Episode 82 | Michael Kiernan — The Wrong Number, the Guinness World Record & the Cold Water That Changed Everything
Michael Kiernan grew up in Crosshill, a small town where everybody knew everybody and especially knew your family. Good childhood, strong women, a mum and a gran raising him — and then a stepdad who came into his life at eleven and whose surname he briefly took on. He got his first job, met the wrong crowd, had his first drink at seventeen — a bottle of Thunderbird downed at a party — and promptly fell asleep. It barely registered. What registered was the weed he was introduced to at work shortly after, and the week in Blackpool in 1991 that changed his personality permanently.
One disco biscuit on a dance floor in Sequins, every night for a week, washed down with everything else going. He came home a different person. His first full-blown panic attack sent him to bed for months, cost him his job, introduced him to beta blockers and codeine. And in codeine, he found something. An opiate that was socially acceptable, prescription-grade, and brilliant at making everything stop.
For the next thirty years, Michael was what he calls the undercover addict. Always had heavier users around him to compare himself to. Still holding down jobs, still keeping up appearances, still the driver because his substance of choice wasn't alcohol. Weed to start the day. Speed to stay up late. Valium to get to sleep. Codeine for the pain — first from arthritis in his hips, then for everything else. At his worst he was 22 stone, eating two tubs of Ben & Jerry's a night, binge eating fruit and veg to lose weight while still medicating everything with pills, not caring whether he woke up in the morning.
Then COVID. Made redundant. No pretence of going to work. Forty to fifty dihydrocodeine a day. And one afternoon outside a health centre, rattling, out of prescription, running through his options — he scrolled to H on his phone meaning to call someone he knew who used heroin. He called his mum instead by accident. And he stayed on the line.
Now in recovery. Guinness World Record holder — two hours and five minutes buried in snow in shorts at Glenshee. Founder of Flowstate Experience, a cold water and ice therapy community in Scotland. Partner, radio show host, ice bath evangelist. One wrong number from a completely different life.
You can find Michael on Instagram at:
https://www.instagram.com/michael_flowstate_experience_
His website:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/19YCYLESpp/?mibextid=wwXIfr
And the radio show:
https://www.instagram.com/michael_flowstate_experience_?igsh=MXZ5MXFrOG5lenB0aw==
Links to the 2 Flowstate films that inspired Michael:
https://youtu.be/dftQD_EEcgg?si=e2o95sFcmuRnHWtU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvuCViWPlZY
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