 Well, I figured that at some point someone's gonna try to expose me, so I figured, why isn't that person be me? 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, my channel is all about mental health. And what I like to do is pull different topics from the YouTube community to try to teach you how to improve your mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. Video's gonna be short, quick, maybe short, I don't know, a little bit of a story time. But I figured like I get a ton, a ton of comments asking me about my credentials. So here it goes, let me tell you a little bit more about myself, alright? So I'm a guy who grew up with a very traumatic childhood. My mom was an alcoholic for 20 years. She's awesome and sober now, she's been clean for over 13 years now. And over six and a half years ago, she helped me get clean as well. But I had a very troubling childhood, not seeing my mom, not having good communication with her, cutting her out of my life at different points and all of that. I grew up being very socially anxious, a lot of children of alcoholics are. I was afraid of failure, I was afraid of being judged, I was afraid of abandonment. As I got to high school, my depression and anxiety got really, really bad. And I also started to develop a lot of anger issues. So I'm the kind of guy who was freaking out, snapping at people, but also suppressing a lot of stuff and holding it inside. I'm a guy who didn't touch alcohol or drugs until I was 18 years old, out of fear that I would become an alcoholic or a drug addict, like my mom. But after a breakup with my high school sweetheart, I tried alcohol for the first time and it was downhill from there, alright? I'm a guy who thought I would never become a drug addict or an alcoholic, but I did. I'm a guy who lost dozens of jobs because of my addiction. I'm a guy who pushed away friends and family members because of my addiction. I'm a guy who thought that I was never going to do drugs because I was better than that. But when prescription opioids were offered to me, I became addicted, alright? I'm a guy who had no job and I ended up getting my girlfriend pregnant. Not only that, but not long after my son was born, I'm a guy who had one of my best friends die at the age of 24 years old from the disease of alcoholism, alright? I'm a guy who ended up losing everything, my friends, my family, my car, my apartment. Worst of all, I lost my son. I wasn't allowed to see my son because I was such a hot mess. His mom wouldn't let me see him, right? I'm a guy who was content with dying. I'm a guy who went to sleep every single night with a handful of pills and a bottle of Bacardi hoping I was praying if there is a guy, do not let me wake up tomorrow morning. And every single morning when I woke up and the sun was shining through my windows, I was like, damn, I got to go through this all over again. I'm a guy who was trying to kill myself with drugs and alcohol. I ended up getting congestive heart failure at the age of 26 years old, alright? I'm a guy who had multiple relapses and gave up on trying to get clean because I thought a guy like me was hopeless, alright? I'm a guy who sat in the hospital bed in the cardiac critical care unit with my mom, my best friend, my son's mom, and my aunt sitting there crying, begging me to stop. And I'm a guy who told them to quit worrying about me and just let me die, alright? I'm a guy whose mom saved him on my 27th birthday is when I got clean and sober. Then I turned into a guy who got a little glimmer of hope. I started listening to other people's stories and realizing that I wasn't a guy who was alone. I was somebody who was going through what a lot of people were going through. They weren't content with the life that they were living and they thought that they were hopeless. I'm a guy who shut my mouth for years to try to learn from other people because they told me if I want what they have, I gotta do what they do. I'm a guy where after I got sober, I had even worse anger issues, worse depression, worse anxiety, alright? I'm a guy who had to look back at all of my previous toxic relationships, not only all of the mental, verbal, and physical abuse that women put me through, but I also had to look at myself and realize that I wasn't the best guy to be dating either and I was terrible. I'm a guy who had to reflect on all of that stuff. I'm a guy who had to quit blaming the rest of the world for my poems. I'm a guy who had to quit blaming my mom for why I became the way I was. I'm a guy who had to learn forgiveness. I had to learn how to forgive my alcoholic mom and rebuild a relationship with her. I'm a guy who had to stay clean and move back to Las Vegas with $200 in my pocket to try to be a father to my son again. I'm a guy whose kid's mom still thought I was a lying piece of garbage when I moved back to Las Vegas and still wouldn't let me see my son, alright? I'm a guy who stayed clean one day at a time. I worked on my mental health. I worked on my depression. I worked on my anxiety. I worked on my relationships because I'm a guy who stayed single for a year and a half because I knew how selfish it would be to bring somebody down with me into a terrible relationship with me. I'm a guy who worked so hard that rather than my kid's mom calling me up and saying, hey, here's what we're doing with our son, bye. I'm a guy who now she calls and says, hey, here's what's going on with our son. What do you think we should do about it? I'm a guy who took a damaged relationship with my son's mom, and now she's one of my best friends in the world. She's remarried, has another son, and I couldn't ask for more, alright? I'm a guy who went from wanting to die every single day to waking up every single morning with a life that I couldn't even imagine. I'm a guy where I was three years sober and I got the opportunity to work at a drug and alcohol treatment center to help other people who are in a place that I used to be in, alright? I'm a guy who got to do individual sessions with people. I'm a guy who got to do group sessions in front of people. I'm a guy who got to speak in front of hundreds of people and share my story and give people hope. I'm also a guy who got very fortunate by landing a job in one of the most biggest mental health and addiction treatment centers in the entire country, even though I didn't have a license. I'm a guy who got hired purely based on my experience, alright? I'm a guy who's helped hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people turn their life around, but no credit to me. I just gave them the tools, I gave them advice, I gave them my experience, and they did all the work. I'm a guy who is fortunate enough to have people tell me that I helped turn their life around even more so than people who complain about me on the internet, alright? I'm a guy who spent three and a half years working in an addiction treatment center and I was getting calls about former clients, about friends that I knew who were dying from addiction overdoses, from suicide or alcohol and drug related incidents, alright? I'm a guy who, in the last three and a half years, I've experienced over 75 deaths, alright? I'm a guy who's learned how to work through that. I'm a guy who knows how to manage my anger and my anxiety and my depression today so I can be a good father, so I can be a good boyfriend. I'm a guy who just got back from the movies with my son. I'm a guy where after I finish uploading this video, I'm gonna play some video games with my son. I'm a guy who's actually recording this video while one of my friends is outside who trusts me again. Speaking of friends, I'm a guy where when I had three years sober, I was able to help save my best friend's life because he fell into an addiction of drugs and alcohol and he is now over three years sober, alright? So I'm a guy who's also a nerd when it comes to neuroscience and mental health so I decided to read a lot of books and educate myself. I'm a guy who knew I was nothing special and I just like helping people with their mental health so I'm a guy who decided to start a YouTube channel. I'm a guy with no credentials and knew I was gonna get crap from people telling me I don't have credentials so who the hell am I to give people advice? I knew that was coming when I started but I'm a guy who tunes out all that noise and keeps on my mission on a daily basis to help people who are struggling with their mental health to give them just a little bit of a glimmer of a hope that I got that told me that I can turn my life around. So again, I'm a guy who often gets a bunch of comments asking me about my credentials, alright? Asking me who am I to be given this type of advice, okay? Clearly, people don't understand what I'm doing here. I'm trying to change the game when it comes to mental health because I know that people aren't talking about it. I know that people are afraid to talk about it. I know people are afraid to open up about it. I know people are sitting back passively watching YouTube and reality TV shows not understanding how it's affecting their own life and how they're doing the exact same thing, alright? So I get a ton of comments that say, oh, you shouldn't talk about this because you're not licensed. Well, here's the thing. I see mental health just like physical health. And until we start going around to all the health YouTubers telling them that unless they're a doctor or licensed nutritionist or dietitian that they need to get off YouTube, I'm staying right here. Could you imagine that? Could you imagine me watching some health and fitness channel and me saying like, who the hell are you to tell me to quit eating fast food and that I should go to the gym, huh? Who are you? What are your credentials? What's your license, alright? I am trying to change the way that we talk about mental health. You don't need a license to tell people to meditate. You don't need a license to tell people to get your ass to therapy. You don't need a license to tell people that they're not alone. So if you are somebody who wants to talk to a licensed professional, by all means, go, go do it. There are plenty of channels out there with amazing licensed professionals and some of them have the same experiences I do. But if you want somebody who has experienced some of the pain and suffering that you've been through and worked his butt off to come out on the other side even stronger and is passionate about helping one person at a time improve their mental health, then you are in the right place. So again, welcome to the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel's all about mental health and what I like to do is pull different topics from the YouTube community to try to teach you how to improve your mental and emotional wellbeing. And if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell.