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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 addiction recovery and all that good stuff so if you're into that make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell so if you're following me on social media you know where I've been you know all right so or if you pay attention to the community tab I have rediscovered my passion for writing so I've been doing a bunch of daily content over on medium I'll link my medium down below but I want to start getting back into the groove of doing YouTube but anyways if you want your daily dose of mental health and recovery topics make sure you go check out my medium page all right but anyways this is something that I was thinking about and I've still been keeping up to date and I've been reading a lot of books I set my goal for this year to read 150 books I'm already four or five books in this year um but anyways something that I've always wondered about is why certain people are able to stay sober and others aren't right so those of you who don't know me um I've been clean and sober for seven and a half years my drug of choice started off with alcohol then I went into prescription opioids and yeah I was dying from this thing and one of the ways that I stayed sober was by closely watching everybody around me right and I'm always just sitting there analyzing I have one of those over analytical brains you might be able to relate to that but I'm like how is this person staying sober and this person isn't all right and after a few years sober I started working at an addiction treatment center this was like a bougie treatment center all right like without insurance I think for 30 days it was like 30 grand our outpatient was like five or six grand so typically the people who had insurance that would cover that they were wealthy they had money you know um some of them were you know kids who had rich families um other people were just well off in their life they had you know great careers because people who are addicts they're hard workers man like some of the most successful people I know are either addicts or addicts in recovery like we're the type of people where we set our mind on something and we go after that thing you know unfortunately some of the times or most of the time it's drug or alcohol you know but anyways through working at the treatment center and through my own years of recovery I've noticed this this pattern of people who are well off financially um and they struggle saying sober and I always ask myself why is that so currently um I'm reading this new book so I just got introduced to Malcolm Gladwell all right so those of you who know my reading uh type I love nonfiction and I know Malcolm Gladwell is like one of the most famous authors of nonfiction out there so I started out by reading uh talking to strangers like last week I read that book and oh my god such a phenomenal book I read that book and I'm like wow no wonder why this dude is like at the top of everybody's list I highly recommend it I highly recommend that book go check it out so now I'm going through his back catalog and the book I'm currently reading is David and Goliath all right I'm a few chapters in but basically this book is all about you know uh not just you know the story of David and Goliath but why we think that certain weaknesses are a bad thing when they're actually good or we think that certain strengths are good when they might be bad all right and that's kind of what I want to talk about when we're talking about why rich people have a hard time staying sober so one of the anecdotes that was in the book which is very fascinating to me which is quite common was there was a story of this I think he was a Hollywood producer or somebody who worked in Hollywood and this dude is ballin like he is rich as hell right and he started out with very humble beginnings like he was a young entrepreneur like he had a show a snow shoveling service where he would pay other kids to shovel the snow and then he would keep you know the profits right so he'd pay them a certain amount keep it and he would save up money and all that and he had a father who like really instilled in him like hard work be good with money all this other stuff and throughout his life that really paid off because he learned the value of hard work and now he's this very successful like multi-millionaire right but now he struggles because he has children of his own who will never know that struggle like they're always going to be fine you know what I mean so this is kind of what I think about when it comes to recovery because so many of us and even if you're not trying to recover from a drug addiction but even you know depression anxiety trauma all these things we look at them as a weakness but through my years of sobriety and looking back at my own personal journey like I am grateful today for the struggles that I've been through right because I think one of the biggest weaknesses the Goliath out there is people who are financially stable when they get sober or even rich like we see a lot of celebrities who are constantly in and out of rehab in and out of rehab in and out of rehab and if you're recovering out if like me like you look at these people you're like what's going on but from my experience it seems to be that that is their biggest crutch right because I just want you to put yourself in their shoes real quick when you're rich especially if you're famous right like you have a ton a ton of yes people all around you you have enablers just surrounding you there are people some people who are hanging around you just to you know get clout or they like that you could take them out to fancy dinners and expensive vacations and all that like how many of those people are going to tell you what you need to hear when it might mean losing their meal ticket you know what I'm saying but it's also hard for them to lose anything like when you have that much money it's difficult to get sober and stay sober because there's not really any drawback to keep using you know what I'm saying like think about it like if you keep using let's say you lose like a gig right a job a tour whatever it is you still have an insane amount of money right like before Michael Jackson passed away he was struggling with his addiction but there were uh I remember because I was such a huge fan of Michael Jackson fun fact my middle name is Michael named after Michael Jackson but anyways he was struggling with his addiction before he ended up passing away before that big tour he was going to go on right but like even if that tour didn't happen even though some of it was to make some money back because he was in a lot of debt like he would have been fine he would have still had his mansion so when you look at rich people like the only thing they really have to fear is death but one of the issues with drug addiction is we don't think it'll ever happen to us even though there are countless statistics out there that talk about how tens of thousands of people each year are dying in the united states alone from opioid addiction right that's not including alcohol cocaine meth all these other drugs right we know all these people are dying but in the mind of an addict it's not going to be me it's not going to be me and this is wherever you're at on the financial spectrum right so when you combine that with the fact that you're not going to lose that much when you're financially well off like it's difficult to stay clean they have all these things working against them like I'll never forget I remember like this is even just one story just one story popped in my head but I remember a guy who got pulled over for a DUI and he was thinking thank god thank god now I have to get help right because oftentimes we need some kind of rock bottom some kind of crazy thing to happen to us to get back on the right track right and for a lot of people who have a ton of money that's not going to happen to them you know what I mean so I applaud any celebrity out there or anybody who has a ton of money who's able to get sober but for all of you out there because we're the minority most of us aren't rich we're not famous right and I just want you to kind of look at this alternate perspective because I remember when I first got sober I saw friends who they got sober they were sober for like five minutes and their family would rent them an apartment or buy them a car or get them a job or whatever and I swear to you 90% of the time those people relapse because they didn't have to work for anything you know what I mean I saw this countless times working at the treatment center because I would call people after the left treatment to see how the recovery was going and the more stuff they got back right away or that was given to them the more likely it was that they were going to relapse like when I got sober I had nothing and the most successful people I've seen to recover from addiction started with nothing in their recovery so I just want you to think about that for a little bit because all of those difficulties that we go through they are strengthening us they are building resilience they are making us stronger you know what I mean like I am far from rich I am still living paycheck to paycheck but whenever I start worrying about money or finances or whatever I remember where I came from my humble beginnings all right so if you're struggling right now just remember it might be the best thing to ever happen to you all right but anyways that's all I got for this video don't forget it'll be down in the description below don't forget check me out over on medium I don't know how frequently I'll be uploading videos but I am producing a ton of written content over there because I just absolutely love writing all right anyways thanks again for watching if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and I want to send out a huge huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on patreon so as everybody who supports the channel by buying my mental health books over at the rewired soul.com or merch like this sweater with the little rewired soul logo on there and all that good stuff all right but thanks again for watching I'll see you soon