Former drug addict Vinny Kerrigan pens “Fly Away” song on how it feels trying to escape the clutches of cocaine

Vinny Kerrigan, 32, from Longridge, who works in sales, penned the song “Fly Away” to encourage others gripped by addiction to seek help. After recently completing a 10 day stint in rehab of which came to an end last week, before he left, he penned the song which took him two hours to write, with the help of a fellow peer who created a melody on his guitar. Family man Vinny, who has a wife and two children bravely charted his daily struggles in the song which includes lyrics such as "I used to feel like an alien”, “Some days I want to fly away to a place where you feel no pain” and “It’s not what you see from the outside. How can I be dying inside?”

His experience with narcotics started at 14 when he began smoking weed and testing other drugs, but it wasn’t until his dad passed away when he was 17 that he started properly investing in them.

“I started using cocaine as a coping mechanism”

He told the Post: "I didn’t really know my dad throughout my childhood and was getting curious and deciding if I wanted to get to see him. His death affected me and I started using cocaine as a coping mechanism until I was about 25. I was going out partying and staying out for three to four day benders. I got to the point where I thought I didn’t want to be here anymore and tried to commit suicide but was saved in hospital.”

Vinny then met his wife and stayed drug free for seven years. However, over the past 12 months, he fell back into old habits as he says he thought “he could control it”. He added “I wasn’t going out partying but I was doing it on the sly on some week nights and weekends. I thought I could control it and then it spiralled to a point where 12 weeks ago I was running out of money. I have an addictive personality so it is all or nothing with me.”

After being signed off work, he was then given medication by the doctors and attended a rehab clinic in Lancaster which he credits with helping “be here” to turn his life around. He is now nearing 30 days without any substances. “I have attended meetings online and also be given a sponsor and am currently doing a 12 step program. Before all this I was on the brink of losing everything. The song’s lyrics are of how I feel. If I could offer up any advice to anyone reading this who is struggling with an addiction, I would say: reach out to someone as there is also help and hope. People look down on you, but we are not bad people, we are just sick.”