Joe Rogan - Tyson Fury's Mission to Help People with Addiction

The point in my life where I hand on heart thought I was going to end up in a padded room. That's how bad it was. But it's fascinating that you're saying that setting goals and setting your mind on things and hard training is what set you back on track. You know, I don't know what you're like when there's no one in front of you, but standing here in front of you right now, I would say this is a healthy, vibrant guy. 100%. I've never felt better mentally, strong physically. I've trained hard. I feel fit as a fiddle. You know, I wouldn't be here if I was anything wrong with me. But that's fascinating that most people think that to come back from a mental health issue like yours, you need psychiatric care and you need medication. And you're saying you did it with setting goals and hard work. And the biggest thing we're missing here is I didn't I didn't do it with doctors and all them type of things. I don't think it was way more powerful. God. So your faith and your belief. My faith and belief that God would make me better made me better. I'm like somebody who don't have any faith will think, oh, this is nonsense or whatever, but I'm living proof. Well, if you believe in something and just like you were talking about believing in pills that don't do anything, belief is a powerful thing. Whether who knows what's behind that belief. But what you're saying is so powerful that you just by virtue of changing the way you think about things, setting goals, working hard. You lifted yourself out of the worst depression of your life to the point where you were suicidal. 100%. And I never ever went back to that from this day to that. And it's been been one over 12 months. That's pretty amazing. I mean, it's just amazing. That's an amazing thing for people to hear because there's a lot of people that rely heavily on antidepressants and medication. And they think that is the only way for them to be happy and for them to be not suicidal, not depressed. They need that medication and for them to hear what you're saying, I think is a very powerful thing. It is. But I'm no doctor. I'm not going to tell people to chuck away your pills and pray. But it doesn't do any harm. What I'm saying, give it a whirl. Give it a try. It can't hurt you. Set yourself some goals. Think positive and crack on. Do a bit of training. So from from accomplishing your ultimate goal, beating Klitschko, becoming the heavyweight champion and then falling into this deep funk, do you think you had to go through all this to come back again? I think so. Yeah. I believe I was being tested to see what type of man I was and what type of character I had. And, you know, even before the depression, I didn't appreciate things. Nothing. Nothing was value to me. Even something I'd worked hard for. If I'd worked hard and saved up for a car, just say, for five minutes, it'd be OK. But then I wouldn't want it anymore. It was a piece of shit. So nothing mattered to me. I didn't value anything. Anything that I had and I'd worked hard for, and everyone knows, like, what I have is blood money because I pay for him in face and my body gets punched to pieces for what I have. So you'd think I'd appreciate things more than an X-Man, but I didn't appreciate nothing. I didn't appreciate anything. Anything I had or achieved, even world championships, anything. I thought, is that it? Is that all your whole life? Yeah. Is that all your whole life? Yeah. So I believe I was taught I was put down this road and I had to suffer all these things so I could understand when I had things good. Like today, I'm happy that I'm breathing fresh air and that I'm sat here in a mental, mentally stable way of thinking. I'm happy that I can go out and enjoy a dinner and just be normal, whatever that is. That's what I'm happy for. I'm one of the most, probably the most unique people you'll ever meet. I'm not, I'm not orientated by material things and all that sort of stuff. It means nothing to me. I don't even care about glory and honour. I don't care about legacies. I don't care about winning titles or medals. It doesn't matter. But when I set my mind to doing something, I'll do it. And every single time I've ever set my mind to anything, I've done it. Even the unthinkable things, have I set my mind to it? I've done it. I don't care about wanting what Deontay Wilder has in his position or whatever. I only want to beat him in a fight. That's it. You only want to beat him because it's so difficult. Not just that, because that's what I want to do. Set me goal. Beat in Deontay Wilder. So do you think that that's your future, is just setting goals and constantly trying to achieve those goals? I think I've got a bigger purpose now than boxing. Boxing's a sport and something I've made a living out of for a long time. But I think that's a bigger picture. Bigger than any, winning any titles, bigger than winning any fights, any number of fights. I think my calling card in life is to spread the word on this. This disease is a silent killer. A killer that's so ferocious that you can't see it or feel it from the outside. You could be suffering right now, but I won't be able to see it because I can't see into your mind. It's just so unusual that someone has that solution. That hard work, dedication and setting goals is what lifted you out of the depression and made you appreciate life and made you appreciate all the aspects of it. Yeah, I appreciate everything. Spending time with my family. I took it for granted before. I thought, all right, I spend time with family any time I want. I couldn't put into words what I went through. But let me just say, I wouldn't wish what I went through on my worst enemy. Not that I have any enemies, but if I did, I wouldn't wish it on a soul because I know how hard it is and I know a lesser person, maybe not I've got through and maybe not a man without faith, maybe would have took his own life. Now that you have gotten through, now that you have gotten through, do you feel like you have the solution now to navigate the rest of your life? Yeah. I know the secret for me and everybody's will be different. But if I train every day and I'm staying in shape, then I'll be happy forever. The time I stopped training, the time I balloon back up again, the time it all goes wrong again. And I know that. If you know something in your life, then you don't do it. And that's what I know. It's like a diabetic. If he goes and eats a load of sugar, he knows it's going to make him ill. So he don't do it. So as long as I always stay by them guidelines, I know I'm going to be all right. That's how she wrote. So as long as you, well, that's the other thing too, right? The alcohol and the drugs exacerbate any sort of bad state that you have because you're going to feel like shit. Yeah. I'm not T total. Right. I've had a drink since I've been back. I've been out with the lads, had drinks, whatever. But your goals are still set and strong. Yeah. But that's really what it is. Yeah. So from now on, you just have to continually set goals in your life. Set goals, whatever them goals might be. They don't have to be massive goals, but they can be anything really, anything that I want to do or I want to achieve or I want to go someplace or whatever. Then I work towards and set myself a goal. It's almost like a little treat or whatever. It's fascinating because no one's ever really connected that. I mean, people have made that connection in terms of like when they study happy people, one of the things they find about happy people is their goal oriented people. They set goals to accomplish those people, but nobody's ever really set that as a remedy for depression and for mental health issues, setting goals, achieving those goals. That's the key to keep it going. I believe that's the case. Yeah. After doing quite a lot of research on myself and experiencing it, and it works for me and I find it works for a lot of people I speak to who's got the same problems. I get messages from all over the world from different types of sports people and different type of people asking for information and help and how I got through mine and what I did. I'm happy to help. So if there's anybody out there who's struggling in silence, which a lot of people are, then I'm always here to help if I can. Well, it's such an impressive and inspiring message because you're doing it without medication. You're doing it just through positive thinking, through goal setting and through healthy living. That's right. And I believe it's the best way to live anyway. Best way to live is fit and healthy. When you're out of shape and you feel unfit and you feel terrible, then nothing's going to go right for you. But if you feel fit, you feel good. It's almost natural to feel depressed if your body is literally depressed. If every time I go to the gym and do a little bit of training, whether it be a lot or little, I always go out of a shower and think, I feel great now. Training sets off and endorphins in your blood and makes you happy. Contentment is a word we're looking for. Contentment doesn't come through material stuff, jobs, positions, fame, glory, money, anything. Contentment, you'll never find contentment while you're chasing that sort of stuff. My message would be, look around yourself and be thankful for what you do have today. Don't look for what you don't have. You know, you've got to be happy with who you are. And a wise man once said, you've got to know yourself before you can know anybody else. Study yourself, try and understand yourself. Think what makes you happy and do that and what makes you sad. Don't do it. It's very simple really. If something makes me sad now, then I'm not going to do it anymore. Take that out in my life. I don't want that. And if you know something's going to lead you down the wrong way and wrong path in life, don't do it. Simple, very simple. Set yourself small time goals, long time goals, achieve them and move on. Now how long did it take you for you to lose the weight? I started training in November 2017. 400 pounds. Yeah. I can't run. I got down to 275 pounds in my first fight back in June. And by August and my second fight back, I was 258 pounds. I've maintained that weight 260, 258. That's your ideal weight? Yeah. From there to now. So, um, what did you do different with your diet? Like what did you? I was eating a lot and drinking a lot. I just stopped all that sort of stuff. Like my weight wasn't put on through being a normal person eating normally. My weight was put on through excessive drinking of lager. There's like 500 calories in one pint of beer. And I'd go out and I'd drink a minimum of 18 of those beers. Followed by whiskey, vodka, everything else. Then I'd stop off on the way home and have pizzas, kebabs, chocolates. It was excessive living. If you put your body through torture, you can't expect to feel great. Right. So what I did was I started eating healthy, not drinking. And that was it really. I just trained on a daily basis for a long period of time and and at sensible and clean. You don't have to cut everything out, but if you want faster results, then then you do it.