 So it was just announced that Aaron Carter not only sold his guns but he's tapering off of Xanax. So we're going to be talking about Xanax addiction, we're going to be talking about Aaron Carter because I've gotten a lot of requests from all of you to discuss it and I'm actually finally going to address another creator who's made I think like over 15 videos about me. 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. And if you're new to my channel, what I try to do is take different topics going on in the YouTube community or pop culture, try to see what lessons we can learn from them. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And while you're at it, make sure you follow me over on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul, alright? So today's video, this video and I'm actually going to record a video right after this too. The theme for this video is we need to start recognizing how we justify and rationalize. And this is something that became very apparent to me when I was recovering from my addiction. But this is something that you don't have to be an addict to struggle with this, alright? But it might help you understand what Aaron Carter is going through. So those of you who don't know me, by the way, I'm not a licensed therapist or psychologist or anything like that. My experience is I am seven years clean and sober from drugs and alcohol. I haven't had any drugs, any alcohol since June of 2012. Not only that, but I worked at a drug and alcohol treatment center for a little over three years and I'm currently halfway through my CADC, which is certified alcohol and drug counselor license. Alright, so although I'm not a licensed therapist or a psychologist, I have quite a bit of experience, okay? So anyways, like I said, a lot of you have been requesting videos about Aaron Carter. Um, you guys let me know when he was hanging out with Trisha Paytas. A lot of people were worried that her and Aaron were using together. They did a live stream that was a little, a little odd. But anyways, I started following Aaron Carter on Twitter and yeah, like, I don't know. It's really sad, man. Like you can tell he's going through some stuff. But anyways, he, he recently went on the show The Doctors and he talked about how he's been sober for 10 years or not 10 years, two years. And he said his drug of choice was huffing, right? And yeah, I've worked with a lot of people who huffed and things like that. But he also said he was also diagnosed with a few mental illnesses and he held up his bag of medications. Alright, and he says he got those from rehab and he went to rehab and everything like that. Well, people have been worried because not only has he been acting very erratic, but he also owns guns. But anyways, today, after he got a restraining order from his brother, Nick, dude from the Backstreet Boys, he ended up selling his guns. But he also said he's been tapering off Xanax for the last, I believe, five days. I think he did an interview with TMZ, alright? So some of you might be wondering, why is he tapering off of Xanax if he was sober? Right? Because when people hear sober, they think no addictive substances. Well, this is something that's actually quite common. Because again, our braids, they justify their rationalized, right? And this is something extremely common in the realm of addiction where we quit one thing and think it's okay to take another, right? So in Aaron Carter's mind, he felt that huffing was the problem, but he can still use Xanax, right? And Aaron Carter is a prime example of no, you probably shouldn't, alright? Because Xanax not only can it become addictive, but you become physically dependent. And I hope that he's going through some kind of medical detox because Xanax withdrawal is extremely dangerous. And I talked more about this in my video about Jordan Peterson going to rehab just the other day. Now, my experience with that, my primary drug of choice when I first started, it was alcohol. I was a full-blown alcoholic. And then I found my new love, which was prescription painkillers. And in my mind, going from alcohol to painkillers was better, okay? This was better than alcohol because I don't act as stupid. I'm not hungover. I don't smell like booze. I don't black out, right? But I was just swapping one addiction for another. The last time I tried to get sober about eight or nine years ago before the most recent time, I smoked weed, right? Because I thought, hey, I can do that. And what that did was it led me right back to the opioids and led me right back to alcohol. And this is why most programs, whether it's rehabs or 12-step programs, they teach complete abstinence, alright? There are some fringe programs out there that try to teach like harm reduction, right? But I don't really agree with that. That's my opinion. I haven't seen it work out for anybody. I see people use that as a way to keep using. So sometimes they try to teach you how to use that drug or drink in moderation. It works for some people, but the majority of the time from my experience, I haven't seen it work, and that's one of the reasons I recommend against it. So with Aaron Carter, I'm glad to hear that he got off of Xanax, but this gives me the opportunity to talk about another situation. So the other day I made a video about Jordan Peterson and some people went around saying I was pill-shaming and everything like that. I made a video yesterday morning and I showed all of the statistics of overdoses and addiction rates and everything like that. But a lot of people were upset, but Aaron Carter, Jordan Peterson are examples of how benzodiazepines can become addictive. So I'm about to talk about another creator, and I haven't talked about him. So remember how we're talking about justifying and rationalizing. So I like to think I'm pretty self-aware and I'm about to justify and rationalize. Alright? Like, that's just something that we do. It's part of our nature. So there's another creator out there who has made 15 videos about me at least. Alright? And I've never, to my knowledge, I don't think I've ever mentioned him in a video. I might have mentioned him in a podcast a long time ago once, but anyways, he's a smaller creator and I don't believe in punching down. So here's my rationalization for bringing up this other creator. One is that he's made 15 videos about me. Alright? I'll talk about that later, but combined with his 15 videos plus, I would estimate he's had probably about 10,000 views, maybe more. So my rationalization is, even though I'm a bigger channel, none of my videos have really been getting that many views. Now the other justification for this is Primink has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and the YouTube community is alright with him making videos about me and the distance between my channel's subscriber count and Primink's is much bigger than my channel's and this guy's channel's. But anyways, this creator, his name is Driven Industries. And listen, I don't think he's a bad guy. And I'm going to talk about that in a second. But I felt I would address this because this is a prime time to address it. Because he is somebody who says he's sober and I haven't shared my opinion about it. But he's labeled me as a bully, which I don't really mind. But he's also labeled me as dangerous and here's my problem. He's somebody who says he's in recovery and he's not. Alright? So you don't have to take my word for it because I know it's going to set a lot of people. I try not to judge other people's recovery, but the fact that he's made this many videos calling me dangerous and he has an audience, you know, I feel that we should talk about it because it's important that you know about this too, in case you have somebody who just left rehab and said, hey, I'm taking Xanax and Adderall. So Driven Industries, he says he's been sober, I believe for 26 months now. Now again, you don't have to believe me. I would challenge you to call any rehab facility or any sober living house and ask him this. Can I be in your facility and still take Xanax and still take Adderall? Because something that Driven Industries will try to tell people is that I'm dangerous. I'm not a licensed professional, which I've always found kind of hypocritical because he's giving all of this advice and he's like not in the mental health industry at all, whereas I've actually worked in it. But anyways, I've worked in rehabs and we don't let people in there who are taking Xanax or Adderall. So Driven Industries is saying it's okay to keep taking Xanax and Adderall. The other issue that I have is he promotes 12-step programs and I don't know. I don't know. Maybe he goes to him, maybe not, but here's the thing. In my experience of seven years sober and thousands of meetings, it would be very difficult for you to find a sponsor who would work with you if you're still taking Xanax or Adderall. And again, if you don't believe me, if you have a loved one, friend, family member who has been to a 12-step program, ask them. Ask them, hey, could you be in that program and get coins if you're still taking Xanax or Adderall? Because my guess is they're probably going to tell you no. So again, although this man has labeled me as dangerous 15 times, people are taking advice from him when he's not really sober. And here's the rule of thumb that I like to use. If you can crush it and snort it to get high, you probably shouldn't take it while you're sober, all right? So people might call that pill-shaming. They can if they want to. But in programs like Narcotics Anonymous, they have literature, as well as in Alcoholics Anonymous, they have literature that talks about taking medications in sobriety. And all of them are pretty clear not to take addictive medications, such as Xanax and Adderall, which driven industries is taking, all right? So the weird thing is, too, if you've ever been to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, and I'm not a representative of any of these 12-step programs, I'm just sharing with you information about these programs. But in Narcotics Anonymous, one of the readings at the beginning says something along the lines of, let us not be fooled, alcohol is a drug, all right? And it talks about how many addicts have made the mistake of thinking alcohol is not a drug. So based on that, do you think anybody in a 12-step program of Narcotics Anonymous would say it's okay to take medications like Xanax or Adderall? Probably not. And at the end of the day, it's none of my business. Like driven industries, you're going to see this. Take whatever you want. But here's the thing. Like I said, I don't think driven industries is a bad guy. I've been making a lot of videos talking about moral psychology, moral philosophy, and, you know, we all think that we're the hero. We all think that we're right. Like I don't hate driven industries. In his mind, he does believe that I'm dangerous. In his mind, he believes that. I don't think he's a bad person. He believes that, right? And it would be extremely hypocritical of me to just say that he's this bad, awful person because before everything happened with me and I was making videos, you know, when I like, for example, talking about Trisha Paytas. In my mind, I was like, this is a bad influence. We need to discuss it. In driven industries' mind, he believes I'm a bad influence. So he's talking about it. So everybody has a right to their own opinion. All right? And in this video, I shared my opinion based on a lot more experience. And I want to end with this. One of my first interactions with driven industries was I think his first video about me, he said something about not caring about peer-reviewed studies, all right? So again, if you're online on YouTube taking mental health or addiction recovery advice from people who don't believe in peer-reviewed studies, you really need to check in with that and see if they're a credible source because I personally, just my opinion, I would not trust anybody who doesn't believe in science and all the studies they've done around mental health and medications and things like that. All right? But again, you don't have to take my word for it. Call any rehab you want. Most of them have a 24-hour hotline. Call one right now. Call any sober living house and say, hey, can I be in that rehab? Can I be in that sober living house and take Xanax or Adderall? There's a reason why they say no. All right? So I wish the best for Aaron Carter. I hope he's getting on a better track. I'm thinking about watching his podcast interview that he did with Adam 22. I think he said he was unimpulsive too. So I might check that out. 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 a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel on Patreon or getting my books or merch and all that kind of stuff. All right? Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.