A man who served time in prison after struggling with substance abuse has shared six habits he still uses from when he was behind bars. Derrick Moore from Alaska in the US, is a motivational speaker and a recovering drug addict who has been sober for four years. He has written a book called 7 Steps From Addiction to Sobriety and shares his story on social media under the name Hardaway Learning. He spent 14 years “in and out of prison” due to his drug addiction after he lost all his athletic scholarships when he was 18 and became an alcoholic. Despite having served his time, there are six prison habits he still uses and he shared these in a TikTok video.

The habits he listed are kneeling down to pee, one person in the kitchen at a time, rolling his socks and underwear, taking a midday nap, eating fast and being addicted to caffeine. He explained that he kneels down to pee and aims the pee to the side of the bowl to prevent “urine splashing everywhere.” Then, he shared the reasoning behind ‘one person in the kitchen at a time’. Derrick continued: “Your prison cell is your kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom. Only 8x12 square feet. It’s not big enough for multiple people to hang out in it all the time. If your celly (cellmate) is using the room to cook, use the bathroom, chill, read etc. It’s common courtesy for you to allow him to occupy the room solo.”.

Moving on, Derrick said in prison there are laundry inmates you can pay to do your laundry for you. He learnt the sock/underwear roll from a laundry inmate who told him ‘make sure you squeeze the elastic so it doesn’t get stretched out.’. Next, he added: “Count is at 4pm every single day across the United States. Perfect time for a power nap.” Count is when inmates are required to return to their cells to be counted by the guards. This ensures the number of inmates matches how many there should be on file.

Then, Derrick gave the reason why he eats fast. He said: “There is limited seating in the chow hall and everyone in the prison goes there to eat. Everyone from your ‘car’ shared two tables with four seats. To let everyone have their chance to eat, I ate fast.” He also said he would ‘knock on the table’ to let others know he was leaving so they could have their turn to eat at the table. Finally, the recovering addict shed light on what he means by ‘caffeine addiction’. He said: “I never drank coffee in my life until I got to jail and prison. A lot of other people in prison are addicted to coffee as well because it’s a stimulant.”.

Derrick’s TikTok video has amassed an incredible six million views, 107,000 likes and more than 800 comments. The most liked comment is: “I think you should forget these habits. Your thoughts can be your reality.” To this, Derrick replied: “These are not bad habits. You should actually develop them, get some structure.”. Another user said: “Hey it’s a routine, people with routines tend to be more productive.” And a third person was supportive of these habits Derrick picked up. They commented: “All the people saying ‘Get outta the mindset, you're not in there any more’ don't get it. Usually someone who commits a crime has an imbalance in some sort of way.

"So when you get sent to prison it takes away all the responsibilities of life outside and gives you a structured day so you can learn yourself and correct the imbalance. Obviously a lot of people hate the thought of being locked away but it teaches valuable life skills. All of these show that prison helped him to better understand how to respect another humans.”. If you're having problems with substance abuse a good starting point is to reach out to your GP to get some support and advice.