 This morning, I got a phone call that one of my good friends overdosed last night and is on life support and they're probably not going to make it. So I figured that right now is probably the best time to talk about why harm reduction is stupid as well as dangerous. 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. The first thing we need to talk about is what is harm reduction? What is harm reduction when it comes to drug addiction recovery as well as alcoholism? First thing I want to make very clear. My friend who is sitting on life support right now, she did not try harm reduction, but it just brings up the fact how dangerous drugs and alcohol actually are. So harm reduction is basically there's either harm reduction or there's abstinence. Abstinence is clearly not doing it. Harm reduction is figuring out a way to help you manage using drugs or alcohol. Some of you have seen my other video talking about the Sinclair method. I've gotten a lot of flack. A bunch of people who use the Sinclair method are blowing me up in the comments on there like, bro, it worked for me. Why are you saying that this is insane? Because it is. That's the reason why. I understand that harm reduction works for some, but the problem is that we're not getting down to the root of the problem. So for example, with harm reduction, what they're teaching a heroin addict how to do is to kind of minimize the amount of opiates they're doing. Let's just use a safe amount of opiates. Harm reduction for alcohol with naltrexone. All right. Instead of drinking an entire bottle of liquor every night, let's teach you how to drink one or two glasses. That's what we're going to do. But again, we are not getting down to the root of the problem. And my main issue is, is that any medical professional, psychologist, psychologist, anybody in the mental health field who is promoting harm reduction is a disgrace and they should not be practicing in this field because they're not even attempting to get down to the root of the problem. Yes, I am not ignorant. I understand that harm reduction helps some people. But the problem is, is the human condition. Okay, let's talk about this real quick. Let's get down to the root of the problem. This is something I teach my clients on a day to day to day basis. All right, root, the root of a problem. Where do we get this, this terminology, the root from trees, right? Trees have roots. So if I wanted to remove a tree from my yard, what good is it going to do? If I just keep hacking away at the branches, it doesn't do me much good. The freaking tree is still there. But what happens if I dig down underneath the soil? I find the roots and I uproot it and I get rid of it. That thing is never going to grow back. That's what we need to talk about. Here's the issue is that people who are promoting harm reduction or even using harm reduction, they're not getting down to the root of the problem. Why are people trying to get high? Why are people trying to drink? Why are they trying to get drunk? Why to deal with stress, the stresses of work, the stresses of having children, the stress of dealing with friends, the stress of dealing with family? How about the negative feelings that we have? Depression, sadness, loneliness, anger, right? All these things. What about anxiety? Fear, stress, worry, all these things. Well, I have some news for you. Welcome to the human condition. The thing that blows my mind is the audacity, the audacity that we have as human beings to think that somehow our feelings, our emotions, our experiences are unique to us. I hate to break it to you, but anything that you are going through somebody else has been through already. Not only living right now, but think about the history of mankind. Do you think that you're the first person to ever be stressed out at work? Do you think you're the first person to ever go through a breakup? Do you think you're the first person to ever have your heart broken? Do you think you're the first person to ever have to deal with the death of a friend or a family member? You're not. Okay. So when we look at it like that, when we understand that this is part of the human condition, we're all going to experience negative feelings, negative emotions, negative experiences in our life. Every single one of us, then what is the excuse to go get drunk or high? If you're sitting at work all day long and you're stressed out at work and every day when you get home from work, you need to have a drink, newsflash, you need to find a new job. Or when we get down to the root of the problem because what happens is a lot of people just using work as an example, a lot of people will just bounce from job to job to job and they realize that they hate every job, right? The problem is, is that they're not fixing their problem within themselves. They're going to be stressed out no matter what job you give them, right? Loneliness, needing attention, needing love. This is why people have so many unhealthy relationships because they're never fully satisfied with the relationship. There's never enough love. There's never enough attention. There's never enough affection, right? So why don't we as a community, as a society, why don't we start figuring out how to get to the root of the problem? All right. If you have not watched my video yet about freedom from emotional bondage, check it out in the info card, okay? Because this idea, this idea that, that even though tens of thousands of people each year in the United States alone, just in the United States are dying from drugs and alcohol, but we need to teach people how to do them, you know, safely and maybe they can wean off of them. Like think about the gamble that is. Think about that. Why not find a way to experience life without having to turn to something to cope with it? That's an external force. Is that a thought? So like one of my favorite books, one of my favorite books is Super Rich by Russell Simmons. I will link to it in the description below. He talks about needing nothing. He talks about needing nothing over and over and over again because this is the root of human suffering. We always need something. We either need physical things. We need more money. We need a better job. We need a bigger house. We need a car. We need a relationship, right? Or we need to get rid of negative emotions, sadness, fear, anger, loneliness, all these things, right? But when you start to realize that you don't need anything and you can embrace the human condition exactly for what it is through acceptance, through meditation, you start to be a much happier fulfilled person. Now you don't need to turn to drugs. You don't need to turn to alcohol. And here's the thing. Here's the thing that just frustrates me to no end. The resources are out there. As of right now, with this video, I have over 180 videos on this channel at your disposal for you to watch and figure out how to deal with your own mental health. And do you know what I get all this knowledge from? First off, through practicing it, through trying these different methods. But it's 2017. There are books, scientific studies, everything out there. I will link to another video I did called the Brain Mechanic. Learn how your brain works. Learn where these thoughts and emotions are coming from. Once you learn those things, you can learn how to tame them. Now, you don't need drugs. You don't need alcohol in order to deal or cope with life. You don't need to buy things. You don't need to keep jumping into relationships in order to deal with life. You can deal with life exactly how it is. Now, I know this video is probably going to give it a bunch of thumbs down, but if you like, if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you know somebody out there who's struggling and trying to do the home reduction thing and you want to explain to them how they're an idiot, share this video with them. But anyways, I'm Chris from the Rewired Soul. If you're new here, I'm always making videos about mental health and addiction. And I'm not usually in this kind of upset mood. But anyways, hit the little round subscribe button. Check out some of the other freaking videos on this channel by clicking or tapping on one of the thumbnails right there. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.