I had a great great question today and I wanted to talk about it in this video
and share it with all of you lovely people 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 typically what I do is take different
topics from the YouTube community or pop culture in general try to see what
lessons we can learn from them but something I'm very very very passionate
about as well is mental health as well as addiction recovery so if you're into
any of that stuff make sure you subscribe and bring that notification
bell and also make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter
actively wired so tweet at me DM me if you have questions video ideas whatever
it is hit me up alright so yeah today I have
the honor the pleasure of going and speaking at a drug and alcohol rehab
today all right and it's something that I like to do like something that I try
to teach people is one of the best things that any of us can do for our
mental health is try to share our story right like so many of us have been to us
through a struggle I don't care what your struggle is like if you're watching
this whether you're in addiction recovery or not like we all have a
struggle that we've been through one of the best things that you can do is share
that with somebody who is currently in that struggle because what you could do
is offer some very useful tips advice whatever it is for how you overcame it
all right I don't care if it's you know maybe somebody you know is low on money
right now and they're broken you could say yo here's what I did I move some
stuff around or whatever it is maybe you have a friend who's going through a
breakup hey here's what I did when I went through a breakup so I absolutely
love being able to go and speak at different rehabs and things like that
and talk about my recovery journey alright so those of you who don't know
me hi I'm Chris I'm an addict and alcoholic my clean date is June 23rd
2012 so that's right if you're doing the math if you check in the date as the
time of recording this I'm 11 days away from seven years sober I know I know
hold your applause please but anyways one of the questions that
came up today is like this fear of not being able to have fun again but it's
also like not being able to get high again right like drugs alcohol we get
this euphoric feeling but what are the issues that any drug addict or alcoholic
can relate with is we drank or used in order to feel good right to get rid of
anxiety or depression right like the three main reasons we drink or use drugs
is to get a feeling get rid of a feeling or to have an escape right and for a
short time that is a way that we self-medicate and it kind of it didn't
really get rid of our powers it just kind of shows them to the side right but
as we continue to drink or use it causes a whole slew of issues so before I got
sober one of the things that my crazy brain told me was Chris don't get clean
or don't get sober because you won't be able to have fun like one of my biggest
concerns one of the things that kept me in a disease I was killing me right was
my fear that I would no longer be able to have fun now check this out my
version of fun at the end of my addiction like where my addiction took
me the rock bottom that I hit where I had a 10% chance of living because of
congestive heart failure I lost my job my money my truck I wasn't allowed to
see my son friends family members hated me right so the fun was all gone all
right I snorted the fun away okay but my idea of fun at that time was sitting in
my dark apartment by myself crushing up pills on my desk and snorting I'm like I
didn't want to get rid of that fun right like think about that for a second like
we're afraid to get clean and sober because we might not be able to have fun
anymore the reality is we're not even having fun in our addiction right but I
get it it's a logical fear now when we first get clean like I'm not gonna be s
you like it is difficult it's a struggle to have fun one of the reasons is is
because we have trained ourself to turn to drugs and alcohol for everything like
everything we did involved drugs or alcohol like I'm the type of addict
where I wasn't even able to go to the grocery store or go hang out with
friends unless I was high or drunk all right like no joke like just
going to the gas station I had to be messed up to go there right so when I
got sober like I was still like very depressed I was feeling shame and guilt
for all the terrible things that I did and I didn't think I can have fun so
something that happened was I was living in my sober living house and I was taken
to a young people's event right I was 26 when I got sober well no no no excuse me
I got sober my 27th birthday and yeah I found out that there were young people
got sober because another one another one of my reservations was you're too
young to get sober right so getting involved with young people's groups was
like oh okay there are people who are younger and
getting sober right so I went to this event and they were playing something
called broomball so basically if you don't know what this is it's at an ice
skating rink and these people are running around with this shoes on with
these little miniature brooms and it's kind of like hockey and I've seen
there's there's like 50 young people who are recovering drug addicts and
alcoholics just having a blast and I'm sitting there and I'm watching this and
I'm like what the hell is happening I'm like there is no way that those people
are sober but they were they were sober it just didn't even click to me that you
could have that much fun while being sober and of course when I got sober I
was like super cool too so I was like I was like oh yeah I'm too cool to ever do
something like that and to be honest to this day I still haven't done that but
when you're a guy like me of this size like one of your primary objectives in
life is to not fall down but anyways what I'm getting at is I saw that it was
possible to have fun sober and I wanted that I wanted to figure out how to have
fun sober so for me for me what it started out with was hanging out with
other people in recovery and getting out there and doing stuff all right like
something that I try to explain to people is like the fun doesn't stop it
just changes like my version of fun is different than what it used to be like I
used it was fun to go out to the bar drink
myself into oblivion and not remember the night like that was fun to me well I
had other people tell me what happened right but like today like my version of
fun is something different um when I first got sober it involved it involved
a lot of board games like me and my buddies would say up until like 2:00
3:00 in the morning just talking trash to each other over games of monopoly we
will play risk oh ha 8 risk whoo-hoo is how we will play poker and do things
like that we would go hang out at you know like Starbucks and things and just
like social interaction that started to be fun for me like I'll never forget
like having my first laughs sober just hanging out with my friends and it
clicked for me like it is possible like this thing is possible to have fun and
stay sober now something that happens is - is many many many many people most
people when they're in early recovery they struggle with depression and it
makes sense if you figure that we were drinking or using drugs as a way to
artificially create dopamine in our brain that good old neurotransmitter
that gives us pleasure right then we stop we yank that plug where our brain
is no longer creating that neurotransmitter naturally right so a
lot of people in early recovery they're prescribed antidepressants and
everything just to kind of get them to a baseline but again the fear people have
is not getting that that high again and no we're not gonna get that high again
but one of the beautiful things is is that we do experience joy and we do get
like this kind of natural buzz and it sounds corny as hell trust me but it's
like this high on life and like I am not joking you I wish to god I was kidding
about this but yesterday like nothing nothing special happened yesterday at
all nothing at all but I remember I was driving I just felt good like nothing
was going on I was just driving and I was like oh my god it almost feels like
I'm high right now like what happens is that when we
to overcome our depression when we stay clean right like we just start having
this natural buzz on life and feeling good and that's that's what I chase
today is just having an amazing life and part of my amazing life is knowing that
I don't have to wake up in the morning like looking for my next fix
right but also I'm so grateful for the life I get to live today all right so
like again if you are somebody who's struggling with addiction you're afraid
that the fun isn't gonna be there like trust me girl like if you met me you
would know I have a ton a ton of fun all right I had a drink or a drug in
seven years so if if you're not somebody in recovering you just stumbled across
this video if you're one of my loyal rewired soldiers out there share this
with somebody whether they're in active addiction or early recovery just so they
know that it is possible to have fun in recovery all right but anyways that's
all I got for this video if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if
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anything like that but I'm more than happy to talk to you and point to you in
the right direction so feel free to reach out and DM me anytime all right
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right there all right thanks again so so much for watching I'll see you next time