 Have you ever wondered what's going through a drug addict's head during an intervention? Well that's exactly what we're going to be talking about in this video because I've been through three of them so make sure that you stay tuned. 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 here you may not know this but I am a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. I got clean on my 27th birthday June 23rd 2012. So the reason why I'm making this video, my whole goal of this video is because there is a 90% chance that if you know eight or more people that one of them is a drug addict or alcoholic. Now most of the videos I found on YouTube are just teaching people how to have an intervention but one of the issues is that you don't really understand what's going through a drug addict's head during an intervention. So if nothing else I want to be able to provide you with a little bit more information so you can maybe help out the drug addict or alcoholic in your life. And even if you're watching this and you don't know a drug addict or an alcoholic please please please do me a favor and share this video because I guarantee someone you know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or wherever it is they know a drug addict or alcoholic and this video might be able to help them. So first and foremost I want to give a shout out to my buddy Kayla aka Panko Bunny. You need to go check out her channel if you like making delicious treats and other types of food. She has a great channel and she's a buddy and we were talking and I was just sharing with her some stories about when people did interventions on me. My family did and she was like that's really really interesting why don't you do a video on that. I'm like nobody wants to hear that but she explained to me like yeah some people would really benefit from knowing what's going through your crazy brain during an intervention. So thank you Kayla for the inspiration and let's get started. So intervention number one. This was many years ago. My son was less than a year old and we were living in California and every morning I was going to the liquor store before work at six o'clock and every morning I knew. I knew that normal people don't do this but I was stopping at the liquor store to get a half pint of rum to drink on the way to work and at lunch I would do the same thing and on the way home I would do the same thing. One day I came home and my son's mom she saw my bank account and every day it was 123 liquor store 123 liquor store and she called me out on it and she said listen if you don't get help I'm taking our son and I'm going back to Las Vegas right and in that moment I said peace out right like it's crazy like even though I knew I had a problem the fact that she called me out on my problem was a bad deal right so in in my crazy brain the best idea I had was I remember thinking I'm going to show her so I left and I walked down to the liquor store why I walked I still don't know I walked down to the liquor store I got a bottle of Bacardi I sat on a bus stop bench I drank the entire thing because I was going to show her she can't control me right so I show up back at the house and there my kid's mom is waiting for me with my mother and at this point my mom had maybe four or five years sober she has about 12 years now and basically they had an intervention and they said look you need to get help and she gave me an ultimatum my kid's mom said listen you have until Friday so this was like maybe on a Monday and she said you have until Friday to go check out a 12-step meeting or I'm taking the kid and we're going back to Vegas and I was like fine get out of here leave bye right and what ended up happening is as the week went on um I started to realize you know what it's not worth it I will I will give this thing a try right so I basically called her up and I said listen if it will shut you up I will try a 12-step program okay so there's going to be other videos uh if you would like to see them about my relapses but I stayed sober for about three months and fell off again intervention number two so intervention number two and three they happened almost back to back but anyways my life was getting very very bad me and my son's mom had split up I was a single dad I had congestive heart failure so I was literally dying in the hospital I had a 10 chance of living okay and I still didn't want to quit I was ready to die my addiction took me to a place where I was on a suicide mission but I wasn't gonna just kill myself I just wanted to die by way of drugs and alcohol my prescription opioid addiction was off the charts and I was just ready to die well my mom ended up finding my pills and she gave me an ultimatum she said Chris you're going to sober living or you're going back home to Las Vegas why I would have been homeless in 115 degree heat right and I kicked and I screamed and I told her no I'm not gonna do it and I was begging her like a five-year-old and I was just like listen listen listen I just don't want to go to sober living let me live with you I'll go to meetings I'll do whatever you want I just don't want to go to sober living well one of my mom's friends in recovery actually came over and they were talking to me and trying to intervene they were sitting me down and explaining to me what was going on because they have both been through this so they they got it they understood what was going on in my head and I will never forget this I was so angry I was so angry and there was a certain point in the this little intervention where I was just talking nonsense and kicking and screaming and they were talking to each other like I didn't exist and they were saying oh that's his disease talking to him that's his disease talking to him and I'm sitting there like what the are you talking about my disease I'm talking what do you mean my disease this is me this is Chris and a long time later not a long time later but a few months later I figured out what they meant by my disease was talking to me right but I was just lashing out at them telling them no and it was it was a hot mess and seeing your mother's heart just break right in front of your eyes like it it killed me you know what I mean and that takes us to intervention number three so my mom was an alcoholic for most of my life up until I was 20 that's when she got sober and I held on to a lot of resentments towards her my dad actually raised me um my dad phenomenal man love that guy I wouldn't even be half of who I am today without him so on this third intervention my dad came over and then two of my cousins came over and they sat me down and like part of it was like they couldn't believe it they couldn't believe that me you know was a drug addict you know what I mean like they remembered me as this good kid and stuff like that my dad is not very knowledgeable about the disease of addiction and things like that and he was kind of stunned too but anyways they're they're trying to tell me like to get help and this whole time I was losing it I was cussing out my mom I was blaming everything on her I was like it's her fault if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be a drug addict you know what I mean like I felt justified in the way my life turned out because I had a mom who was a drunk most of my life and this is what killed me even more and like it was almost like this out of body experience like I saw I saw myself freaking out and lashing out on my family calling my mom names that you should never call your mom right and I remember my dad sitting there right and it was just absolutely terrible just seeing how he was so worried about me and concerned and I don't know let down and all these things but my my mouth just wouldn't stop going like addiction is this disease that hijacks our survival mechanisms I've done some other videos on the way addiction affects the brain so when people are intervening on us like it's almost like you're trying to take away our air our food our water like our brain is saying you need to defend this with everything you got so like but there's that conscience that's sitting in the back of your head and you know you're wrong you know you have a problem you know you need help but you can't help but defend this thing that is killing you and destroying your family it's absolutely nuts and you know this is why part of the recovery process is going back and making amends to these people and like just let you know like I won't dive too much into it in this video but like my relationships with my family are amazing today my mom is one of my best friends my dad knows he can count on me you trust me now like I'm not that scummy person I used to be and you know like thank god for my family thank god for my family for not giving up you know a lot of the credit goes to my mom I always say I'm fortunate and unfortunate for having an alcoholic mom because had my mom not gone through her own struggles with addiction I don't know if I would be alive today because she didn't give up because she understood where I was you know what I mean and now one of the greatest gifts I have is that my mom and I we get to work together and stuff we get to talk recovery she is the director of a rehab in California and when I go visit I get to talk to her clients and do groups over there and stuff like that like these are things that are absolutely amazing to me if you want more information about how to help a loved one who is struggling with addiction or even how to help yourself I wrote a short e-book and it's available on the Kindle app for Android and iPhone and the book is called Caught in the Crossfire a how-to guide for anyone affected by a loved one's addictions it gives you the best practices for helping an addict while maintaining your own mental health so I will provide a link to this book in the description below and it's only three dollars which is less than a price of a cup of coffee so again please please please share this video so we can help out some more addicts and alcoholics as well as the loved ones who are caught in the crossfire anyways if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you are new here I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental health but I also talk about topics like this addiction and recovery so make sure you hit the subscribe button if you want to check out some other videos on this channel click or tap on one of those thumbnails right there and again thank you so much I love all of you and I'll see you next time