 I'm somebody who relapsed many times and this is something that a lot of addicts trying to get clean actually go through and when I was trying to get clean I just I couldn't understand I couldn't understand why did I keep relapsing and for loved ones of people with addictions it's even more confusing right they go off to rehab you think that they just get fixed up come back so that relapse after treatment is so weird and confusing and sometimes we get angry and upset well in this video we're going to be talking about Chris Offling going back to treatment but we're going to see what we can learn about this. What's 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 my channel is all about mental health and addiction recovery and what I try to do usually to try to teach different lessons to see what we can learn from is I'll take different topics going on in the YouTube community because I don't know for me that's an easy way to kind of grasp the subject so if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and if you're not yet make sure you follow me on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul all right so yeah Chris Offling I think that's how you say his name if I'm saying it wrong feel free to correct me down in the comments below but anyways he he's somebody who I had no clue about but he was brought to my attention a few months ago or maybe two months ago whatever he posted this video it's a it's called I'm a heroin addict the truth about everything so I had some people send me that video and see if I would do a video about it and I didn't end up making a video on it but basically in it Chris discusses his heroin addiction he talks about how he went to treatment talks about you know that's why he's been you know away for a while and he's trying to focus on himself he's trying to focus on his recovery and everything like that it was a great video and I'll link it down in the description if you want to check it out right so anyways whenever I see somebody you know get clean like because my drug of choice was prescription opioids so although I didn't progress to heroin it's the same stuff just in a different package all right but whenever I see somebody getting clean especially like on YouTube I follow their progress like some of you have seen the videos I've done kind of looking at Taylor Nicole Dean's addiction recovery and by the way she just tweeted out today that today she celebrated six months clean so that's awesome and yeah I made a video yesterday you can check out about her trying to get off some boxing all right well anyways I started following Chris on YouTube as well as on Twitter and I saw today that he popped up with this image and it said the hospital has a no phones or internet rules so I bought an Apple watch to sneak in so I could write you guys but if I don't tweet or respond to your text you know why so at this point I didn't realize he went back to rehab like I saw that and those of you don't know me by the way not only did I get clean seven years ago but I worked at a very very large addiction treatment center for a few years and I ran groups I met with clients I've literally worked with thousands of drug addicts and alcoholics all right so when I saw that I'm like okay did you go back to treatment well the tweet right before that or a couple tweets before that he talks about how he was going to a detox facility and that's awesome like first I want to give Chris praise and anybody out there like check it out like never give up like never give up like I said like I have seven years clean and I was a chronic relapser I have met so many people like one of the reasons I didn't give up because I met so many people who relapsed multiple times and then something clicked and they managed to stay clean like I have met people who relapsed like 10 15 times and now they've been clean for years so never give up so whenever I see somebody like Chris going back to treatment I'm like that's awesome that is freaking awesome but like I said in the intro we get confused we get confused as to why we relapsed and when I saw this when I saw him saying that they don't allow phone so he snuck in an Apple watch I'm like brah right because my videos are for all of you all right so so one thing is and I don't I don't blame Chris too much for his somebody trying to get sober and stay sober but when you have this kind of massive influence like he's like hey everybody you go to rehab sneak in an Apple watch that's a way to do it right so I'm not a huge fan of that but I'll give them a pass on that but my videos are for you whether you're trying to get clean whether you're in recovery whether you have a loved one all right so like here's the thing like when I first got sober like every every time I got sober every time I got sober I kept doing things my way right I kept doing things the way I wanted to do them and I kept relapsing so finally seven years ago seven years ago when I was when I finally just threw my hands up in there I'm like I have no idea what the hell I'm doing I can't stay clean in fact Chris's next tweet after that Apple Watch one says every day I say I'm going to stay clean and it's all I could focus on I need to give myself credit for getting off anxiety meds and away from bad friends absolutely by the way but the painkillers I can't do it alone for some reason wish me luck all right so I couldn't understand why I kept relapsing but it was because of stuff like this people would tell me what to do and I'm like I know a lot better than you right so I got clean I didn't actually have health insurance or any money or anything like that to go into treatment so I was very fortunate that my mom put me in a sober living and she paid for my sober living mind it was about five hundred dollars a month but in that sober living and I was a 27 year old grown-ass man they had all sorts of rules all sorts of rules if any of you have ever been to sober living typically like you'll you could probably relate to this usually there's a blackout period where you're not allowed to have your phone or you know whatever it is and that's for a variety of reasons like they don't want you texting your dealers and everything because when you first get clean you're still just a wildly crazy person especially if you're withdrawing like you want to you want to score right but anyways they also want you to focus on yourself so like for example the treatment center I worked at there was a seven-day blackout period where like when they first came into inpatient treatment we locked their phones in a safe but after a week they were able to make phone calls back home and things like that but anyways there's all these rules and I didn't want to abide by them I did not want to abide by these rules right but like I said I had this gift of desperation and something in my head clicked it's like Chris when you do what you want to do you end up relapsing all right so when I see this when I see this young man who had the courage to go back into treatment and he's like haha I snuck this in I'm like no dude like this is something that I watched happen so many times and let's talk about this so real quick I just finished this amazing book by an author by the name of Dan Ariely like if you're into human behavior check out all the Dan Ariely books right but I've just finished this book it's called the honest truth about dishonesty plenty of studies in there like this dude he just does a billion studies and it helps me kind of understand like this is such a great book I think it should be mandatory reading for anybody newly sober right it explains how your lies and dishonesty can snowball right so when I was working in the treatment center we had a no cell phones policy so once they went from inpatient to outpatient they would get their cell phones back but the rule was you couldn't have it during sessions right during groups during individual sessions all that stuff you cannot have your cell phones so every morning like I would do morning groups there and I would go in there do group and then this tech would come in and he'd have this like low like safe suitcase type deal and okay just picture this we have like 60 to 70 people right in the group and he'd be like okay everybody put your cell phones in and there were so many times so many times you get like less than 10 cell phones in there right I would just laugh I'd laugh I'd be like okay all right it's you know it's just nobody has a cell phone none of you guys have cell phones okay you know whatever but here's the thing and I tell people straight up like I do not care I do not care like if this dude Chris if he was in my treatment facility I'd be like I don't care dude I don't care and here's why when I was getting sober and my sponsor sort of gave me giving me directions and things like that or whatever I'm the type of person where I want to cut corners I want to do it my way oh you want me to do all this now I don't want to do that right and then I just sat there and I thought about I'm like okay if my sponsor tells me to do this and I don't do it who's that hurting right because in our mind we like to think like I'm getting away with this right but my sponsor is sober as hell he has an amazing life and then I'm sitting here in a sober living house with no friends no family no money I have an oxygen tank and I'm thinking about how I can cut corners I realize that if I don't do what I'm told the only person I'm hurting is myself so when I was working in treatment and I saw people like thinking they were being all sneaky hiding their phones about turning them in like I remind them of that I'm like listen like this doesn't hurt me like I'm cool like after every day after I did groups and put in my hours I got to go home I got to go home and I celebrated one more day clean right so whether or not they had their cell phone on them made no difference to me and I'd remind them of that right because why do we go to treatment why do we ask for help why do we reach out for help right I'll tell you because our life sucks all right chances are Chris is in the same position where he's having issues with friends family members all this up some of you might be able to relate to this right so why do you go to treatment to try to get some of that stuff back so we got to check our priorities man like what's more important like trying to figure out a way to save our own lives or talking with people on you know Twitter or on social media right I saw people lose their minds I need to be able to call this person I need to be able to call that person all these other things I'm like no no no no no no you need to focus on your recovery like we need to get our priorities straight like think about it if you can't go like a week two weeks whatever it is or just even a few hours without your phone without your technology like how the hell do you plan on staying clean in this crazy world where we're surrounded by triggers on a regular basis but the last thing I want to talk about too is something one of the studies in there about the from the honest truth about dishonesty is this snowball effect right so like I'm the type of addict and you might be able to relate to this I'm the type of addict where if you give me an inch I'll take a mile right it's still something that I work on today in with other vices in my life right like I'm for example like I'll be dieting right and I'll be like I'll just have this one piece of chocolate the next thing you know I'm just like whatever I screwed it up I'll just keep doing this right it's the same thing when we lie right so like these little things like when these clients would keep their cell phones in their pockets and stuff I would tell them that chain of events what happens is like ooh I got away with putting this cell phone on my pocket nobody knows I'm such a badass right and then it turns into ooh you know what I bet I can skip this group and not do this I bet I can get away with that right I'm so badass and they can't catch me you know and then that ego starts building up again and then next thing you know we're talking about how we could sneak drugs in there or we could probably use like it was no coincidence that the same people who were breaking these small rules were the same people who thought they were gonna pass the drug tests and treatment and they got caught you know what I mean because our brain tells us that we're hot stuff we could just get away with it anything right so anyways I'm going on way too long I thought this video was only gonna be 10 minutes but like I hope the best for Chris and Chris if you ever see this when you get out like feel free to reach out and all of you out there feel free to reach out to me if you need to talk or if you have a loved one right like I'm not a therapist or psychologist I am somebody who has not only stayed clean but I worked in treatment doing kind of like peer support and sharing my experience and a lot of the experience I share is based on not only my own but what I've seen happen to others all right but the last thing is even if you're not in recovery keep your eye on the prize all right and for us for people like me that prize is staying clean for you it might be overcoming your depression overcoming your anxiety whatever it is all the other stuff is trivial nonsense and if that can lead you back to that dark place where you don't want to be then stay away from it all right but anyways that's all I got for this video if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on patreon as well as everybody who supports the channel by buying my mental health books at the rewiredsoul.com and buying different merch like this shirt with my adorable kitty Maya on it all right thanks again for watching I'll see you next time