About Us
Hello, I am Jamie Cooper and this is Redemption Addict.
That’s the who and the what, now let me expand on these and then tell you the why
Feeling Like You're Screaming Until You Run Out Of Breath?
Everywhere we look we see signs and adverts telling us to “open up” and “ask for help” We are prompted all the time to ask “Are you ok or say “I am here for you?”
Asking for help is often terrifying and it takes so much courage to break out of that cage even for one single minute to lift the phone and try reaching out to someone qualified, someone helpful, someone compassionate, someone, anyone who cares.
That one single minute before you are dragged back into the depths of that lightless never ending void where hopes and dreams lay lifeless on the floor around us as a constant reminder of every time we tried and failed and what it took to rebuild after each earth-shattering, soul-destroying, life-sucking fall from grace that the mere idea of even attempting to get up and face another day feels like a boxing match with the Devil himself (Spoiler alert it did not go well)
The Bible says “Ask and you shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you”
So everything says ask, but what do we receive when we do? With the best will in the world, our mental health services are not what they should be, be it due to a crumbling health service, a lack of funding, compassion, training or general global awareness, but not just an understanding of terms and cliches but of what the services are supposed to do and like all information be shared fully and readily so that when you say “I am here for you” you can feel just as equipped to help you friend or loved one and they are equally equipped to help you by teaching, supporting, inspiring each other to help yourselves to become your own therapist.
Do You Feel Bound By Mental Slavery?
Yea? Me to. Ever felt, pain both physical and emotional, betrayal, loss, trauma, depression and have possibly done some dark things and been to the dark places they led?
Don’t worry I’m right there with you but I am also here to tell you that there is hope no matter where you are. Trust me if I can be saved, and find mental stability and happiness you can too, and I’m going to be right there with you while you get there as well.
Who am I? As the intro says, I’m Jamie Cooper and I am just a guy who has been through a lot and has been to those dark places mentioned above and to some even darker ones than most, but I have turned my life around and now I aim to help anyone I can from all backgrounds,
no matter how dark your life seems right now there’s always someone willing to shine a little light your way.
I too have heard the manic rantings and ravings of the voices of self-doubt, and self-loathing, the constant bombarding streams of I can’t, I won’t, I’m nothing, I’m hopeless, like the deafening, unrelenting rattles and scratchings of our mental chains against the very walls of the prison cells we encase ourselves in.
“The Truth Is Always Quiet, It’s The Lies That Are Loud” – Jesus Revolution (Movie)
Do You Feel Bound By Mental Slavery?
I have been to these places, I have reached out and my experience with most not all was like walking into a pitch on Dragons Den (or shark tank for our non-UK audience) Where it feels like we are expected to help a full report of how we are, where we are, why we are, and what we need.
If you’re like me when I first reached out walking to the door was a daunting enough experience let alone asking me the same questions I had been struggling with forever, only to be left feeling like I had somehow managed to physically fail the interview for mental help, and there’s no two ways about that, that sucks.
I would appear suicidal sometimes before attempts or self-half, sometimes after with varying levels of risk, and once or twice to the point of genuinely questioning my mortality and very much minutes from the end. Each of these attempts were at different times, and different hospitals, with different teams and different answers to the questions they asked but the results were always the same, I talked, they listened (or at least stayed silent and pretended they understood) then they sent me home, straight back to the same place and situation id just come from hours before, with nothing changing, nothing accomplished only more of the same questions being asked with more ammunition than ever before, and those chains rattled all the louder.
This was until I learned as Bob Marley says “Emancipate Yourself From Mental Slavery None But Ourselves Can Free Our Minds”
Armed with this and a desire to fight I developed three new philosophies
I can’t kill myself so clearly I am meant to live
Of all the crazy ways I could have died, now whatever kills me gets a spot on my tombstone
My why is and always has been to help people and I have spent my life connecting with people at all levels so I can help people at all levels because no matter where you started, or where you are in my eyes as in God’s eyes we are all the same and a chain is still a chain regardless of if it coated in Gold or brass and my mission is to break all chains.
I looked at happiness experts and just people who were happy such as Sahd Guru who says “If we let other others affect our emotions and how we feel is that not the ultimate form of slavery?” or Willie Nelson “I take it not only a day at a time, but a moment at a time, and keep it at that pace. If you can be happy right now, then you’ll always be happy, because it’s always in the now.” So now I want to share my story and what I have learned and invite you to join me on my journey and my quest to break the chains of Mental Slavery and allow me to inspire and support you to make redemption your drug!
If you are here because you feel you need help and support and have made it this far, I personally want to tell you, you have already taken the first step and I am so proud of you from the bottom of my heart congratulations, you cant climb the mountain without the first step so lets conquer your Everest!
"Ninety Percent Of Success In Life Is Just Showing Up" - Woody Allen
