 I know countless people who have lost a loved one to mental illness. Heck, I've lost a ton of people to mental illness. And let me tell you what the number one thing that people ask themselves after someone passes away from mental illness is. What could I have done more to help? 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 helping you with your 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. And part of that is how to deal with a loved one who is struggling with mental illness. So if you're into that kind of stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So yeah, today we are going to be talking about Eugenia Cooney. This is a video that I've had requested for quite some time. I might do a few videos, but it's something that I was reluctant to make. So one of the main reasons I haven't made a video about this is because it's sad. It's really sad. And I work in the mental health field. I've seen so many people pass away and it's something that I deal with at work. Most of the topics I try to bring in on my channel are like, oh, okay, these beauty gurus are acting a fool or this person has regret or whatever it is, just trying to, different lighter topics to help you improve your mental health. I talk about depression, I talk about anxiety, but in Eugenia Cooney's case, like, when I see her, it's hard to watch, you know? And this is just something that we need to talk about. So I already know. I already know down in the comments below, I'm gonna get a ton, a ton of people, like always who are like, you're just doing this for views. You're just doing this for views. You're damn right I'm doing this for views. And here's why. This is already a topic of conversation amongst millions of people, all right? So me not talking about it is only going to hurt the situation, whereas I can use my channel based around mental health to try to help the viewer, all of you watching this, who might have a loved one who's struggling, learn how to help them with their mental illness. Whenever I make these videos, I never expect the YouTuber I'm talking about to ever see this. This is for you. If you have clicked on this video, if you are watching up until this point, this video is for you. It is not about Eugenia Cooney. We're using her as an example so you can either A, help somebody in your life who you love and care about, or B, help yourself. And it's something I always do before I make a video. Like I check my motives. I check my motives all the time. Like am I doing this for views? Am I just trying to get more subscribers? What am I trying to do this for? Why haven't I made this video for a while? But when I sat down and meditated and checked my motives, it was like this is potentially influencing young people. Hell, it might be influencing older people. It might be influencing anybody in a negative light. And we need to talk about that. And for each person who might be influenced by Eugenia Cooney's lifestyle, there is an entire circle of loved ones who are affected by that. Now, when we're talking about enabling, one of the biggest enabling excuses out there or things that people say is leave them alone. Just leave them alone, right? Just leave, just get them out of your mind, get them out of your mouth. Leave this person alone. And this is why so many people die each year. So my last please stop enabling video was about Bobby Burns. And let me read you a comment I just got today, all right? So Bobby Burns, those of you who don't know, likes to smoke a lot of pot, potentially abuses other substances. He got in a car wreck, I made a video about it. So here is a comment that I got. It says, what a person shows in social media isn't necessarily what happens in real life. I smoke weed every day and I don't show it online all the time. If I got into a car wreck, you wouldn't even think that it was because I was high. Marijuana isn't addictive and it isn't the same as alcohol or any other drugs. So the fact that you simply, the fact that you imply that is very irresponsible. None of us are in a place of judging someone who we only see online for actions that in all caps only affect themselves. So first off, I had to set him straight and I'm gonna set all of you straight real quick because like this argument that you can't become addicted to weed is just ridiculous and here's why. The first line of what I said is, marijuana can't be psychologically addictive. So one of the things that people will have an issue with is that they think addictive means physical dependency. No. So I said, what about gambling, sex and shopping, right? Are those non-addictive as well? Think about it, okay? Why do they have gambler's anonymous, sex and love addicts anonymous, overeaters anonymous, you know, like all of these things. It's because like psychological addiction is much worse and that's actually what we're dealing a lot with when it comes to eating disorders. But to cover his overall point, right? Where he said he shouted at me in caps was it only affects themselves. So I replied, if someone kills someone else in a car accident, is that not affecting anyone else? If someone kills themselves in a car accident, does that not affect their loved ones, right? So like, think about that. Think about that for a second, like, you guys, I come from a place of not only compassion and concern but a place of experience, all right? Do you realize that when I was in my drug addiction, I just wanted everybody to leave me alone, get off my back. I'm not hurting you. I'm not hurting anybody else. I was laying on my deathbed with a 10% chance of living, okay? Six and a half years ago, I had in my hospital room, I'm in the cardiac critical care unit, 26 years old, congestive heart failure, I'm about to die. My mom's there. My best friend's there. My aunt's there. My son's mom is there. And they're in there crying and they're begging me to stop. They're begging me to get my life together, right? They said, we love you, Chris. Chris, you have a son, he loves you. And in my sickness of my mental illness, I said, I'm not hurting anybody. This is only me. I'm only affecting me. Just leave me alone. Think about that for a second. I'm seeing the pain and the hurt in my family and friends' faces. And my brain still tells me that I'm not affecting anybody else. My son, who almost grew up without a father, my brain tells me I'm not affecting anybody else. Am I right? Right? My addiction and what I did in the way that I lived, I got other people started on drugs. I convinced other people to drink the way that I drank. I'm not affecting anybody. You guys, this is why I talk about we need to quit being so selfish and self-centered and quit thinking that our actions and our lifestyles don't affect anybody else. So especially when we're talking about Eugenia Cooney's case with over a million subscribers, yes, she is affecting other people, including her family, including her friends. So what actually inspired me and pushed me to a place where I wanted to make this video finally was because of one of my lovely subscribers, Shadow 98. Shadow 98 left a comment telling me about this Nicky DeMar music video titled Anthem for the Judge with Eugenia Cooney in it. And Shadow's comment said something along the lines of like, do you think this is enabling? And I watched the video, I listened to the message of the song and I'm like, yeah, this is absolutely 1000% enabling. And let me tell you, working in the field that I do, having so many people die, right? So many people die and having to talk to friends and family members. Like, it breaks my heart knowing that if Eugenia Cooney does pass away, how people like Nicky DeMar are gonna feel, right? Hey, come in my music video. It's a music video about you being judged unfairly. Like, hey, you know, Anthem for the Judge? That's a cool song. Like I always tell you guys, like quit caring so much about what people think. Do you, be wacky, be zany, like whatever you wanna do, like do your thing. Like if you're into like cosplay, cool, do your thing. If you're into like nerdy, like stuff, like I am, like go, cool, do your thing, like do all those things. But when we're talking about a mental illness and then trying to relay the message, like oh no, no, no, she's fine. It's just people are judging her for her lifestyle. Like, no, no, like imagine if we said that to like about a serial killer, right? I make weird analogies, bear with me. But imagine if we're like, hey, that serial killer's fine. Like just quit judging his lifestyle, you know? Now I know Eugenia Cooney is not a serial killer, but it is enabling to say or even try to believe that she's just being unfairly judged, all right? Because there's two scenarios, all right? I don't know Eugenia Cooney, but if you have somebody like this in your life, there's two scenarios going on. One is that it's an eating disorder. Two is that there's a medical issue, all right? One or both of those things need to be addressed. You see what I mean? So like, I don't know what it is. So if you have somebody in your life, like recognize these things that you might be doing to enable that person, right? By saying, don't judge them, don't do this, whatever it is, sticking up for them. Like when I was in my active addiction, like people would like feed into me, they would feed into me and enable me like, oh no, people just don't understand you, Chris. They don't get it. My brain used to tell me that if you only knew how rough my life was, you would understand why I do so many drugs. You know what I mean? Like think about that. So when we're feeding that lie into the person who's sick, it does nothing, it does nothing but help kill that person. So the last thing I'll talk about, like why, why is there denial? And I can make an entire video about this. Addiction and eating disorders are very closely related with how they affect the brain. One of the issues with the brain, with people with eating disorders and addiction is the prefrontal cortex. It's not functioning properly, right? This part of the brain is responsible for a variety of things, but the two things we're gonna talk about right now are self-awareness and denial, right? And those kind of go hand in hand. So when you lack self-awareness, you're in denial. So that's why so many addicts, that's why so many people eating disorders die from this thing, because they have a brain that tells them that nothing that they're doing is wrong. And for somebody with a mental illness like this, we are waiting, we are waiting for someone like you to co-sign what we're doing because the brain, the disease, the addiction loves that. It loves it. It loves it when somebody says, oh, you're just being judged. You're fine, they just don't understand you. We're like, yeah, you're right, you're right. You know how many times I quit doing hard drugs and my friends were like, hey, you can still drink and I'm like, you're right, I can, because my brain wants me to believe them. You see, that's why enabling is such, such a problem. All right, now there's a ton of different intervention strategies. I'm gonna link a video down below that I did on my other channel about intervention strategies. It's about helping a drug addict or alcoholic, but you can really use this. Like I've had a lot of you ask me about like, you know, you have a loved one who won't take their meds so they won't go see a therapist or da, da, da, da, da. Like check the link down below. It's about how to have an intervention, how serious an intervention is, how to set boundaries and all that, okay? I will link it down in the description as well as up in the info card, okay? But anyways, I wanna hear from all of you down in the comments below. Let's do this for the question down in the comments below. Have you ever unknowingly enabled somebody? Okay, tell me your experience. Were you enabling somebody and didn't even realize it? How'd you step out of it? How did you set up a boundary and stop enabling them? All right? Anyways, that's all I got for you with 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 because I make a ton of videos. And a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon and everybody at the $5 tier and up, there is exclusive content. I actually did a behind the scenes kind of talking video about this video. So if you aren't the $5 tier up, go check it out right now over on Patreon, all right? Thanks so much for watching. Quit enabling and I'll see you next time.