Muscle Memory digital AugSept 2018 | Page 72

feature REHAB ANTOINE ENTERED RE- HAB FOR THE FIRST TIME A FEW DAYS LATER AT AN ADDICTION CANADA REHAB FACILITY IN MUS- KOKA, ONTARIO. JOHN HAYNES WAS THE CEO AS WELL AS HIS COUNSELOR. HAYNES WAS ALSO A PROFESSIONAL BODY- BUILDER. IF ANYONE COULD RELATE TO AN- TOINE IT WAS HAYNES. THEY SPOKE THE SAME LANGUAGE AND SHARED THE SAME DREAMS BUT NONE OF THAT SEEMED TO MAT- TER AS ANTOINE LAST- ED ONLY 45 OF THE 60 DAYS BEFORE LEAV- ING. AFTER THREE DAYS OF SOBRIETY HE WAS USING AGAIN. During Antoine’s fight to become sober he attended countless rehab centres across Quebec and Ontario. He had a routine. He’d check in, sleep for five days, start eating, begin working out and receiving therapy with other addicts, but he simply couldn’t seem to stay sober. He’d stay awhile, feel he was ready to leave but once back in the world he’d quickly relapse. Things went from bad to worse. He lost his home, his friends and even after enduring an attack from a paranoid drug-addicted friend, he continued on his path of destruction and for the next three months, abused drugs and alcohol more than ever before. ONE LAST TRY Between December 2016 and Febru- 70   MUSCLE MEMORY | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018 CRISIS MODE On Christmas Eve, 2014 his life changed forever. He was out drinking and drugging when he heard the news that his best friend’s brother had overdosed on opiates and his body had been found in a shed in the dead of winter. A shed, which he’d broken into for a quick fix. His last fix. “I was devastated.” That devastation would serve as the catalyst needed for Antoine to turn his life around.