. I’m really running blind here and haven’t a clue as to where to begin. So here goes nothing! I’m a 35-year-old father of three awesome children. Levi, my eldest, is almost 14 years old, and my girls, Iylah and Layla, are both 7 and 5, respectively, I’ve been in a long term relationship with my partner in life Paige for almost 16 years now.. We lead a honest and busy lifestyle and have come a long way together from where we started as teenagers..
I’ve had a very interesting life to say the least in my 35 laps around the sun. I grew up with an alcoholic abusive father who made my life a living hell for the first thirteen years of my existence. Not only was I physically assaulted on a near daily basis I also witnessed my Mum and younger brother go through the same nightmare. Once he left and my parents had finally decided to get divorced, I hate to think now of how many years Mum went through this before she had the courage to finally up and leave!
I then proceeded to gravitate to the shadier groups of society as I was accepted for who I was and I didn’t need to prove anything. This then led down the road of foster care homes and eventually spent the next five years in and out of Youth Detention Centres. I’d then started a very heavy drug addiction to methamphetamine, Ice, ectasy anything I could get my hands on really. I was eighteen and bulletproof. Atleast I thought I was..
I then found myself in a serious motor vehicle accident at 19 years old in a stolen vehicle where I ended up spending the next 10 weeks in hospital handcuffed to a bed until I’d learned how to walk again and do basic basic human things like going to the toilet before I was shipped off once again to the adult prison system. You’d think that’d make a man change right? No, once released I went straight back to the old crowd, back to using drugs, back to leading a life of crime. I met my now partner around this time, we’d been together for a short while, I’d started to say no to my then friends to do any criminal activities, before we knew it we had a baby on the way. I needed to make big changes and fast. But not before the detectives came and caught up with me for old charges. I pleaded guilty to everything to get it all out of the way, I was sentenced to a year in a maximum security prison.
This was the defining moment in my life, I started my recovery cold turkey in Prison. I gave up all of the drugs and ciggarettes in there so I could call my pregnant girlfriend on the phones more, I removed all of my “friends” numbers from the jail house phone. I made a decision then and there to be the best version of myself and be a better father to my baby than what my father was for me.
Fast forward to my release date, I came home to my beautiful partner and our 3-month-old boy Levi. I had nothing but the clothes on my back and a plastic bag full of our prison mail together and 3 years of parole to serve. I promised them I’d give them the world and I quite literally did. I bought Paige (my partner) a plastic globe of the world and it still sits in our lounge room to this day. I’d never held an honest job, never had a driver’s license. I rode a pushbike to my first job for weeks before I was offered a lift in. I completed my parole, going from 3 weekly visits, to two weekly visits and eventually once a fortnight visits, all done by public transport. I never gave a dirty urine test; I succeeded in getting a driver’s license, and we bought our first car together. Life for us had started to move in a wonderful direction. We started out from humble beginnings and we now have achieved most things that we have wanted to. I’m 16 years clean from drugs now and almost a year free from alcohol. I suffer from my demons still and have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and Complex PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I still have regular therapy sessions and I’m involved with regular DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy), but one of my proudest accomplishments now is becoming a support worker myself and helping men recently released from prison to get back on their feet and support them in everyday activities. I’ve truly come full circle now and I’d like to show them that yes, the mission ahead is hard but it can definitely be done. Anyhow, I think that’s covered my introduction enough for now. As I said earlier, I’m not sure how blogs work or if anyone will even see this, but feel free to reach out and say hello.
