Ian McCall and Dean Lister are both former UFC fighters who have both dealt with serious health issues during and/or after their combat sports careers came to a close.
McCall, before and after his career ended, resorted to oxycontin and other forms of pain management, admitted that he turned into a monster at times and wanted to commit suicide.
“I was medicated and so numbed out from such a young age,” McCall said on Real Sports (via Damon Martin of MMA Fighting). “I turned into a monster. I wanted to kill myself. I was so depressed. I had no idea who I was. I laugh it off because it was just crazy.”
Real Sports, which airs on HBO, recently did a segment looking at psychedelic drugs and their affects on those who have suffered severe damage throughout their sports careers.
Lister described his issues as being locked in a prison cell that is his own mind.
“You’re stuck in a prison cell in your own mind,” Lister said. “You don’t feel like doing anything. I was never like that before. I have no doubt about [having brain injuries or CTE symptoms]. Because even right now I have to focus so I can make words. I’ll forget random things. I’ll forget a friend’s name sometimes. Like a friend, like what’s his name again? Someone I know.”
Psilocybin, or mushrooms, was a substance that both McCall and Lister used while filming the segment on Real Sports.
The former UFC star in McCall, after using the psychedelic drugs, feels like he needs to inform others who could be suffering from similar things that he went through.
“These fighters are good people but they’re tormented,” McCall said. “I have to fix these people. I’m one of them.”
As far as Lister goes, he admitted that his old ways of treating these issues have changed to the new method he learned while using mushrooms and other psychedelics.
“As far as me not wanting to continue on the previous way of existence, it’s absolutely set in stone right now,” Lister said.
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