 What's up everybody this is Chris from the rewired soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution in this video the question is are you addicted and what we're going to be using is a test from the National Council on alcoholism and drug dependence all right now very quickly this test can actually be used for just about anything what I mean by that gambling addiction sex addiction food addiction smartphone addiction social media addiction all these other things all right for the purpose of this video we're going to focus on alcohol and drugs but there will be a link to this test in the description below and if you feel that you might have a problem with something else you can easily take this same test just swap out what it is all right so when it comes to drug addiction alcoholism a lot of myths a lot of misconceptions a lot of people don't know what separates an addict from a non addict now one of the biggest issues is because people like to use the word functioning addict and functioning not functioning doesn't matter check out the link in the description I mean the info card there's a video called rock bottom and check that out to get rid of that idea of functioning so anyways this video might be a little bit longer because I'm gonna hit on some details of this test but as you follow along the only thing you have to do the only thing that you have to do is be 100 honest with yourself you can lie to me you can lie to your friends you can lie to your family you can lie to your boss all you want all you have to do in this video is be honest with yourself so let's get started all right question number one can you get through the week without drinking or using all right there's a lot of people who have a problem stopping but there's this false idea that we can control it so can you go an entire week without drinking or using are you always able to stop when you want to this is a big one this is one of the biggest questions this is where you need to be honest with yourself can you stop when you want to okay addiction involves this this craving that the average person doesn't get once we start we cannot stop what what this means is how many times have you ever gone to the bar and said i'm only going to have one or two but you ended up having five six seven eight however many it is those of you who are using drugs prescription medications more specifically that was one of my drugs of choice can you take them as prescribed or do you need more and right now you might have some justifications coming through your head like oh well i'm in more pain than what the doctor prescribes me leave that out of the equation for right now just answer the question honestly all right can you stop when you want to all right and don't give me that like well i don't want to all right just be honest with yourself all right question number three do you ever feel guilty about your drinking or drug use just so you know this is not something that normal people feel guilty about okay like do you ever feel bad for drinking for using typically you know my experience was was because i was hiding it i was doing it when people weren't looking and this actually plays into some of the following questions like there was guilt associated with my drinking and using one of them being drinking before work drinking during lunch using drugs at work these are things that i felt guilty about all right being high around my son high around my family all these things all right do your family or friends ever complain about your drinking or using all right so get rid of any kind of bias out of your head okay because i also want to make very clear check out some of my other videos about the brain science of addiction um addiction takes control of our survival mechanism okay so when our drinking or using is challenged we get on the defensive real quick all right so ask yourself honestly do your family do your friends ever complain about your drinking or drug use get rid of all the other you know narrative in this situation just yes or no yes or no that's it okay do they ever complain next this ties in with it has your drinking or drug use caused any issues with family or friends similar but different what this means more is do you fight with your family members when you're drunk do you fight with them when you're high okay has it caused issues okay another example might be do has your family members ever given you like an ultimatum like you need to quit drinking you need to quit using drugs if you want to live in my house if your spouse has ever said you need to stop or i'm going to leave have you neglected family or friends because of your drinking or drug use this this is something that you know we do when we have an addiction um for example you're invited to a family gathering or something like that but you're too drunk to go you're too high to go um maybe you have said no to some kind of gathering because you knew that you could not drink there or you could not be high there okay have you ever missed any type of gathering because of your drinking or drug use have you lost a job because of drinking or using this one's big too me personally the first job i ever lost from my drinking like i said the brain automatically hops on the defensive i immediately got thoughts like oh the boss is out to get me these people didn't like me anyways they were out the reality was was that i lost that job for failing a drug test okay so just answer this honestly have you ever lost a job because of drinking or drug use another example is by the way if you don't know me i have lost dozens of jobs back in my active addiction okay and not only did i fail drug tests but there were times when i drank the night before like all night long woke up late for work got there late got fired for it okay these are the things that we're talking about next have you experience withdrawal symptoms when you stop this is a big one too this is about physical dependency when you drink or use an excess and now that i think about it i need to do a video on why withdrawal happens so remind me remind me to make a video on that but when you stop drinking or using do you experience withdrawal my drinking got to a point where right about around lunch time my hand would start shaking like this i was so ignorant to what withdrawal was i didn't know what this meant i vomited a lot okay i was going through alcohol withdrawal my body had become so dependent to alcohol that i needed it throughout the day as soon as the alcohol was metabolizing in my body my body would start freaking out because it didn't know how to operate without it same thing happens with drugs if any of you out there abuse opiates especially prescription drugs whether it's pain medications or benzos like xanax or value those have some brutal withdrawals too benzos you can even have seizures opiate withdrawal is literally the worst aches pains nausea i will do a video on withdrawal symptoms but go google symptoms of withdrawal from whatever substance you may or may not have a problem with and see if you are experiencing any of those symptoms when you are not using because a physical dependence like it trumps most of the questions on here if you have developed any kind of physical dependence to alcohol or drugs you got a problem all right the very last question is have you had any medical problems because of drinking or using okay the first time that i acknowledged my medical issues was the day my son was born it was a very long labor my mom had me go down to the emergency room because my feet were swollen they were swelling up and so were like my calves right and i went down there and when talking to the doctor he asked me a series of questions and one of them was like how much do you drink and i told him the truth like whatever i like to get drunk like i'm a young dude you know whatever and he said this is coming from your drinking you need to stop so all i did was i started lying to all of the other doctors that i ever saw after that so we lie to ourselves about these things okay so you have to ask yourself have you had any medical issues because of your drinking or using fact alcohol is literally like the most dangerous substance when it comes to harming your innards okay opioid overdose is a fit is a really quick death from overdose but alcoholism is very long it is drawn out your body starts shutting down acting in different ways like alcohol is one of the main reasons that i almost died five years ago but it also had to do a little bit with my prescription painkiller addiction and my cocaine addiction and all the other things i was putting in my body all right so like i said the only thing i wanted you to do during these questions was to just be honest with yourself i did skip over a couple of these questions just for the sake of keeping this video nice and short all right so make sure that you check out the link in the description below now question is what do you do like let's say you answered yes to every single question and by the way in order to have a problem with substances you only need to score like a 40 40 percent or 50 percent on this test like if you have like even four or five of the questions that i asked you if those answers are yes like you really need to seek help so if you need help feel free to reach out to me okay leave a comment i also have in the description all of my social media links my email address you can get ahold of me let me know i will provide you with resources all right um this is for anybody who might be in other countries i've been having people from the uk and australia joining up to my channel so please feel free to reach out i will help provide you with resources also if you are in the united states and you do not have health insurance either way make sure you check out the info cards because i do have a video about how you can go to rehab without insurance all right but if you if you think that you have a problem if you think that a friend has a problem hey even if you're just stumbled across this video and you think one of your friends has a problem like please share it with them all right but like i said i am always available a lot of people have been getting ahold of me on instagram so i will make this lovely instagram thing pop up again add me on instagram shoot me a dm if i can be of any help to you make sure you let me know but also if you would like to just learn more about the science of the disease of addiction this month the entire month of december you can get 50 off over at my website the rewired soul dot com on the science of addiction course just use coupon code xmas 50 and you'll get 50 off so if you want to learn more go check it out surprise this is part one okay i'm going to make a second video talking about the spectrum of addiction and how to know what type of help you need depending on how severe your addiction is okay so make sure if you are new here hit the little round subscribe button right below my beautiful face right here hit the notification bell because i will be making a follow up also thanks for watching but check out some of the other videos i have on this channel a lot of stuff to help you out with addiction mental illness and all that stuff but thanks for watching everybody i'll see you next time