so hi my name's Chris and I'm a recovering drug addict and alcoholic and
word on the street is people got really upset with drew Monson aka mytoecold for saying
addiction is a disease and comparing it to cancer so let's talk about that what
is up everybody this is Chris from the rewired soul where we talk about the
problem but focus on the solution and if you're new to my channel what I try to
do is take different topics going on in the YouTube community try to see what
lessons we can learn from them to improve our own mental and emotional
well-being so if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that
notification bell and yeah I got like oh no almost a dozen requests to make this
video okay I'll check this out but Before we
jump into it real quick we are halfway through the month and my brand-new book
cancelled inside YouTube cancel culture is out now and I have free copies
available until the end of the month check out the description down below
check out the pin comments all right and make sure you stay tuned until this end
of this video because if you like free stuff I have a really exciting
announcement all right so yeah let's talk about drew Monson and his new video
and before I talk about the addiction aspect I just want to say like I've made
some videos about drew Monson in the past opening up about his depression
because I cover a lot of mental health topics on this channel and I cannot
express how proud I am of this dude right like I was watching another
creator yesterday who doesn't commentary things like that covers some negative
topics and like they want to cover more positive things and and yeah it's
difficult sometimes and I just want to shine a light on people doing awesome
things like be inspired by drew Monson okay like in this video he talks about
how he's been feeling down and depressed lately but he's been so consistent
lately like remember when drew Monson used to get depressed he would disappear
for like six months he's pushing through it and like if you are a fan or a viewer
of drew Monson see what you can learn from it look at you
and say yo if this dude can go on his channel with over a million subscribers
and produce content maybe I can get out of bed and go to work today maybe I can
get out of bed and hang out with my friends or family today you see what I
mean so like huge huge huge props to drew
Monson all right but anyways as far as the addiction
topic goes and I apologize if this video is a little bit longer than usual but I
got a lot to say but let me have drew explain why people got a little bit
upset I basically tweeted something I'll read it to you people got so mad at me
for this here's what I said addiction is a disease it's a result of your brain
chemistry I don't care how many people say it's not you are not weak and you're
not just an idiot who makes bad decisions being addicted to drugs is
exactly as embarrassing as having cancer it isn't okay
the cancer part maybe went a little too far sometimes you have to be a little
outrageous I think more people saw that tweet because I said the word cancer
listen I've had family members die of cancer it's not something I am making
fun of and nowhere in that tweet did I say that it's exactly the same as a drug
addiction and I even replied to the tweet under it saying that I wasn't
saying that and so many people were so mad at me for that so yeah before I jump
into this topic let me explain why the hell I'm talking about this am i
qualified what's my experience and all that so for those of you who don't know
me I mentioned it in the intro but yes my name is Chris I'm a recovering drug
addict and alcoholic my drug of choice was prescription opioids but I pretty
much took anything that would alter my state of mind I was in my act of
addiction for almost a decade I just celebrated seven years clean and sober
on June 23rd of this year all right aside from that I worked in a drug and
alcohol treatment center for over three years who specialized in drug addiction
as well as mental illness it was a dual diagnosis treatment center I'm also half
way through getting by CADC which is a certified alcohol and drug counselor and
aside from that I am a big nerd and of learning everything I can about drug
addiction and mental health so I know why you guys wanted me to talk about
who's okay so first let me touch on the shame aspect of it that drew discussed
and I can definitely relate to that so I'm gonna be talking about some other
components and risk factors and why people become addicted in this video and
the science behind it but I can definitely relate to the shame like we
are fed this story that if you're an addict or an alcoholic you are this bad
person you should just have more willpower right and that's what makes it
so hard for some people to admit they have this problem because you are
surrendering you're admitting defeat you're saying that I cannot do this
right I cannot stop drinking or using drugs on my own and a lot of people are
like I was like I did everything I was so independent I moved out when I was 17
years old I was a provider for you know my son's mom and my son I took care of
everything on my own but for some reason my drug and alcohol addiction was
something that I could not stop you know what I mean so I ended up learning that
addiction is a disease and there is actually a biological component to this
thing the best way I could describe it is it's like an allergy and what I
realize that analogy that it's like an allergy like what's an allergy why
having an adverse reaction to a substance you see what I mean so people
who drink or use drugs and are addicts they react differently to that substance
like you you have a drink and you say oh I got to work tomorrow me I drink and I
don't care about work tomorrow or getting to you know the parent-teacher
conference with my son or any other of my responsibilities right but here's the
thing science is actually proven this okay so those of you who are interested
check out the National Institute of drug abuse all right I go there all the time
to check up on the latest research when it comes to addiction to everything like
that but science has proven that the addicted brain is different than the
normal brain okay Bill Nye the Science Guy actually did an episode of this over
on his series on Netflix as well if you want to learn more about that but
anyways what they discovered is if you me up to an fMRI brain scan right that
monitors brain activity and I have a brain that's prone to addiction you
hooked up the average person if both of us took a shot of alcohol or both of us
took you know a pain medication our brains light up in different ways
alright so here's a little of neuroscience for all of you two primary
parts of your brain are the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex okay
think of the limbic system as kind of like the engine of your car and the
prefrontal cortex being the brakes okay the limbic system when you drink we
use drugs when you go shopping when you eat chocolate if fire is off dopamine
okay and basically that sends up signals to the prefrontal cortex your prefrontal
cortex is responsible for impulse control logical decision-making and
everything like that so the average person's like yo I need to stop drinking
because I have stuff to do later or yo I need just quit eating food because I'm
gonna throw up I'm gonna put on weight and it's unhealthy right well what they
discovered with these brain scans is that the engine is working way too well
and the brake system is not alright so imagine imagine your brakes being cut
whenever you did anything pleasurably right that is what having an addiction
is like and science has proven this okay this is one of the reasons when I work
with other drug addicts and alcoholics I try to teach them different ways to
strengthen the prefrontal cortex although it's 2019 there's still no cure
for addiction but we can strengthen our prefrontal cortex and gain back some of
the other beautiful things it does like our impulse control our emotional
regulation or logical decision-making skills and everything like that now why
does this happen drew discussed the biological component
yes there is a biological component to addiction okay they have something
called the addiction disease or not addictive disease with the addiction
gene so you know how can you go to the doctor and you you write down see have
like a family history of like cancer or diabetes or high blood pressure or
whatever it is right that doesn't mean that you're going to have those things
but it's good for your doctor to know because you might be genetically
predisposed - those things they could add addiction
to that list and frankly they should with all the addictive medications out
there so addiction actually runs in my family
my mom is a recovering addict my aunt is a recovering addict my uncle is a
recovering addict and so is my sister and then you have me - but to get you
even more information about that my grandmother years ago when she had a
heart surgery and they did all these tests they actually found that the
addiction gene runs on her side of the family and here's what's fascinating
about that the same gene responsible for addiction is also responsible for
Parkinson's disease so although my grandmother who started the family that
gene was on she never had an addiction I don't even remember my grandma drinking
but my grandma actually developed Parkinson's disease which is what she
passed away from just some years ago all right so that gene can activate into
addiction or Parkinson's or it just lies dormant so something that drew Monson is
talking about is like some people are just genetically predisposed so when
they take that first drink when they take that first drug their brain is
already getting an excess flood of dopamine and they want more and it's an
absolute ridiculous argument to say we'll just don't pick up a drink or a
drug like if you're somebody who says that the only way that you can say that
without feeling like a hypocritical dick is if you've never drink or picked up a
drug in your life right because you don't know until you do it and most
human beings are going to experiment with alcohol our experiment was hell I'm
letting you know right now my son's 10 years old and since he popped out of the
womb I've been worried about when he tries his first drink or a drug because
addiction runs in my family now there's something else called
epigenetics alright epigenetics or when you have a gene that lies dormant
alright and typically that gene is not activated until some type of traumatic
or extremely stressful experience happens so some people have the
addiction gene but they don't develop an addiction until way later in life a
prime example of this is War veterans people who have been assaulted
physically sexually maybe they were in an abusive relationship
and then it triggers that addiction gene so maybe they didn't have a problem with
alcohol or drugs their entire life and then all of a sudden boom they have it
all right so one of the risk factors is your genetics
okay the next biggest risk factor and one of the reasons I talk about mental
health so so much is mental illness is the number one leading cause of
addiction okay like when I first started my channel it was primarily addiction
and I've had a lot of people say why don't you talk about addiction or why
don't you talk about addiction more right and like I try to but I know that
mental illness is one of the leading causes of addiction so I try to talk
about mental health because I figure if we can start dealing with that then a
lot of people won't start self-medicating because so many of us go
untreated or undiagnosed with our mental illness and we don't know what's going
on so we start self-medicating with drugs or alcohol all right this is why
our mental health is so important having an untreated mental illness is also the
leading cause of relapse so why do you think I focus on this thing so much when
I make sure my mental health is in order it keeps my sobriety in order and one of
the biggest mental illness is that we need to talk about is trauma alright
like again I worked in an addiction treatment center for over three years
and I have worked with thousands of clients and I've had so many people sit
down and share their stories with me and it breaks my heart when I hear people
just like oh why are you turning to drugs why are you turning to alcohol
I've heard the most horrific stories and not just one or two I've heard hundreds
of stories what happened to these men and women as children or even as adults
in the relationships they were in right I sit there I'm like God no wonder you
turned to drugs and alcohol like that is awful
right so like I just hope that you have a little bit of empathy and understand
like not many people just wake up in the morning and say oh I'm gonna become
addicted to hell winner oh you know I want to you know become a you know an
coholic right now I'm not saying this is an excuse but 12 net is a major reason
mental illness is a major reason genetics are a major reason all right so
when I was working in the treatment center and I would be talking about this
one of the number one questions I would get asked is my you know my family
doesn't believe that addiction is a disease what should I do or my friends
or my family or my spouse whatever it is and here's the thing here's what I tell
people and here's what I'll tell drew drew Monson if you ever watch this video
this for you tell them to argue with the Surgeon General and scientist okay
because back in god what was it I want to say 2015 may be the Surgeon General
came out and classified addiction as a disease and there's plenty of studies
that back that up as well my goal when I'm working with other addicts
alcoholics is that I want you to understand that addiction is a disease
all right to keep my recovery I need to know that it doesn't matter if my
girlfriend or my family or my friends or society understands that addiction is a
disease I have to know it all right and one of the other pieces of evidence
aside from the the brain differences with people who have addictions is why
do you think relapse happens why do you think people have such a long period of
recovery and then if they relapse they pick up right where they left off
because they haven't been cured there isn't a cure for addiction they are
biologically different than other people all right so the last thing I want to
touch on is a lot of people are upset because drew Monson compared it to
cancer and trust me I get it I get why people get upset with
that but here's here's the issue that I take a lot of people for some reason on
this weird subconscious level feel that if we classify addiction as a disease
and it's taking away from cancer patients and that's not the case at all
like when was the last time you heard of cancer research being defunded for
addiction did you know that the war on cancer and the war on drugs started the
same year right over here we have billions of dollars being raised
Cancer Research and over here we're locking people up who are suffering from
the disease of addiction we're punishing them rather than rehabilitating them but
there are a lot of places that have things like drug court and give people
the option to get treatment to seek help and everything like that one of the
reasons that addiction is looked down upon so much more is because when you
get cancer unless you're like Walter White like you don't become a bad person
addiction with the way that it affects the brain because that limbic system I
told you about it's responsible for your survival okay so your brain is telling
you you need drugs you need alcohol to survive so you will lie cheat and steal
you will rob yo llama to get your drugs right you don't do that when you have
cancer so I understand the perception that you know these are two totally
different things but we need to understand like the disease of addiction
is affecting people's brains in this way the good news is that when you recover
you improve your life and you not you're not that person anymore all right I
don't lie cheat and steal anymore it's pretty sick okay
so anyways I appreciate drew Monson for being an ally when it comes to addiction
awareness and everything like that and for mental illness and just killing it I
just I can't say as somebody who struggles with addiction and tries to
educate and raise awareness I really appreciate that anyways y'all know
probably like Chris has been like what 16 minutes what's not exciting not to me
I have an entire course on addiction and it's absolutely absolutely free it's
called the science of addiction so a lot of the stuff I just talked about that is
a course that I taught in the drug and alcohol treatment center I would teach
it to the clients as well as their loved ones and I made the course available
online because a lot of people had family members back home who were
interested in learning about it so I put it online and I let their families check
it out too so if you would like to learn more about addiction check out the
description down below it's a free course so we're like an hour and a half
because I would do it like in a group setting but I talked about some of the
things I talked about in this video and obviously a whole lot more alright and
don't forget free copies of cancelled inside YouTube cancer culture is
available until the end of the month that's also in the description down in
the pin com and if you want you can buy a copy
because if you two probably D monetize this anyways that's all I got for this
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clicker top right there alright thanks again for watching I'll see you next
time