you know whenever somebody asked me how I stay motivated to stay clean and sober
I often can't help but remember the lyrics from logic song one eight hundred
two seven three eight two five five where he says I finally want to be alive
I don't want to die today what is up everybody this is Chris from the rewired
soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and this is a
question that one of my clients actually asked me today in a group session he
said how do you stay motivated to stay sober and this is a great question and I
wanted to touch on it in this video so please please please if you know
somebody out there struggling to stay clean and sober please share this video
with them because I may give a lot of tips that I use to stay motivated to
stay clean and sober all right so let's get started so this is one of
the biggest difficulties that a lot of us struggle with when we get clean and
sober like what's what's our motivation like how do we stay motivated like it
blows my mind like every day I see how brutal this disease of addiction is I
see people who crawl into my treatment center just completely beaten up
completely broken just desperate and grateful just oh thank god maybe I don't
got to live this way anymore right and maybe a week two weeks later
after the the withdrawals are kind of gone you can see that motivation just
kind of leave and they're kind of slacking sitting in the back laying down
sleeping and stuff like that and I'm just like man like how are you already
losing that motivation to stay clean and sober but this is something that comes
up a lot so those of you who are just now meeting me I have been clean and
sober since June 23rd 2012 I got clean on my 27th birthday so I have a little
over five and a half years clean and like don't get it twisted like the
longer I stay clean the more I have to stay motivated to stay clean because for
us addicts every day that we stay clean that voice gets a little bit louder in
the back of our head that says you're good now
you're fixed you can go have one drink you can go have one pill you can you can
do one line right so like long stay clean the more I got to stay
motivated but I really want to talk about you know how I stayed motivated in
early recovery alright and like I mentioned in the intro of
this video like man like logic I'm gonna do a video breaking down the lyrics of
logic song one eight hundred two seven three eight two five five because a lot
of it you know aside from depression and suicide you know a lot of it has to do
with addiction in like man something happened to me an early recovery where I
like those those lyrics they hit me because I'm like man I finally want to
be alive I don't want to die anymore like when we're stuck in that insanity
of addiction and all we can think about is where we're gonna get the next hit
from where we're gonna get the next drink from like we were slowly killing
ourselves and we often want to die and something happened in my early recovery
and it didn't happen for maybe about 45 to 60 days where I just I just didn't
want to die anymore man like that's where a lot of my motivation came from
but one of the tips that I often give people when I see them lacking in that
motivation and they need that motivation one thing that helps me out even to this
day but I help me out an early recovery to is to never forget where I came from
okay now this has a lot to do with humility
too because our ego our ego is one of the worst enemies towards our recovery
that ego right it just keeps telling us who we are what we've accomplished and
how great we are and stuff like that like I often say I never ever ever ever
ever forget the week long cold turkey opiate detox that I did okay
like every time I even think even time I think about getting high again I never
want to forget how miserable that was so one of the tips I have that I give
people is never forget the days or the weeks before you got clean and sober
never forget that because the ego starts telling us like oh you're good now or it
says this this is one of my favorite ones that the ego tells us oh oh you
know it wasn't that bad it wasn't it wasn't that bad maybe people were
overreacting maybe you were overreacting it wasn't that bad
like never forget never forget the days or weeks that led up to you getting
clean and sober like if you can remember that you're gonna be in a really good
spot like I joke around with my clients all the time I'm like I don't think any
of you ended up in treatment because things were going good before you got
here like nobody just decides to get sober
because they were bored we do this thing because it's often life or death or just
because our life has become extremely extremely unmanageable in my early
recovery I often said this I used to say like I don't have much but I don't want
to lose any of it and what I meant by that is like I had nothing I had no
material possessions and like you think I'm exaggerating but I ain't playing
with you when I got clean and sober like the most valuable thing I had if you
want me to be honest with you was a freaking oxygen tank
okay I was 27 years old hooked up to an oxygen tank that I had to wheel around
with me like I was a 90 year old dude that was the most expensive item I owned
okay aside from that I lost you know all of my money my job my talk everything I
got clean and I had about three or four pairs of clothes okay I had a throwaway
cell phone you know I was begging for money for cigarettes for my mom like I
had nothing but I would always say I don't have much but I don't want to lose
any of it so what I meant by that is that like I
had some peace I had some serenity I had some sanity these are the things that I
did not want to let go of over a drink or drug that was part of my motivation
my the fact that I could wake up in the morning knowing that I didn't do
anything insane the night before was just such a sense of relief like it felt
so nice knowing that or knowing that I didn't have to lie cheat or steal from
anybody that day that was just such a weight lifted off my shoulders and those
are things that I do not have when I get higher drunk I'm constantly hurting the
people who care about me the most but if you want to get honest to like the other
great part about earlier coveri and even to this day sometimes I
still wake up in the morning and remember this like I don't have to worry
about the withdrawals man I don't got to worry about the shakes from not having
any alcohol I don't got to worry about the aches and pains and the nausea and
the vomiting and all the stuff that came from my opiate addiction I don't gotta
worry about to come down from cocaine like I feel incredible each day and that
is something that helped keep me motivated that's why I say don't forget
where you came from don't forget about those days when you were absolutely
miserable and the only thing that was gonna make your day better was finding
the next one we don't got to live that way anymore that's part of my motivation
something that I was telling my clients today and I'll recommend it to anybody
watching this video is every day every single day in the morning keep a little
journal by your bed or whatever it is and write down a list right there a list
of five things five reasons you're staying clean and sober today like
something that's simple what it does if you want me to get all into neuroscience
and stuff that is gonna start to rewire your neural pathways so you naturally
stay motivated now I will tell you this well five-and-a-half years playing I
have a lot more to lose I have a lot more to lose like I have my son back in
my life which is the most important thing in the world to me I also have my
beautiful girlfriend and sometimes I joke with her like what would you do if
I relapse like she would leave you know what I mean but aside from that you know
I have the relationships built with my mom my dad my son's mom my friends these
are all things that I would lose but also one of the other most important
things in my life today one of the most important things in my life today is all
the people that I am able to help and I would lose my ability to help so many
people out there if I were to pick up a drink or a drug so I have so much more
to lose today I tell my clients like if I don't stay humble if I don't stay on
top of my recovery game like one day they might walk into treatment and say
yo where's Chris and somebody says oh he's over at the other building detox
right now because he realized so I gotta keep these things in the forefront of my
mind these are the things that constantly keep me motivated so if you
are somebody who is new and recovery here is a suggestion that I have for you
build a back support group build that support group of either men or women who
are in your support group and you know the rules about that so don't even start
playing with me all right but bring those to mine me and three of my best
friends who I met when I got clean we are still great friends today and we
all have over five years playing some of some of them are coming up on six years
I was like one of the last ones to get clean but I knew in early recovery that
if I were to relapse I was gonna let these guys down like we all kind of
leaned on each other to help each other stay clean and sober so I knew that if I
were to go take a drink or a drug I would not be able to be there to support
my friends okay so I really really hope this video helps some of you out there
who are struggling to stay motivated to stay clean it's over I really hope that
you take some of these suggestions to heart because this is one of the most
crucial parts about staying clean and it's something that I still have to do
five and a half years later all right but if you have any questions make sure
you post them in the comments below I'm more than happy to answer them and like
ice men shinned at the beginning of this video please share this please share
this with somebody you know who is struggling to stay clean it's over all
right but anyways if you like this video
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channel click or tap on one of those thumbnails right there alright but
thanks so much for watching figure out a way to stay motivated today
and I'll see you next time