Refugees, Trump supporters,
Muslims, soldiers.
Since we began in 2010,
We've always wanted to give a voice to the vast spectrum of people who have felt judged or left out of the conversation
Today, we live in an incredibly divided times
But what would it look like to be a part of a movement for empathy?
When we launched our apparel brand, we wanted it to symbolize this movement
A community of good humans worldwide that believe in coming together through understanding first rather than judging
With our latest collection,
we're giving back a portion of profits to amazing people all around the world that are taking a stand for the innate human goodness within us all
We're collecting your stories of incredible people doing good things and we'll be choosing some of them we can give back to
Whether or not you buy anything, we're deeply grateful for your support, and wherever you are,
we invite you to join our movement of living every day with a little more empathy
Enjoy the episode
[Director] Three, two, one, go.
I did
So many drugs in my really early developing years
So that was my fault
whether you want to talk about it was my genes fault that I just
My genes made me take pills and put them in my body
You could, I guess, argue that. There is genetic components, which, those are not in my control and
Addiction's in my family, but yeah, that's why I'm here.
No, I like because I'm sober now
So like if I did it
right it's weird because like at first I don't know if it was but now if I like if I decide
To take a drink or if I decide to do drugs, like I'm I know what I'm doing. Like I know what I'm getting myself into
It's my choice if I want to go ahead and in take that drug or you know, whatever it is
Nobody put a gun in my head made me take a drink or get high. So that's why I strongly agree that
Taking a drug is my choice another day
I think for some people
it's the environment because some people are born into households where parents suffer from drug addiction parents suffer from alcoholism and
In more disadvantaged neighborhoods where I come from you see a lot of mothers, you know getting like their next fix
You know in like 30 minutes in front of their children
but for me personally I suffer from my addiction from going to parties going out and
Does alcohol count? It does? Okay. Well damn, I can't even say I'm sober it out. Okay fuck. All right anyway
Oh, yeah, so I feel like it's a matter of self control, influence, and environment
But I think for the most part for me personally
It's self control because honestly you put a line of coke in front of me
right now I'm gonna sniff it. But like, you know
I think what I did
Started what I have. I'm food addiction by the way, spoiler alert, just so you all know
When I was younger
I saw so many opportunities to
Better myself and to look better and to be better and I would take all of them
I would take advantage of everything I would skip meals I would go to the gym until I couldn't see and
So the social pressure did kind of influence me a little bit to start with like eating disorders
You know binging purging I mean it got to the point where I was eating
Multiple meals and then purging them if that's not addiction, I cannot even tell you...
- Yeah but how is that your fault though?
- I think it's from the habits that I started myself. I mean I chose to do it myself
- But you saw the world, you saw the world differently... - I knew what bulimia was, I knew exactly how damaging it was
I know how damaging food can be. I chose those behaviors. I have to live with the repercussions
[Director] Three, two, one, go.
I don't think addiction is a disease
I do think it's more of a condition because necessarily saying that it is a disease means that it spreads. Therefore if I-
Personally me, my favorite drug is hallucinogens
So if I were to hallucinate that's saying oh you're gonna do it. You're gonna do it. You're gonna do it
You know, I think it's like a genetic thing
like I, like I have like our addiction runs and like or like alcoholism like runs in my family and you know
I rarely ever meet people where they're like, I'm the only one in my family
- You think you were like fucked from the jump like from birth?
Like you were just this, you know...
- No, I never thought I was like fucked from- I mean, nah...
That's the thing is like I didn't choose it, it's not a choice. If it was my choice
Then I wouldn't be here. I, you know, every day my brain's trying to kill me and that's just the way it goes
But I just got to live with it and that's just I don't want it, but I got it
I don't know, position in your head. Like the psychology of thinking about a disease, it's never really helped me
Yes, you can be predisposed to genes, what's helped me is like mmm... I don't know, medicine and information
AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) never helped me because they're like "just trust this thing" and that switch never clicked. Like believe me, I want it to
Referring to it as a disease kind of like associating everyone in that room and a negative association
But if it does keep you clean then I am way pro using that word
I totally relate. So it's not there's no right or wrong on this.
I think everybody has their own whatever works for them, you know what I mean? I totally agree
I usually compare it to heart disease
Because it's like you don't choose to have it,
Genetics have a lot to do with it, and so does your lifestyle.
I mean those are basically the ingredients to the formula of a disease
anyways. I mean heart disease is not spreadable, neither is addiction, but I think it's like totally a disease when you talk about
How it affects people, how it presents itself, you know, how it starts. I think that a lot of it is very similar
[Director] Three, two ,one, go.
I mean, define gateway drug. Yeah
Uh, you... everyone who's done any drug ever literally has a drug they did before that
So do you mean gateway drug, drugs that purposely lead to other drugs? Then I would say absolutely not. I mean...
I thought caffeine can be a gateway drug to adderall. I mean I was in college
I mean
I'd get quad shots of Starbucks and like drink it until I'm vibrating but I mean when other people are like wow
That's um, just not as effective anymore
I'm gonna do some adderall, you know, I mean, it's kind of like anything can be a gateway drug
And I think it's just I don't think a gateway drug is what people think it is
Well, humans love to do like black and white behavior like this or that. But to deflect blame,
blame to an inanimate object with such a complex issue like addictive behavior is insane
- Yeah
- To literally blame like a substance, it's just... - Like a more accurate one would be like if you're fucking
sad and lonely and scared and fearful and you smoke weed you may
do heroin at some point in your life, but not
Likely. That would be like an okay thing for me to see. I would be like "ah, that's probably true" but not like "if you smoke
Weed you're fucked."
Well, that's also why a lot of people aren't complete heroin junkies, even though they've gotten premium opiates from the hospital during a surgery
I mean, it's not a gateway drug
You don't just go in and you're like, oh man, I had a taste of that
I've got to go do heroin now like you don't I mean you're missing that vital
reason to chase the drug
I mean if you're giving it for actual pain at the hospital
You don't decide that you want to go out and do heroin when you're done. I mean, most people don't, anyways.
I do
[Director] Three, two, one, go.
Personally I feel I don't like being called an addict like someone see me walking down the street
Oh that oh, she does hard drugs
You know, I just feel like if you everyone has something that they partake in and I feel like just labeling someone as that
It's just morally offensive to me.
I think it's also the term
I mean, it's got like a really negative connotation
and while I agree that I have an addiction, to be
Labeled as an addict, am I comfortable with that? No.
Especially as a male with an eating disorder because that is totally like
Criminalized. I mean men cannot be weak, men cannot- I mean that's like a very feminine thing, you know?
It's really hard to tell anyone about it because you automatically feel less.
I'm fine with feeling bad
I think I should feel bad about it
I like it because I saw if I started drinking it'll be three weeks
Before I'll start throwing up and then I'll have to quit for like three days just to feel good to get back to drinking
That's fucking addictive. That's not like partying too much
That's you know choking down vodka in the morning and I do feel bad about it, and I'm okay with feeling bad about that.
It's fucking embarrassing, I should feel bad.
I just, I don't give a fuck what people call me
Like I mean, I'm a bunch of shit, you know what I mean? But like it's not, it doesn't like
Define me as a person but it's just part of like who I am
so I like, I don't care. And like yeah, and like you said like if I meet somebody and I'm
You know and they're like, "hey, I'm struggling with this," I'm like yo, me too
I feel the same thing
Then it actually helps, you know, then it's like I'm like, you know, I can I can be like
Oh, I did that and this is how I dealt with that.
- Yeah, but notice how you said that
- What? - "Hey, I'm struggling with this," not, "I am a blank addict." You know, it just sounds so much harsher
I mean, I think it's the negative connotation.
Yeah and you're labeling yourself also with that
I feel like why can't like saying your label in that spectrum. You're putting yourself in a category and no one person
should have to put themselves in a bubble of entrapment or mental entrapment just because
That's what other people want you to do
I mean, I just just don't get like I mean, oh, I know I mean
I mean, I know I'm in the minority of not, I just you know, I just don't really...
- If someone's calling me out as an addict, and I don't remind myself and I fool myself
One day that I'm not an addict and I go out to get high like my friend does cuz he doesn't have a problem
I'm gonna die
So I'm okay with him being reminded that I'm an addict because that's how I am as a person
I don't care how they're gonna feel about me, that's out of my control
[Director] Three, two, one, go.
I don't know anybody personally who's OD'ed (overdosed) or died, surprisingly.
I know a lot of people who probably will in the not-so-distant future, but I don't know anybody yet
- That's fair - Only 24 so we'll see
I think it's really important to note the fact that while someone may not pass away because of
How much drugs they took but how
Crushing their addiction actually was to their mental health and they may have decided to commit suicide
Did I lose someone to addiction? Absolutely. Did the drug actually kill them? No, but
I mean, it drove them to kill themselves
Six days ago, eleven years
My first friend passed away
Sorry
Yeah, my first friend passed away this to an overdose
It was 11 years ago, six days ago, and I took a lot responsibly for it
Because I got him high for the first time on ecstasy and high for the first time on opiates
and that was a wake-up call for me like, you know, and then um after that when I went to rehab
I lost over 30 friends to suicide or addiction
So yeah, I know a lot of people personally like when I got into recovery
That was the one thing I did not expect. My life got better got way better, but I started building relationships with people
genuine friendships with them and then getting close with them and these became my best friends and they started you know,
Dropping like one out of ten. When my first friend passed away
I got tattooed right here and then eventually just couldn't keep getting tattoos for friends that passed away
Sorry...
[Director] Three, two, one, go.
I have a friend who has been to inpatient rehabilitation five times in the past three years and she's doing
better
But the first four for sure didn't work
So I don't necessarily think that they're like a foolproof way of fixing someone who has an addiction to something
Well, there ain't foolproof ways to do anything
And it's not even really debatable, they work for tons and tons of people, of course they work.
They do amazing shit.
If you want it and you're going to get the tools that you need
And you build the community that you get then yeah, you can stay sober.
If not, it's not gonna work for somebody who doesn't want to stay sober, period. I don't care where you go
Jail won't keep somebody sober
I could live in rehab I would because
Everything is like, they're like you wake up at this time, you eat at this time
You talk about your feelings at this time
And then when you get out you're like it's not you know
You have a whole fucking life
Like that's like unstructured and weird and they help you give the like tools to figure out like how to navigate that life
But if they're not there with you 100 percent of the time like it's up to you, you know
- Who do you talk to about your feelings? - Who do I talk to? - When you're out?
Everybody, y'all, you know?
We love to hear it
I think I'm more on the strongly disagree side because I do agree with you guys how it's like you have to
Want to be sober and maybe I don't want to be 100% sober at this point
But the programs that I've tried, I tried hospitalized, I've tried
Counseling, I tried community-based. A lot of them are really clicky and by clicky
I mean like, you know some this group associated with this group, you're an outcast, you know
It's like an episode of Mean Girls or something. And so
There should be more structure. There should be more jobs open in that facility with people who are licensed to
Influence others and make them want to do better. I don't want them to be like "be like us, we're sober!"
Tell me why I should be sober tell me why I should love my life
Tell me why I should stop doing what I'm doing
And I don't feel like the substitute programs, at least ones that I went to, they have instilled that upon me.
I have a strong
Disagreement with recovery houses, you know the whole way recovery is going on in LA
But I think at the end day if the person really wants to get sober
Or free from the addiction and then they go to a reputable place
That has helped them before has helped somebody before
And they take that all in to learn new tools to stay sober instead of getting high
Then it works.
Thanks so much for watching that episode guys just a reminder to check out our apparel at the website linked below
We're so grateful that we get to do this for you guys, and we do want to you know
Make this movement a larger thing with you guys. So whether or not you buy any of the merch
Join the movement help us live a little bit more with empathy every day and I'll see you on our next episode