Ronnie O’Sullivan: Battle with addiction and depression was the worst time of my life
Throughout his career, Ronnie O’Sullivan struggled with depression and drug and alcohol addiction. He forfeited his 1998 Irish Masters title after testing positive for cannabis, and he has subsequently received intermittent treatment at the Priory organization.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has described his battle with depression, and alcohol and drug abuse as the “worst time of my life”, and says his inability to deal with pressure drove him into a bad place mentally.
O’Sullivan is widely regarded as one the most talented snooker players of all time. From an early age he showcased his unique talent and became the youngest player to win a Masters at the age of 19 in 1995.
He went on to create a lasting legacy in the sport with 21 Triple Crown titles, the most achieved by any player. He shares a record with Stephen Hendry of seven World Snooker Championship titles and has won a record seven Masters and seven UK Championships.
In an interview with Sky Bet for the Stick to Football podcast, the current world No. 1 discussed his issues with mental health during his career and his struggles off the table. He did this in light of the release of his new documentary, “The Edge Of Everything,” on Amazon Prime.
He said that his obsessive fixation with being at the top of the sport was the cause of his mental health issues, which led to a six-year drug and alcohol misuse spiral.
“I have an inability to deal with pressure that I put on myself. I get in such a bad place, I get so down on myself then I become a moody person, I become someone I don’t really like”, he said.
Football legends Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane mirrored similar sentiments in football and opened up on how pressures at their respected clubs led to a loss of joy in the sport, with mistakes being difficult to overcome.
Getting the balance right between maintaining a healthy obsession which pushes you to success, and overdoing it, was seen as key, and O’Sullivan struggled to find himself outside of snooker. The sport consumed him, leading to his addiction battles.
“Those six or seven years I was unhappy, I couldn’t go out my house, unless I had a chemical substance,” he said.
On reflection O’Sullivan found his addictions towards perfection were not all bad, but needed to be managed so they did not become destructive. He has been working towards ensuring he can play snooker and be happy simultaneously.
“I keep a diary now because I know that it can get out of hand. I’m allowing myself 120 days away from home, I’m allowing myself to practice for 10 hours a week. So I do little things like that and if I go in at a tournament and I’m practicing, I switch my phone on for 50 minutes and once that alarm goes off, it’s like – cues away.”
“What the temptation is, is that you’ll miss a ball, and you go ‘oh I better pot another two or three of them’ and you start to drive yourself nuts because it becomes very obsessive.”
“So, my way is to set little (limits), that’s it, that’s enough before I even have a plan. Once I’ve got a plan, I stick to the plan and that’s it. Then I switch off and it’s kind of like managing that obsessiveness to not get out of (hand).”
“I mean sometimes I’d play and I’d have blisters on my fingers, in preparation for a tournament I’d play hours and hours and think I’ve got to get it right. My fingers would be so sore that when I come to play a tournament, I couldn’t put my hands on the table. I was over practicing and when I got to the tournament, I was burnout, it’s just finding the optimum level.”
