Ronnie O’Sullivan was aiming to win a record-extending ninth title in the upcoming Masters tournament on Sunday but has pulled out just 48 hours before the opening match on “medical grounds”. In an interview given before his withdrawal, the 49-year-old talks about managing his mental health, the refuge he found in snooker clubs as a child – and why he was once banned from Pontins.

Best childhood memory?

Going to Pontins in Hemsby in Great Yarmouth to play snooker as an eight-year-old. I used to love just hanging out in the arcades with all my mates, being naughty, misbehaving, playing snooker, going to bed late and being around loads of snooker people. I loved snooker at once, even though I was pretty average at first. It was only when I got to about 12, I thought, “I’m actually not that bad at this game.”

Best day of your life?

When I won the world championships in 2012 and my son, little Ronnie, who was about four or five at the time, was there. I had two really bad years, and I felt like I’d been written off and then I started working with the sports psychologist Steve Peters. I was playing well, but I just wasn’t getting any results, and I thought, “What’s going on here?” Normally if I play well, I win a lot, but because I hadn’t done anything for two years, it felt like karma. You have to earn the respect of the game again, but I didn’t know that at the time. At that moment, I thought, “maybe I’m done,” then everything came together, and I won the tournament and having my son there to witness it made it even more special.

Best moment on a snooker table?

Winning the 2014 Welsh Open. I played really well from start to finish in that tournament and finished off with 147 against [Chinese snooker star] Ding Junhui. I was playing great, I was in my prime, everything felt good. The game felt easy. I didn’t realise how easy it was, until you start to struggle, and then you think, “God, it’s actually a hard game,” but at the time, it felt really easy. I just felt like I could do anything.

Best place to relax?

I’ve always been a survivor. The game has pulled me through. It’s always been a good place for me to just get solitude, no matter what’s going on in my life. I’d go down to a snooker club, see my mates, have a game of snooker, have a laugh, and I’d be like, “life’s great.” A snooker club was always like my church. It was my place of safety and peace. It wasn’t just the game. It was the people and the environment, especially Orford Snooker Club in Walthamstow. It was more like a home to me than anywhere I’ve ever been. I used to spend all my life down there. I’d eat down there. I’d play down there. I’d go to the gym next door. It was everything to me.

Best celebrity encounter?

I don’t really like people, to be honest, let alone celebrities. I’m not a lover of people, so I try and steer clear of them. The celebrities I’ve met who are really nice who I thought, ‘Wow, what a lovely guy,’? Russell Kane. He was a lovely guy. Robbie Fowler was an absolute diamond. Lovely fella. And Novak Djokovic was sound. He wasn’t grumpy with me. He was good as gold.

Best decision you ever made?

Agreeing to see Steve Peters, the aforementioned sports psychologist. I’d kind of given up on everything at the time. I’d had enough of playing snooker, but when I met Steve, he got my interest going again. At the time everyone else was just saying, “be positive, be positive,” and I was fed up with hearing the word, “positive,” then Steve said, “I’m not going to tell you to be positive, because that doesn’t work,” which intrigued me and made me think there’s a science to it and I’m quite science based. I’m not one to leave it up to the gods. I believe that if you get the recipe right, it’s going to be good and that’s what I bought into with Steve.

The key ingredient for me was understanding that I was being hijacked by one part of my brain. It was about dealing with that and then I didn’t have to go along with the emotions that I was getting eaten alive by. I’d have these tremendous highs, but then I could have tremendous lows, and I had to learn to just be a bit more flatlined and to realise that emotions are fickle. I’ve learnt to allow the emotions to come and go, and not let them dictate. I stopped self-sabotaging because I wasn’t emotion-led.

Best advice you ever received?

Again, Steve Peters said to me, “Life is fickle. Don’t get bogged down with it. One day you’re gonna love it, one day you’re not gonna love it.” I used to think, on a bad day, I’d never play well again, but he just made me realise that it will pass. So really, just knowing that things will pass.

Worst childhood memory?

Getting banned from Pontins. I was quite naughty. I was doing all sorts. I was misbehaving in the swimming baths. Just being a nuisance, really. When I was 10, this 16 or 17-year-old kid was picking on me and I had a glass of coke in my hand, so I just threw it in his face. He looked at me and said, “You bastard,” and then started chasing me through the ballroom, and I thought, “how am I going to get this geezer to stop running after me?” so I threw the glass on the floor, and it smashed, but it smashed by some old granny who was doing bingo. And then they tried to say that I’d tried to throw a glass at an old granny’s head, which I’d never do in a million years. Then they banned me from Pontins and my dad got the hump with me, and I was bang in trouble, so from that moment on I had to learn to behave.

Worst life choice you ever made?

Taking up snooker. In some ways, I wish I had a different job. I’m fortunate in many ways, because it’s been good to me, but I wish I’d been good at something else. Something more educational, maybe a scientist or something more interesting. I don’t think my job is interesting. It’s more of an entertainment, more of a brutality sport. I’d rather have had Steve Peters’ life. Or to inspire people in a different way, like helping to cure cancer.

Worst moment on a snooker table?

When I walked out against Stephen Hendry in the 2006 UK Championship quarter final. I was really not enjoying myself at that time for personal reasons. I was losing four one and just wasn’t feeling it. It was first to nine and I missed the ball and just thought, “I’m out of here, so I just shook his hand and walked out.” It was coming though. If I didn’t do it that match, I was going to do it in another match. I just wasn’t in a good place.

Worst thing about snooker?

It’s too much time on your own. I’d rather do something where you’re trying to cure something, and you’ve got a team of people. I’d rather have been into a team sport rather than on my own. I found just being on my own, it’s quite hard, because you’ve got to motivate yourself, you’ve got to push yourself, you’ve got to figure out all the answers yourself. If I was in a team environment, I think I’d have enjoyed that camaraderie.

Worst regret

Going out, drinking, partying, and taking class A drugs. That’s my biggest regret. At that point in my life, I wasn’t happy, and I was doing that to try to be happy. It got hold of me, rather than me being in control of it and that felt like a shit place to be. Luckily though, I found recovery and got clean and sober. I’m not clean and sober now though. I still have a good drink and this and that, but I know not to get too involved.

Worst thing about being famous?

Just making small talk. People come and talk to you, and mostly say, “Hi,” and I’m cool with that. But sometimes people have got these big grins on their faces. Earlier today there was this bloke just sitting there looking at me laughing and then he walks over and looks at me and he’s laughing again and then he’s got his friend to come over and he’s laughing at me too and I’m like, “Please!” and then I have to run, as I just can’t be doing with their silly, childish, idiotic grins on their faces. I don’t mind if people talk to me, but when they’ve got those stupid grins then they can f*** off.

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Unbreakable is out now, published by Orion Books.