 I don't think it's any secret that there's a massive stigma about addiction it is very common to look down on drug addicts and alcoholics and what's crazy is even when people get sober there's still a stigma about someone who has been recovering from addiction and that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today. What is 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 my channel is all about mental health and helping you with your mental health but I also try to raise awareness and decrease the stigma for all mental health issues and things out there all right so if you're into that make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell so make sure you stay till the end of this video I'm gonna be talking about some important stuff but the first I was gonna wait till the end so you had to watch the whole thing but I guess like I'll start out on a good note there's an exciting announcement I am actually going to be working well I already kind of am with um and one of the most amazing therapists I've ever met in my life her name is Brittany and she just opened up an outpatient treatment center here in Las Vegas called Indoor and like it's it's like based around fitness and she has just an amazing curriculum for people here in Las Vegas so do me a favor even if you're not from Las Vegas even if you are not an addict in recovery or an addict or know anybody who's an addict do me a favor and go check out the description I'm gonna link to our social media pages like please go support them I'm going to be running their social media um so yeah please support it but anyways like it's kind of it's kind of crazy like Brittany and I we used to work together at the same treatment center and um we we talked and we were always friendly and everything like that but since she came to me and talked to me about helping her launch Indoor here in Las Vegas I've really gotten to know her and something I'm helping her out with is editing some of the blogs that she's posting on our website and I'll link to this blog post down below but she posted about stopping the stigma so part of what Brittany is doing okay so part of this model is being of service right so it's mind body soul action right because a big part of recovery is like going out and doing things for other people like if some of you are wondering why I'm all about like kindness and doing things for other people without expecting anything return it's because that's what I was taught it's the complete opposite of what I did in my addiction so Brittany with launching this company she has been reaching out to a bunch of different nonprofits and things like that here in Las Vegas and and saying like hey uh I run a treatment center part of our curriculum is to have people go out and give back and be a service whether helping with like clothing drives or homeless shelters or food drugs whatever it is right and Brittany writes about this and she she had a response that was basically just like no like no we're not interested in working with that population right like people in recovery and like when I first started reading Brittany's blog post I was like I was like well did Brittany just like kind of take this out of context you know what I mean like maybe they're just full but Brittany uh goes on to this blog post and says like she actually spoke to him on the phone and like this is what it was and like first and foremost like now that I've gotten to know Brittany even better like she she is not an addict in recovery she is what we refer to as a normie she is just a woman who is passionate about helping people who are trying to overcome addictions right and the fact that she is like out there fighting the good fight to fight this stigma right like I am just so honored to be working with her like it's so awesome to have people on our side you know what I mean like I it just warms my heart and like the more I learn about her the more I just love Brittany I'm so glad I get to be working with her but yeah like um with this video I just want to share some of my personal experience with this so one of the things I'll say is is that I you know working at the drug and alcohol treatment center that Brittany and I used to work at like part of what I did I organized events right I organized events where we would go out and like sometimes we did fun stuff like we'd go go cart racing or we'd go um to the water park here or to game works but we'd also do service events right and I'll tell you this because I don't know I don't know what it is I don't know if I'm lucky or what but I haven't run into as many issues as other people have and like but it's something that I'm always afraid of it's something that I always fear like whenever I was reaching out to somebody like even if it was for an event like even if it was like go cart racing right like I would say like you know what company I work for and they're like what kind of business is it and I'm like it's a drug and alcohol rehab center and I'm always just like kind of like like are they gonna tell us like no you know what I mean it's always a fear that's in my head just because I know about the stigma that's out there right um but like it's crazy too because here's the thing that I don't think a lot of people understand and this is my personal story like the first step the first step towards getting clean and sober is admitting that you have a problem right and that wasn't the issue that wasn't the issue that I struggled with six years ago when I got clean my issue was if I admit I have this problem I admit that I'm one of those awful drug addicts and alcoholics like even as an addict and alcoholic I had this terrible idea of drug addicts and alcoholics so if I admit that that means I'm one of you does that make sense so like that's one of the issues with the stigma is that people are afraid to admit that they have a problem because of the stigma that's one of the things I struggled with those of you who've been watching my channel for a little while I've explained that my mom is a recovering alcoholic and for me like I hated my mom most of my life for me to admit I had a problem meant to admit that I was just like her and I didn't want to do that you know so like we need to start having some more compassion and things like I know it's difficult like most of you watching this if you're not an addict in recovery like you know somebody who's an addict or an alcoholic and I know it's it's difficult I know it's hard and you do have to set boundaries and things like that but like the best thing you could do is just remember these are sick people these are sick people so like something we say in recovery we're not bad people trying to become good we're sick people trying to be well right like I I make it a point I make it a point because I knew the stigma was out there about addicts like I make it a point personally to be the best version of myself to prove people wrong about former drug addicts and alcoholics like I try to be a good person on a day-to-day basis I try to put kindness and empathy and love out into the world like I this is kind of like a weird thing but I love when people meet me for the first time and like I don't run around and say hi I'm Chris I'm an addict in recovery like I don't do that but like I love when I meet people and they get to know me a little bit and then later on they find out that I'm an addict in recovery they're like whoa I thought first off I thought you know opiate addicts were like a lot skinnier than you that was a that was a so fat joke anyway the second thing is like I want them to think like wow I didn't realize like you somebody like you were an addict or an alcoholic in recovery because like that's part of this thing like addiction could affect anybody like the disease of addiction does not discriminate at all at all and people in recovery like they're fighting every single day just to not die because picking up a drink or a drug can kill them they're fighting every day to do that so like when it's hard for them to go get a job because of you know their past or just even even like what Britney's talking about going to be a service for people and and people turn them down like man man man man like so again just like try to practice some empathy try to practice some love you know like we need to decrease the stigma for all mental health issues not just some all of them like the last thing I'll say one of the purposes of my channel I don't like how mental health is over here and addictions over here it's all the same it's all the same and we got to come together if we want to end this stigma together all right but anyways again again please please Britney is an amazing woman I am now working with indoor here in Las Vegas do me a favor check out the links in the description go follow us on social media go follow us on Facebook and Instagram and all that we will be starting a youtube channel in the future maybe a podcast so make sure you follow us like please show us some support okay but thank you so so much for watching if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you're new I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental health make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on patreon you are all amazing and if you would like to help support the channel and have your name right up here make sure you click on that little patreon icon all right thanks again so much for watching in the stigma and I'll see you next time