 So we just received the very sad news that the 21 year old rapper Juice World has passed away after having a seizure in an airport and there's a lot of talk about substance abuse and everything like that and as a recovering drug addict who's been clean for seven years, I want to talk about some things that might save your life or the life of someone you know. 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 the things that I'm really passionate about are mental health, psychology, drug addiction and really trying to give people hope that change is possible so if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and I'm also over on Instagram and Twitter if you want to follow me at the Rewired Soul. All right so let's jump into this. Those of you who don't know me I'm a recovering drug addict. I got clean on my 27th birthday June 23rd 2012. My drug of choice was prescription opioids so I talked quite a bit about the prescription drug epidemic and we're going to be talking about Xanax quite a bit in this because Juice World, a couple of his substance of choices were codeine which is a prescription opioid as well as Xanax which is a benzodiazepine which is usually used to treat anxiety but it's also abused a lot especially in the rap community. All right but aside from that I also worked at a drug and alcohol treatment center for a little over three years we did everything from detox to inpatient to outpatient as well as after care. So when I saw this news about Juice World this morning it's already sad enough to see you know a young a young person die especially one who's just hitting their stride and about to you know just be set for the rest of their life you know what I mean um and yeah so when this happened whenever I hear of a young person passing away my mind immediately goes to substance abuse and this is because I have seen so many people die from substance abuse okay so as of right now what we know is that Juice World had a seizure in the Chicago airport when they took him to the hospital he later died at the hospital as a result of that seizure so it is not clear what caused that seizure yet but things are leaning towards substance abuse all right so as I was researching for this video to see Juice World's history if he had any substance abuse problems there are plenty of interviews of him talking about trying to get off codeine because he really you know had his girlfriend scared he also talks about his issues with Xanax and everything like that so like I said a lot of that evidence right now is leaning towards substance abuse we're not going to know for sure until the toxicology report comes out but I'm going to come back to that in just a little bit because even the toxicology report might not tell us if it was a substance abuse issue and I'll explain why a little bit later all right so the first thing I want to dive into is why is it so hard for people to quit using drugs to quit drinking whatever their addiction is all right so specifically when we're looking at Juice World all right and we've seen this happen to other people like another rapper Macklemore who's been off and on with his sobriety right we have a little peep died just a few years ago from his substance abuse why is it so difficult for people to quit and a lot of it has to do with their environment and their identity okay and this isn't just rappers all right I want everybody to realize this like I said whether you're somebody struggling with substance abuse issues or if you have a family member or loved one who is some of you who are in recovery like feel free to share your experience down in the comments below but one of the biggest issues with substance abuse is that we're afraid to get rid of it because it is woven into our identity right so when you look at somebody like Juice World or other people in the music industry it's difficult to quit because if you quit right if you quit that also means that you are also leaving different friends right different people that you hung out with because part of your friendship might have been based on using substances and this is part of my experience one of the things that kept me in my addiction for almost a decade was my identity was wrapped up in it if I quit drinking if I quit using if I quit partying all these things like who am I right I'm no longer the guy who's going out to the bar and snorting lines of coke in the bathroom you know what I mean I'm no longer the guy who's you know taking these pills and also hooking other people up with pills and everything like that so there are a million different reasons why addiction is so difficult to overcome but one of them is because of our environment and being afraid of losing that so it's not just losing the substance right and why do people use substances a lot of times is to mask some kind of pain all right the three primary reasons that people abuse alcohol or drugs is to get a feeling to get rid of a feeling or to have an escape right and that's one of the reasons why I try to talk about different coping strategies on my channels because I had to learn how to live with life on life's terms without abusing substances you know what I mean for a lot of people like I'd imagine you know Juice World and a lot of other young people like it might start out as just being the cool thing to do like yo let's let's you know use together let's get messed up you know whatever it is like it might start like that but with the way our brain works when we start getting these negative emotions right anger sadness anxiety you know all these different things like our brain says well you know those drugs made you feel pretty good why don't you use it for that and what happens is is our brain starts associating those bad feelings with getting messed up so pretty soon we're not just drinking and using to party we're doing it to cope with life and that is one of the main reasons why you know we need therapy we need sometimes we need antidepressant medications right and I'm going to talk about non-narcotic anti-anxiety medications in a second we need support groups you know whatever it is right there's so many things that I have to do for my mental health on a daily basis so I don't go back to those substances okay so now let's talk about seizures and substance abuse so here's the thing like no matter what when you are trying to get off a substance get medical help the best thing you can do is to go to a detox facility okay two substances that can kill you from withdrawal are xanax and alcohol all right when you're withdrawing from the xanax and alcohol there is a likelihood of seizures all right so when looking at juice world looking at his struggles with substance abuse issues when I see someone died of a seizure right who had no prior medical history of seizures it seems like this was a result of withdrawal so with juice world traveling it is possible that he ran out of the drugs and this was part of withdrawal okay so that's why I was talking about earlier like as you pay attention to this story and watch this story and when toxicology reports come out you might not find out that he had xanax in his system because you can die from seizures from withdrawing from xanax which would mean that the drugs weren't in the system and xanax withdrawal can cause seizures for a long time after you quit after you stop using the substance it can happen for weeks after like personally working in the drug and alcohol treatment center I saw people who came in and got you know clean off xanax and thank god they were in our treatment center where we had nurses 24 7 and doctors and everything like that I saw people who had like a seizure a week for the first month I remember one kid who came in there um getting off xanax he was sober for about a month month and a half and I'm just sitting there doing a group right I'm sitting there doing my normal group and for some reason right at that moment I caught glances with this kid and he just turned stiff as a board and fell out of his chair and started having a seizure because the withdrawal from xanax can happen for a while after we always have to remember these are mind altering substances okay seizures are a result of what's happening in the brain and something not working right some misfires and everything like that so that's how these substances can lead to having a seizure later on okay so I just want to end with this when people are young especially when they're successful like we get this idea that we're invincible you know what I mean we see so many people around us drinking or using or whatever we think that this can't happen to us um I've seen way too many people pass away most of the people I've seen pass away from substance abuse issues were probably I think the majority would were between 18 and 26 years old like and that's so sad man that's so sad I've had friends 24 25 years old who have passed away from this thing so I know Juice World had a lot of fans out there and my suggestion is if you want to honor his memory like try to help people get help for yourself whatever it is like I'm living proof as well as millions of other people that you can have a substance abuse problem and kick it to the curb you know what I'm saying 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 or the merch that we got like this shirt with our adorable cat Wyatt all right thanks again for watching I'll see you next time