By Melissa Cunningham
Former AFL star Chris Yarran has opened up about the ice addiction that destroyed his football career and how religion brought him back from the brink.
In a frank video interview, the ex-Carlton and Richmond star revealed how he was introduced to methamphetamine by a family member sparking a downward spiral that ended with him quitting football at the end of last year.
In the harrowing video, produced by the Potters House Christian Fellowship Church, the former star half-back flanker spoke of a troubled childhood where he said violence was rife.
"Some of the memories I'll never forget is seeing my own mum being beaten in front of me," Yarran said in a YouTube video that he posted in May, but that had only surfaced now.
Former AFL star Chris Yarran
Yarran also revealed that when he nine years old, his father was incarcerated for 18 years.
"I grew up resenting my surroundings, football was my escape," he said.
But it was when he reached the pinnacle of his football career that his life began to unravel.
"I had gone from a kid having nothing, to being on top of the world," he said.
Former AFL star Chris Yarran opened up about his ice addiction.
"Underneath that, there was always a darkness lurking that I tried to cover with my footy, but eventually the darkness took over.
"By the eighth year (of my career) ... that was when my life started to fall apart."
Former AFL star Chris Yarran has revealed how ice addiction ruined my AFL career. Credit: Pat Scala
In his lowest moments, Yarran revealed he would be high on ice and awake for days on end.
"It destroyed my relationship, my career, my finances, my health, physically and mentally," Yarran said.
"I went from a fit, healthy athlete to a slob. I stacked on the weight, and that's when I started to miss training because I didn't want to be seen in the messed-up state I was in.
"I remember sitting in my bathroom for hours smoking meth, isolating myself from everyone, and that's when my mind would take over."
He said once he stopped getting a "kick out of smoking" the drug he began to injecting it.
Yarran said that he tried counselling, psychiatrists and spent a month in a $1000-a-night rehabilitation clinic in a bid to quit the drug and save his career.
But he was back on ice the day he left rehab.
Yarran said things finally changed when he "met God" and accepted religion into his life.
"I realised I needed something supernatural," he said.
"The moment I accepted Jesus Christ as my lord and saviour, everything changed.
"The darkness was gone, replaced with a light that gives me joy and peace."