 Well, I just received the news that the rapper Mac Miller has died at age 26 from a drug overdose and we need to talk about it. What's 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 helping you improve your mental health but it's also about addiction and recovery and things like that. I am a recovering drug addict. I have six years sober and I try to make videos to help others, inform others, increase awareness, decrease the stigma and all that kind of stuff. So please make sure you subscribe and ring the notification bell because this video is one of the reasons why I started this YouTube channel. So yeah, Mac Miller, 26 years old, my girlfriend just sent me a text message with a news article saying that Mac Miller has died from a drug overdose. So this just came out. This is brand new news. There's not really any updates yet and we're going to find out more in the future so we don't know what substance it was or anything like that but man, whenever stuff like this happens like I got to talk about it. I have to talk about it because there's so much, you know, so many misconceptions about addiction. There's lack of education about addiction. People don't understand when they need help or if they have a problem and so many things and it breaks my heart because one of the terms that I hate, more than anything, okay, I talked about this in a video I made a long time ago about Carrie Fisher. One of the terms that I hate is functioning alcoholic or functioning addict. Like I hate that so much because let me make this clear and I bring it up every time a celebrity dies or overdoses like Demi Lovato did. Addiction does not care how functioning you are. It will kill you, okay? So what is functioning? Functioning is you still have a job. You're still making money. You're still paying bills. You're still on the outside very successful. That's what functioning is. So we see this, this tragedy of a 26-year-old young man who had everything ahead of him, an amazing career, everything he could have wanted, love and admiration from his fans, traveling the world, making tons of money, right? And addiction just took his life because addiction doesn't care how functioning you are, all right? I have been clean and sober from drugs and alcohol for six years. So whether it's in the rooms of 12-step programs or I was working at a drug and alcohol treatment center for three years, I can't tell you how many people I come across who say, oh, I don't need this. I don't need help. I don't have a problem because I still have a job because I still have money in the bank because I still have my wife or my kids or my husband or whatever it is. Like it kills me. It kills me so much. My best friend just celebrated three years of sobriety and I'm so proud of him. I thought this dude was going to die. He had everything that you could think that you would want. He had a very loving family. He had a great job, a ton of money, right? All these things, right? So I was like, man, he's not going to get it. He's not going to get help. Like it bones me out when people don't hit that rock bottom of these materialistic things, right? Because most people get clean after they lose the house and the money and the spouse and you know all this other stuff, right? That's when a lot of people get clean if they're lucky. But it's a lot harder when you have all this stuff, when you have all the things. Like part of my story was I lost everything. You know what I mean? I lost everything and that was part of the reason I got clean. But for people like Mac Miller or you have like Demi Lovato who's recovering from an overdose, like dang, dang. And I was just reading in that news article, Mac Miller got a DUI earlier this year. So clearly there was a problem. A lot of this too, when you look at celebrity culture, so much of it is the lifestyle, man, so much, you know, and we can talk about hip, hip hop culture, you know, and you got all these rappers talking about doing drugs, left them, right? All sorts of stuff like who do you think Mac Miller was hanging out with? Like you think he was hanging out with people who really cared about his sobriety? No, he was probably hanging out with people, you know, who liked to party and you know, do drugs and things like that. I wonder who was with him. I wonder who supplied the drugs. I wonder, I wonder all these things and that's why I make videos about like get better friends, you guys, give people around who care about you and tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Like, yo, you're messing up and you need help. You know what I mean? What blows my mind is how somebody like Macklemore stays clean in a hip hop lifestyle, you know, but if you listen to his music and I did a, I did a breakdown of one of his songs a while back and then YouTube took it down for some copyright garbage. But I need to break down more of his lyrics. But man, like Mac Miller is doing it and he's had a relapse, I think a year or two ago he had a relapse, things like that. But it's hard, man. It's hard. And what I think about all the time as this YouTube thing continues to grow. Like I worry, I worry that we're going to see a lot more of this when it comes to YouTubers. I worry that we're going to see addiction, whether it's to drugs or alcohol, I worry that we're going to see suicide, you know, and so much of this is just here's the thing. Here's the thing with seeing celebrities, you know, or YouTubers struggle with their mental health. Our problem is, is the way that we view this world and the way that we think that we achieve happiness is based on like the worst things. The money, the fame, the fortune, the women or the men or the cars or the vacations or the subscribers or the followers and stuff like you cannot base your happiness on those things because there's never enough, those things can disappear in a blink of an eye. So we got to start finding what makes us happy. You know, I did an amazing podcast last night with this guy, Matt, from a channel called Create You. I'm going to link you to the podcast. He's in Recovery 2 and we talked for like two and a half hours for the best conversations we had. And I'm going to upload a clip from it. Probably tomorrow is going to upload it today until this news hit me. But like, man, people just chase the wrong things. They chase the wrong things. And it's no wonder why so many of us are screwed up, right? Like how many of us are just like, oh, if I can only get that, then I'll be happy. If I can only get him or her, if I can only date the right guy or girl, then I'd be happy. If I only got the right job, if I only had enough money, if I only had this house or that car, if I only had this vacation, then I'll be happy. We're basing our happiness on things that are a lot of times, A, out of our control, or B, just garbage and BS. The happiness has to come from other places. And it bums me out, man. Addiction is such a major issue. It's National Recovery Month right now. And I'm doing a terrible job promoting it and talking about it, especially as a man in recovery. But yeah, it's National Recovery Month. Like do you guys understand what's going on in our country right now, all over the world? The CDC just released a report that 72,000 people a year are dying in the United States from opioid overdoses. That is mind-boggling. Think about a packed football stadium. Holds about 60 to 65,000 people. So more than that are dying from drug addiction. And the thing is the drugs aren't the problem. The alcohol is not the problem. The problem is that people aren't happy. People are miserable. You know what I mean? That's the problem. That's why I'm so passionate about this YouTube channel because I know that a lot of you watching this are hurting. A lot of you are struggling, you know? And then we do these toxic, terrible things to harm ourselves, to harm others. For some people that turns into drug and alcohol addiction. For some people that turns into self-harming behavior. For some people that turns into eating or gambling or becoming addicted to social media, right? We're always trying to escape this pain and suffering that we're feeling. And I am in this amazing place and it took me so long to get here where I'm okay feeling the way I feel when I don't feel great. But the beautiful part is I feel great a lot of the time. So it's very few and far between. And you're talking to a guy, I was trying to kill myself with drugs six years ago. I was going to sleep every single night with a handful of pills and a bottle of booze hoping that I wouldn't wake up in the morning. That's where I come from. I understand the pain. I understand the suffering. I understand the misery. But never lose hope. If a guy like me can get better, if a guy like me can get well, anybody can. But I do so many videos cause there's so many things that we have to talk about it. And one of them is chasing the fame, chasing the fortune, chasing the success, the success. You know what I mean? So I make so many videos and I just, you know, my goal is to just get through to some of you. I want some of you to take a step back and say, wow, no wonder why I'm not happy. I keep chasing the wrong things. You know what I mean? And hopefully if I can get through to you, maybe you're a life that I saved. I don't know. You know what I mean? I've been very fortunate to work at a drug and alcohol treatment center. I've had people thank me for what I've done for them. I've had people in the rooms of 12 step programs thank me. I've had some of you thank me. That's an amazing experience. But when I chase the numbers, when I chase the subscribers, when I chase the followers, it's because I want to deliver a message of hope to as many people as possible. Because if a guy like me can do it, anybody can, you know? So this is a bummer for all of Mac Miller's fans, for his friends, for his family members, for anybody out there, man. Like just hearing that another young life is lost. Like the loss of life is terrible. But when you see a young person who seemingly had everything doing something that could take their life and then it did, like it's a shame, man. It's a shame, you know? So I'm gonna try to do better this month, make more videos about addiction, recovery, things like that. Because chances are you probably know somebody who struggles with an addiction or maybe you struggle with an addiction, whatever it is. And I don't know. I never thought in a million years. I never thought in a million years I would get six months sober. And now I'm here with six years sober, you know? But not only am I sober, my life is amazing, you know? And that's why I do these videos. I wanna give you some of that hope. So again, like never lose hope. If you're affected by this, by the story of Mac Miller, I know that people get affected by this stuff. And real quick, like feel what you wanna feel. Feel how you need to feel. Talk, tweet about it. Get involved in conversations. And to everybody else out there, I hope this isn't you if you're watching this. Don't talk trash to people who feel some type of way about a celebrity passing away. Like that, that disgusts me, you know? Everybody has different connections. People have music that saved their life. You know, people have had books saved their life, movies saved their life and things like that. Like who are we to judge somebody else's experience and what's helped them? So if you're one of those people, get better, be better. But if you're someone who's affected by this or this tragedy, you know? Leave comments down below, I'll be talking in there. But go on Twitter, go on Twitter. Like talk with other people who are affected by this stuff. You gotta get involved in the community and have other people who understand the way that you're feeling. That's the best way to deal with tragedy and loss. You know what I'm saying? Anyways, this video is a lot longer than I expected. I got some buttons up on the screen if you wanna subscribe, that's cool, you know? But anyways, I love you all. I hope things get better, never lose hope. And I will see you next time.