 I've had a lot of people requesting me to make a video about the Lea Marie Johnson situation that's going on because a lot of people are concerned and as somebody who is a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, this is definitely something that we need to talk about. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Reward Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. If you're new to my channel, what I like to do is take a look at what's happening in the YouTube community or pop culture and try to see what lessons we can learn from them. And it's mental health awareness month is something that I'm very passionate about because my own mental health issues led me to a life of addiction and that's one of the reasons why I'm talking about this subject. But if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So real quick, real quick because we're going to be talking about in this video what to do if somebody you know is addicted to drugs or alcohol because on average, one out of every 11 or 12 people is struggling with an addiction to drugs or alcohol. All right? So even if you're the person watching this who is not addicted to substances, if you know 11 or 12 people in your life, you know somebody who is addicted to drugs or alcohol. So I am somebody who has had to help friends overcome their addiction. I've also had many, many attempts to help me get over my addiction back in the day. And I was working at a drug and alcohol treatment center for a little over three years. So this is something that I'm very involved in. But I wrote a very short e-book called Caught in the Crossfire. And although I'm not a licensed professional, these are methods that I have learned to work to help somebody who is a loved one who might be struggling with addiction. But more importantly, it's so you can keep your mental health intact during the situation. So for this video, I'm going to provide a link down in the description below where you can get a copy of this e-book for free. All right? No charge. Just check it out. It's very short. I think it's like 30 pages. And I talk about different intervention strategies and everything because in the case of Leah Marie Johnson, it seems like a lot of people just don't know what to do to help her out right now. So if nothing else, I hope what can come from this video is some of you check out this short e-book I wrote and maybe it'll help you help somebody you know who might be struggling with drugs or alcohol or even help yourself during the situation. All right? So Leah Marie Johnson, she has a massive following on YouTube and she's kind of been in the public spotlight since she was a kid. She is an amazing, amazing musician with a beautiful voice, right? And most recently, I'll link a full video about this down in the description below. But it's something that keeps popping up on my recommended feed and this dude was talking about how he's worried about her and he shows her live stream. And watching it, a lot of people are speculating, is it a mental breakdown? Is it drugs or alcohol? Full disclaimer, I don't know Leah Marie Johnson, but clearly there's something going on. Anybody with two eyeballs can see that something is going on. Not only did she do this live stream where she was talking about all sorts of stuff, but there's even a part where she has somebody else join her live stream and it's definitely off. Now these can definitely be signs of substance use, right? Now one of the things is that I can't even imagine. I had some people in the last month or two speculating whether or not I relapsed, like yo, if I relapsed on drugs, y'all are going to know it because I would be doing the exact same thing Leah Marie Johnson did. Like if I relapsed, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people are going to know it because I act a fool when I am high and drunk, alright? So it is concerning. It's so concerning seeing this and there's a very slim chance that Leah Marie Johnson will ever see this video, but for like all of you, like I hope people can take away from this situation, like what can happen? You know what I mean? And anybody who looks up to this young woman, like she was saying a lot of things in there which can happen when you're drunk or high, but I think the part that stood out to me the most was she was talking about taking her own life and it was in like possibly a joking way, but if she's intoxicated, like it's hard to decipher that, right? Like I had a best friend who used to call me while he was drinking and using and he was regularly suicidal and was he going to do it? I don't know, but I can tell you this from my own personal experience, like I wanted to die. That's one of the reasons I had to get sober, like I was at a place where my rock bottom was, I didn't want to live anymore and I talked about it all the time but I wasn't going to do it. I was slowly killing myself with alcohol and drugs. Now the good news is I was able to help my friend get sober, okay? He's been sober. This year it'll be four years sober and I'm coming up on seven years next month. So I hope as people watch this situation, you realize like never lose hope. One of the reasons I share my story on a public platform or even just bits and pieces of it is nobody should ever lose hope. Like if a guy like me can get sober, literally anybody can do it. I'm nothing special, all right? But it takes people in your life who can't support you. And sometimes when you're in that, when you're in your addiction, when you're in active addiction, you don't have that support because addiction can push people away or people just kind of give up because they think that they can't help you, right? And the support that I found was through 12 step fellowships. I found other people who knew exactly what I was going through and were able to be there for me, all right? But something that was brought up was one of Leo Marie Johnson's friends was talking about this situation and asking people to quit hating on her and it's a delicate situation and they're trying to help her, right? And it's difficult. But the first thing I want to talk about in regards to that is like we really need to quit shaming addicts. Like I talked about this when Erika was having a situation a few weeks ago, like, ah man, it just sucks because people egg it on, they fuel it, they shame people. Like I think words like crack head, we're being tossed around and everything like that. Like many people, many people with addictions, I can speak from personal experience, like we already think less of ourselves than you could even imagine, all right? Like as much hate as addicts and alcoholics get, trust me, most of our brains are beating ourselves up more than anybody else could imagine. But the problem is, is the stigma towards addiction or people struggling with substance abuse is that it makes that voice in our head even louder. And what could happen and what might be happening to Leo Marie Johnson when those types of comments are coming in is you start to say, well, screw it. Why should? Why should I try to get better? Right? Because the disease of addiction is one that doesn't want a person to get better. Okay? It affects a part of the brain responsible for survival. That's one of the reasons why it's so hard to get clean and sober because your brain is literally telling you, if you don't use substances, like you're not going to be able to survive. So that's why we need to chill out with the hate going towards people who are publicly struggling. Now, that doesn't mean that people don't need tough love, but there's a difference between tough love and just animosity towards that person. But for the people in Leo Marie Johnson's life, it can be difficult to help. And that's one of the reasons why I've linked caught in the crossfire down below for free because there's so many different variables. And a lot of friends and family members can deal with a lot of mental health issues of their own because one of the things that we think is maybe if I just love this person enough, maybe if I give this person a certain amount of attention or affection or help them out or if I'm there for them, it'll help them to get clean. But there's this fine line between helping somebody and enabling somebody, especially if you're somebody who struggles with codependency, right? Because a codependent will be there and it creates a toxic situation for both people. So in some situations, like with my situation, it took people distancing themselves from me until I realized that I needed to get help. When I didn't have anybody else in my life, that's when I finally got help. But it's a dangerous situation trying to wait for somebody to hit rock bottom because working in the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center, I lost over 70 people to overdoses and even suicide after getting sober because there are so many mental health issues that co-occur with addiction, all right? But in Lea Marie Johnson's case, it's so sad to me and it's one of the reasons I haven't really pushed my son towards like, hey, start streaming video games and try to become a YouTuber and everything like that because we constantly see examples of young people getting thrust into the public spotlight at a very young age and it damaging their mental health. Hell, look what's happening with James Charles right now. You see what I mean? Like, a lot of this is the result of young people getting way too much fame, way too soon. So I hope some of you watching this are a little bit enlightened on the topic of substance abuse and addiction. I do hope the best for Lea Marie Johnson and I hope the people in her life know what to do to help her or can figure that out, can get some professionals involved. But anyways, again, don't forget, please don't forget, there's a free copy of my book called The Crossfire. It's an e-book so you can read it on your phone, on your tablet, on your computer, wherever you want. All right, but I hope it provides you with some solutions. If you don't need the book, just send the copy to somebody else. It'll be in PDF format, just send it to other people. It's Mental Health Awareness Month. Let's try to spread some awareness and figure out how to help more people because addiction and substance abuse is a major, major problem in our world today. All right, but anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You are all amazing and if you'd like to become a patron to help support what I'm doing here and get some access to extra perks and benefits, you can click or tap right there. All right, thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.