Cycling saved my life: ADHD and Jason
British Cycling's Sky Ride programme is running stories about disabled people and how cycling fits in to their life. In this feature, we meet Jason who has ADHD and ASD.
Jason's story
I am 41 and have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). After leaving the army in 2000, I slipped into clinical depression.
Over the next few years, I had some ups and downs and my health really suffered - I put on a lot of weight, drank too much and smoked up to 40 a day. That was until last year, when I decided that I had best do something, or else I probably wouldn’t make it to 50.
I gave running a try with my wife Andrea. It helped me get a little fitter, but I really didn’t get the same buzz or sense of excitement I remembered as a kid, when I’d spend whole days out riding my bike. That’s when I bought a mountain bike, and it all changed.
What I started to notice was during a good long ride, and for the rest of the day after, I was relaxed, even happy. My thoughts were straight and I was getting less and less frustrated.
On the weekends when I manage to go out on the bike, I can stop taking my medication altogether.
The adrenaline rush I get out on the bike actually replaces the stimulant medication I have been prescribed.
In terms of my ADHD, I find that focusing on preparing my bike before a ride, and cleaning it afterwards, as well doing any repairs helps to concentrate my mind and really calms me – it’s a therapeutic exercise.
My wife can tell when I have had a good ride – I come into the house smiling across my face, which is quite a change from my usual expression, when work can leave me stressed, worn out and without a single emotion on my face.
My favourite cycling memory is from when the Clayton Vale trails opened at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester last year and I went for a four hour ride. I must have looked a picture, an 18-stone, six-foot tall man, wearing a skull-printed bandana and sporting a biker’s goatee, flying around the trail giggling like a child.
It is hard to describe the feeling cycling gives me – it is a kind of euphoria, a pure happiness.
I took part in a Sky Ride Local eight-mile ride in Liverpool and really enjoyed it, as well as going out on the road. I have recently been getting involved in track cycling at the velodrome in Manchester and I enjoy being able to just put my brain in neutral and enjoy the ride.
My goal now is to drop around four stone, sort my fitness out and enter one of the racing leagues on the track next year. To be honest, it’s become a bit of an obsession, but as obsessions go, I guess it could be worse.
So does cycling make me feel brilliant? I think it may have saved my life.
