A Quebecer who lost everything because of his addiction to alcohol and drugs has regained a taste for life by reconnecting with nature through animal photography.
“I lost my spouse, my condo, my job. I went bankrupt. I wanted to kill myself. I lost everything and I fell to the bottom. One day, I got up, I said to myself that I was disgusted, and everything changed when one of my friends who does photography took me to the forest,” says Marc Gosselin bluntly.
For nearly five years, this professional trucker, originally from the Quebec City area, struggled with alcohol and drug problems, including cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy, which he had started recreationally when he was going out.
“I had gotten to the point where I was working just to pay for my drinks, which went up to $1,500, $2,000 every weekend, confides the 39-year-old man. For me, it started on Thursday evening and ended on Monday morning, the time to be on my feet for work on Monday evening.
get up
In 2015, after having “hit rock bottom”, Marc Gosselin decided to get out of this infernal spiral. He seeks help from his doctor, who notably prescribes antidepressants.
“It didn’t suit me, so I decided I wanted to get up on my own. It was not easy, but I had the chance to be very well surrounded, ”recalls Mr. Gosselin, who had returned to live with his mother.
Nature
It is notably thanks to one of his friends that Marc Gosselin discovered photography.
“I fell in love the first time he took me to the forest. I started with a small device and then I continued to invest in it. Instead of putting my money in alcohol and drugs, I put it in my cameras”, he explains, admitting to having had several relapses.
For six years, Mr. Gosselin has been going several times a week to the Laurentides wildlife reserve, a few dozen kilometers from his home. Off work due to an injury for a little over a year, he can go from 20 hours to two days a week in the woods.
“[Over there] I feel alive, I pick up. I call it my paradise, because it really is a paradise on earth. Being in contact with animals, there is nothing more beautiful”, explains the one who manages to approach within ten feet of certain animals. This is particularly the case of a moose he has been following for three years and which he named Titan.
For Marianne Saint-Jacques, psychologist and director of the master’s in drug addiction intervention at the University of Sherbrooke, practicing an activity that gives pleasure can really be a key factor in the healing of people with addiction or consumption problems.
“[…] A passion, it allows you to occupy yourself in times when there are desires, but also, to regain self-confidence, to regain some control and to have projects,” he explains. -she.
Transmit his passion
Today, Marc Gosselin would like to introduce this passion to other people who are struggling with substance abuse problems.
“I was lucky to be well surrounded and that’s what also allowed me to get out of it. Now, I would like to do a program for people who are not as lucky as me and take them with me so that they can reconnect with nature, in addition to discovering photography”.
