 Like most people out there I was extremely saddened by the death of Carrie Fisher, but most of all when it comes to honoring her death I'm extremely pissed off because it's about the stigma of addiction and we need to talk about it right now so stay tuned. What's up everybody this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. I have personally been a Star Wars fan since I was a kid I was not born yet for the original trilogy but my grandmother introduced me to Star Wars when they re-release the original trilogy in theaters and I've been a fan ever since. Last year Carrie Fisher died and with the release of The Last Jedi everybody was wondering like you know how are they going to end Princess Leia in this movie and I won't spoil it for any of you guys who haven't seen it yet but anyways with the release of The Last Jedi there have just been so many articles, so many stories from her co-stars and other people who have known her throughout her life and one of the issues I take when somebody dies from drug addiction is that nobody talks about it like this is probably the worst way to honor their death that's why I put air quotes in the intro to this video because nobody is truly honoring their death by not talking about what happened. Now I want to make it very clear before you all like rip me to shreds in the comments I want to make it very clear Carrie Fisher was an amazing woman she battled with drug addiction you know as many people in Hollywood do she sobered up and so her her official cause of death they said it had some some things to do with sleep apnea as well as heart issues but there was also a cocktail of drugs that they found in her system and I will link to an article in the description from the LA Times it says Carrie Fisher's autopsy reveals cocktail of drugs including cocaine opiates and ecstasy all right so a couple things here one of them is there's a couple varying reports now when we're talking about sleep apnea and heart disease I am a drug addict in recovery and one of the reasons I had to get sober was because at 26 years old I had congestive heart failure drugs and alcohol had destroyed my body to a point where I was about to die my heart was the size of my lung and it is still in the process of healing it's a lot better now since I've been sober five and a half years now other autopsy reports show a cocktail of drugs which signifies a relapse Carrie Fisher was an amazing woman because not only was she outwardly spoken about her battles with drug addiction but she was a huge huge huge advocate for mental illness and anybody out there talking about mental illness openly like my hat is off to them that is one of the reasons why I respect Carrie Fisher so much but it breaks my heart that everybody's sharing all these great stories about Carrie Fisher which I understand and and I think that we need to you know talk about the good times but when it comes to the fact that tens of thousands of people each year in the United States alone are dying from addiction and we're not constantly reminding people that this woman died before her time because of a drug addiction we are doing her memory a disservice like so many people like Carrie Fisher is an icon right princess Leia right and when we're not teaching the new generation that the reason why Carrie Fisher died was because of drug addiction how are we doing any service to the next generation by deterring them from potentially becoming addicted to drugs now I know scare tactics don't work but it helps put something in their mind like wow this took out somebody who was rich and famous and an icon she had the love and support of her friends her family her fans right I will link to another video I did called rock bottom where I talked about Carrie Fisher as well as a bunch of other famous people who have died from addiction but this really bothers me because in the last two and a half years for any of you wondering what drug addiction is really like like sometimes sometimes I get comments um in some of my other videos like one of my first videos where I talked about how addiction is a disease I get comments where people are like I lost my brother to addiction so don't talk to me about how addiction is a disease it's a choice when you lose somebody you tell me so I want to make it very clear in the last two and a half years I have had 60 people die 60 that is six zero in two and a half years so yes I am on the front lines of this thing and I know how many people it kills and something that I do whenever somebody I know dies from addiction I look at the obituary I go and check the obituary I'm like did the family mention that this was from an overdose or alcohol or other drug related causes 99.9% of the time they don't okay like they don't mention in the obituary and I get it the obituary is meant to remember their good memories and and the family they left behind and stuff but we need to talk about how drugs are what killed this person we need to stop making this such a taboo subject we need to start telling people this is why they died this is why your mom died this is why your dad died this is why your your pop icons are dying this is why your teacher died this is why that guy who used to work at the grocery store died we need to talk about this because the more we keep this under wraps and we don't talk about it the worse this thing gets imagine if every time somebody died from addiction we actually talked about it imagine imagine this was part of normal conversation and yeah I'm pretty heated because one of the reasons I make this channel is to get that dialogue going this is something that we can't just sweep under the rug people are dying every single day in droves from addiction like I remember Kerry Fisher and all the amazing things she did and her role in Star Wars as well as other films and her mental health advocacy work but I also remember that she died from drug addiction I'm letting you all know right now anybody who watches this video let me let me put this out there into the world okay if I relapse and I die from a drug addiction I want all of you watching this to let the world know that it was because drugs killed me I want you to say that I had some clean time I relapsed and I died from drug addiction mom dad my little boy Dylan if you're watching this if I die from a drug addiction I want it to be in my obituary okay that is what I want all right so you better honor my memory by letting the world know that drugs took me out if I relapse all right so that's the end of this video hopefully you don't hate me hopefully I got through to you and I hope you understand what I'm talking about when it comes to this stigma of addiction all right but anyways if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you're new here I'm always making videos mainly about mental health and addiction recovery so hit the little round subscribe button and also don't forget to click or tap on one of those thumbnails check out some of the other videos on here to help you out with your mental health thanks for watching I'll see you next time