 Six years ago, my mother got a phone call from the hospital because I was in the cardiac critical care unit. They called her up and said, you might want to come down to Las Vegas because we don't think your son is going to live through the night. She dropped everything that she was doing. She came down to Las Vegas and when she got there, she found out that her 26 year old son who had been battling addiction for years had congestive heart failure. They gave me a 10% chance of living. My mom ended up trying to help me get clean by moving me out to California with her, but I wasn't ready to get clean. I brought drugs with me. I brought him into her house, even though she is a woman in long term recovery. She ended up finding those drugs and she gave me an ultimatum. She said, you're either getting clean or you're going to be homeless in Las Vegas, Nevada in the middle of the summer. Now, I remember that day so clearly and I remember seeing the look in my own mother's eyes that she was ready to let me die if I wasn't willing to get help. I can't even imagine what she was going through. I'm a parent myself, but she was ready to let me go because there was nothing else that she could do for me. And the reason I share that story is because right now I'm reading all the stuff on Twitter and social media. People blaming Ariana Grande for the death, the drug overdose of Mac Miller and it's absolutely disgusting. Up everybody, this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And today, today during National Recovery Month, the problem is, is the ignorance about addiction. One of the main reasons I started this channel was to increase awareness and decrease the stigma. Not only about addiction, but about mental health as a whole. So if you're new here, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos. But one of the things I'm trying to do is to educate people. Like when I see something like this, when I see this, when I see people blaming Ariana Grande for the death of Mac Miller, I am just like, man, I need to keep going. I need to keep making videos because people don't understand how this thing works. People don't understand how insane the disease of addiction is. People don't understand how toxic relationships can be and when you got to go. Like it's absolutely mind blowing. So for those of you who don't know the history of it, Ariana Grande and Mac Miller were dating for about two years. And Ariana Grande ended up leaving him and now she is engaged to a comedian by the name of Pete Davidson. So now the social media is blowing up blaming Ariana Grande for Mac Miller's death. Now something I will touch on real quick and if you want me to make more videos on this later. It's very interesting to me because Pete Davidson is actually in recovery. He got clean. He got sober. So when I see Ariana Grande went from one addict to another, just the only difference is one was in active addiction. One is now clean. It makes me wonder like, is she prone to dating these type of men? And this is something that's a very big issue if this is something that you do too. So if you want me to make more videos on that, let me know down in the comments, alright? But anyways, my girlfriend and her best friend and I were in a group text and my girlfriend's friend Shelby tells me that people are blaming Ariana Grande for the death of Mac Miller. And I'm sitting here just completely ignorant about it. I'm like, wait, what? And then like, when she said that, I'm like, well, it makes sense. It makes sense because people don't understand this disease. So anyways, I'm going to read just a few things that are being said on the internet. Okay, so Ariana Grande ended up disabling her Instagram account because of comments like this, alright? You low-key evil. This is your fault. It's your fault. This is your fault. Damn, you killed the homie. I hope you're happy with Pete. It's crazy because you really did kill him. Like, what? What? Like, this is insane. I'm going to put up in the info card up here a video I did a while back. It was a collab with my friend, Panko Bunny. Go check her channel out. It makes a bunch of delicious treats. She's a cooking channel. Go check her out. She's an awesome woman. But I made a video collab with her and the video I did was about being held emotionally hostage. Like, this is something that we really need to identify and look at. Like, what? What? Like, the people spewing this stuff out are really not looking at the alternative. Okay? Like, addiction is such a serious, serious disease. And it's something that breaks my heart about addiction. Like, I am so fortunate to be six years clean and sober today. So many people don't get that opportunity. And I try so hard to help people get clean. I try so hard to help families understand how to set boundaries and things like that. But the truth of the matter is, is addiction. Addiction is our sole responsibility when you are the recovering addict. Like, I remember, like, I made a video about how my family did interventions on me. And I blamed my mom. I blamed my mom for my disease, for my addiction. She was an alcoholic for 20 years. I blamed her. But I was a 26-year-old man. It was time for me to let go of that stuff and take responsibility for my own actions. I had to. Like, although that may have played a big part into my substance abuse, it was no longer an excuse to keep living the way I was living. Because, like, what people aren't realizing is, if Ariana Grande stayed with Mac Miller, he could have died of an overdose anyways. Like, people are not putting those dots together. And that's why we need to talk about addiction, especially during National Recovery Month. Like, please do me a favor and share this video. Like, people just do not understand. They do not understand how serious this thing is, how tricky it is, how complicated it is. There's so many right and wrongs about this whole thing. And I understand when somebody passes away, we're looking for somebody to blame. But man, this is rough. But anyways, like, I'm getting caught up in my rant. Let me read you some of the stuff going on on Twitter. All right? Unpopular opinion. If you have a partner of two-plus years who you know has a mental health issues, just to start dating and get engaged with someone else months later, you played a part in their relapse and overdose. Like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to make videos about this, about how you cannot make anybody feel a certain way. Like, this is very important, especially for people who are codependent. Like, you cannot make somebody feel a certain way. So saying they played a part in it, that is bananas. That's like saying traffic played a part in his overdose. You know what I mean? Like, what about the dealer? Right? What about the people supplying him? What about his friends, right? Everybody plays a role in this thing. The government, you know, the biggest epidemic that we have that nobody's talking about is the prescription drug epidemic. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people are dying from medications they are getting from their doctors. What about that, right? There are so many parts to the epidemic going on in our country today that, like, you would need a million arms to point all of the fingers. All right? Let's keep reading some of these mean tweets. Ariana Grande killed Mac Miller. Tweets Jake 25, who called Demi Lovato a skanky junkie. Thinks mental illness isn't real. And treats his GF like a masturbation tool. Like, this one was, you know, it was kind of mean, but kind of funny and kind of sassy. Like, it really shows, like, I'm glad somebody points it out, like, even though I don't get involved in that kind of stuff. Like, I'm glad that other people point out other people's hypocrisy, especially when it comes to mental illness. Like, this is why, like, man, like, y'all don't even understand yet. Like, I have so much stuff planned. Like, mental health is such a big thing. It is such a big thing, like, ignorance, anger issues. Like, for example, the person she's pointing out right here, they clearly got anger issues. They're on Twitter just being mad at everything, right? Like, if you don't think that's affecting your mental health, you've got another thing coming. That's why I need to sit down and make some anger management videos. Like, when you're running around, like, you're spewing ignorance, you really have no sense of identity yourself because you can't stick to one side or the other or have your own beliefs. You're just angry about everything. And that's, like, cool. And that's what she's pointing out. Like, this same person who's blaming somebody for an overdose death is the same person who stigmatized Demi Lovato when she overdosed. Like, that's bananas. And here's another one. Remember when Ariana Grande broke up with Mac Miller and was engaged two weeks later? Again, you can't make somebody feel another way like. So when I'm talking about this emotional hostage thing and things like that, so this is something that anybody who dates somebody with, not anybody, but a lot of people who date somebody with borderline personality disorder, they have to deal with that. Because people with BPD are, they can get very threatening, right? They have a lack of emotional regulation. They can threaten you. Like, if you leave me, I'm going to kill myself. Right? They say things like that. And that's called being an emotional hostage. And you are put in this very tricky situation. You are put in a no-win situation. Like, let me play this tape out for you. Okay? For those of you who are not aware about how serious mental illness is, how hard it is to date somebody who has a mental illness or an addiction, let me play this scenario out for you. Okay? A girl and a guy are dating, right? The guy says, if you leave me, right? I'm going to kill myself. Okay? But don't you tell anybody that I said that. Okay? So now the woman is in a tricky position. All right? Now she's stuck in that relationship. Okay? And if she doesn't do something about it, this guy is going to think that she doesn't love him. She doesn't care. Right? That's what he's going to think. That's what he's going to blame her for. But if she goes out and she calls the police, okay, or if she gets him a therapist or whatever it is, now he's going to say, I told you not to tell anybody. You see what I mean? Like, a lot of people in these, that get into these relationships are stuck in a very tricky position where it seems like there is no winning solution. I'm going to link my book down below and I'm probably going to get some hate. Like, oh, you're promoting your book when talking about this stuff? Yeah. I made a book called Caught in the Crossfire. It's like $3. Okay? Download the Kindle app if you don't have a Kindle and read that book. Caught in the Crossfire is a book for anybody affected by a loved one's addiction. Part of it is about how to help somebody with an addiction and part of it is about setting boundaries and walking away. You know what I mean? And we got to talk about this with all sorts of forms of mental illness. Like, I have an entire playlist for any of you who can relate to some of this stuff. I have an entire playlist called The Broken Picker. I am of the belief. I am purely of the belief. This is an opinion. Might be an unpopular opinion like that last tweet said. But, like, if you are not mentally well or if you're not actively improving your mental health, so whether you're an addict or whether you're somebody with BPD or whether you're somebody with anxiety or depression, like until you work on yourself and you're just a little bit better, just a little bit better, you should not be dating. It is unfair. It is selfish to date somebody and bring them into that. All right? Like, I say this as somebody who stayed single for over a year and a half, because I knew, I knew to bring somebody into my mess was one of the most selfish things that I can do. But on the flip side, too, if you are somebody who is attracted to broken people, people who struggle with mental illness, people who struggle with addiction, you got to stay single for a while, too. You need to go get help. You need to figure out why you are attracted to these people. What is going on with you? Because you might be making their situation worse. Like, I'm going to throw this out there and this is not to throw any blame at anybody. But to date somebody who is an active addict or alcoholic, that can be very, very bad, okay? Like, for example, in addiction, when people get clean, they say, do not date for a year. All right? It's because people are very fragile. One of the biggest triggers people have is their emotions, right? And one of the most emotional situations you can get into is in a relationship, okay? You have extreme goods and extreme bads, right? Extreme feelings of love, extreme feelings of pain. So to date somebody while they're in early recovery or even in active addiction is very dangerous. And I'm not saying these people are broken forever, but like I said, like, that's why I make so many videos on how to help you and how to look at different aspects of your mental health and try to improve a little bit by little bit. Because now I'm in a position, right? I'm in a position where when I went through my first breakup in recovery after I was over a year and a half sober, I was actually over two years sober, when I went through that breakup, I had such a strong foundation that I didn't get drunk or high over it. You see what I mean? And again, please share this video because I'm just trying to educate people and decrease just not only the stigma but the ignorance about this thing. Like, it is madness and more people need to understand how this disease works, how mental illness works, but they also need to get help and need to get hope. Like, then six years ago, like I said, I was about to die and now I live an amazing, amazing life. So I make these videos to try to offer people hope and let you know what I do to improve my mental health and what things you could do to improve yours as well. Because you don't have to keep living the way that you are living if you don't want to. All right? But anyways, anyways, I've gone on way too long this video is way longer than I expected. So leave comments down below. Let me know your thoughts. If you want to have a conversation, let's do it kindly and let's talk about it, okay? Leave comments down below. All right? But if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you are new here, my channel is all about helping you out with your mental health. I talk about addiction recovery too. So make sure you subscribe, ring that notification bell. And a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. If you want to help support the channel over on Patreon so I can make more videos and do this thing and spread awareness and give people hope, make sure you click or tap on the Patreon icon and you can do it for a dollar, all right? But anyways, that's all I got for you today. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time.