 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 ring that notification bell. And also make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul. 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. Alright? 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 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. Alright? I don't care if it's, you know, maybe somebody you know is low on money right now and they're broke and you can say, yo, here's what I did. I moved 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're checking the date as the time of recording this, I'm 11 days away from 7 years sober. I know, I know. Hold your applause please. Alright? 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 one of 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 doesn't really get rid of our problems. It just kind of shoves 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 that 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 to 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 them. 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 going to BS 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, right? 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 on my 27th birthday. And yeah, I found out that there were young people who got sober because 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 broom ball. So basically, if you don't know what this is, it's at an ice skating rink. And these people are running around with their shoes on, with these little miniature brooms, and it's kind of like hockey. And I'm seeing there's like 50 young people who are recovering drug addicts and alcoholics just having a blast. 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. They 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 and hurt yourself. But anyways, what I'm getting at is I saw that it was possible to have fun sober and I wanted that, right? 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 to think it was fun to go out to the bar, drink myself into oblivion and not remember the night. Like that was fun to me, right? Like other people tell me what happened, right? But like today, like my version of fun is something different. When I first got sober, it involved a lot of board games. Like me and my buddies would stay up until like 2, 3 in the morning just talking trash to each other over games of Monopoly. We would play risk. Oh, I hate risk. Whoo-hoo-hoo. But anyways, we would 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 laugh 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 too is many, many, many, many people. Most people when they're in early recovery, they struggle with depression and it makes sense. 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? And 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 high again. No, we're not going to 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 and 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 start 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 and you're afraid that the fun isn't going to be there, like trust me, girl. Like if you met me, you would know I have a ton, a ton of fun. All right. And I had to drink her a drug in seven years. So if, if you're not somebody in recovery and 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 liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And don't forget, if you haven't yet, I'm all up on Instagram and Twitter. Make sure you're following me over there at the rewired soul. I love talking with all of you. Give me comments, send me DMs. Again, video suggestions. If you are looking for resources or anything like that. Like I am not a therapist or a psychologist or 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 any time. All right. And before I let you go, I want to send a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing. And if you would like to support what I'm doing here, you can click or tap on that Patreon icon right there. All right. Thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.