In our addiction and in our recovery there have been many different things said about who we are, who we should be, and what we should believe…
Today we are talking about exactly what many of things that are said are, what the truth of them really are, and we will leave empowered to go on our course of recovery without the words of others taking us down.
For more information about this movement, to book a call with Adam Vibe Gunton, or to see resources for addicts and addicts in recovery, visit: https://recoveredonpurpose.org
Read The Transcript Below
what’s up recovered on purpose family i’m so happy you’re here and so excited that you are going to be here for the weekend recap of the week i’m super man i’m just so happy right now with recovery i’m so happy with all of you the way that you guys are showing up in your lives and we’re going to be talking about what people say about addiction about addiction recovery treatment what it all means and we’re going to talk about the myths that people have been making up and the facts of this stuff guys i love you all so much enjoy the show and keep living recovered on purpose the black represents the darkness from which we came
the white represents the light in which we now live and the red represents the passion it takes to live recovered on purpose
what’s up everybody it’s so good to see you i love you all so much thank you for being here for weekend recap where we are going to be celebrating clean time we’re going to be celebrating recovery and guys let me know in the comments what your clean and sober date if it is if you are celebrating something this past week or this week coming up so we can all celebrate with you and today we’re going to be talking about myths and facts i didn’t get to get over all of them last week and some new ones have come up that i’ve actually heard during the uh during the past week and i’ve actually lived out some of these things in the last week that say that this stuff isn’t true it just isn’t true and we don’t have to take these things on we don’t have to take the things on that people say about us and that’s that’s not just people that you know say bad things about addicts in general it’s not just the people that you know don’t have an idea of what actu what actually addiction is they don’t they say it’s not a disease and things like that we’re not only going to be talking about those people but we’re going to be talking about our recovery community and some of the things that are being brought up some of the some of the things that don’t serve us in order to stay recovered live on purpose and live a beautiful life in recovery so we’re gonna be talking about that today guys let me know where you’re coming in from clean and sober dates if you are celebrating anything iris so good to see you love you girl iris is like an og rop she’s been around since like the beginning of the page and she’s been killing it you’ve got like what a year more than me also i think melinda good to see you happy friday happy friday sista good to see you love you so much guys i got the opportunity this week uh some of you know that i live in medellin colombia right now or medellin or medellin um i don’t know if you know how to pronounce it or not but we say medellin down here and i got the opportunity to go see some friends that are visiting from the united states out in cartagena which is another another city here in colombia and a lot of these myths about what we have to do in order to stay clean and sober right some of them are very good to practice in our early recovery but to live these out for the rest of our lives we don’t have to be doing that we are able to get into a state of being free from the obsession the craving even thinking about drugs and alcohol no matter where we’re at it says it in the literature in in the original literature the big book of alcox anonymous that we cease fighting everything including alcohol and drugs and that’s just that’s been my story that’s been what i’ve experienced i don’t i don’t really you know fight it anymore i’m not living every day trying to fight drugs and not use drugs and i want you guys to understand that this is available and this is a message that we need to be passing on to addicts that are still struggling that are looking to recover we got to be passing this message out that recovery is possible and the beautiful life in recovery is possible where we’re not fighting drugs and alcohol anymore yeah iris coming in with five years nine months and 25 days let’s go and i’ve got what two months and 22 days until i’ve got five years so yeah you’re like literally one year ahead of me congratulations girl congratulations so we’re gonna hop in some of these banners that i wrote up for this okay and these are things that i’ve been experiencing i’ve actually been seeing comments some of my reels have gone out a long way and people are putting ideas in there that you know we have to be aware of we have to be aware of the truth we have to be aware of our responsibility when these things are being said and the first one i’m going to bring out is really is controversial right now and a lot of people believe you know one way or the other right and it’s medically assisted treatment isn’t recovery now medically assisted treatment means that you’re doing something like suboxone right suboxone is an opiate receptor blocker it’s a it’s a prescription drug that makes it so that someone that is using heroin or fentanyl can take this thing every day put it under their tongue and they don’t have the withdrawal symptoms they don’t have the craving symptoms and they’re able to they take it every day but they’re able to stay off of heroin and for people to be going in and saying that this isn’t recovery that that this form of recovery isn’t clean and sober or whatever because you went another route that is extremely extremely damaging and dangerous for people that are out there trying to get clean from opiates a lot of you out there that have been in recovery for a while that you’ve seen the the sadness you’ve seen the brokenness you’ve seen the helplessness of people that are struggling with opiates and many of you actually have been through this exact same addiction i have personally i didn’t use medically assisted treatment however my best friend my best friend who i met in his first week of recovery he was homeless he was you know he odd like 16 different times some some you may have seen a story that i put in a reel and he did medically assisted treatment for his first three years of recovery and i would never ever ever take those three years from him i would never say anything like that’s not recovery that’s not clean and sober none of that stuff that people are are saying right now that is extremely damaging in those three years as i as i was friends with him and as i watched him grow and progress he was able to build this life in recovery not not consumed by you know the addiction of opiates the addiction of heroin worried about overdosing again and again and again and he was able to build this life and he went on in those three years he we worked together for a little bit at a job and he did really really well he’s an incredible salesperson and then he went on from there left there and started a business a marketing business and then from there in this whole time he’s in this relationship he’s got a girlfriend and he’s working really hard on it and i’m able to you know watch and be there for him because of the struggles of a relationship and trying to build a relationship that’s going to be a forever relationship right and he’s doing all this stuff and then he buys a house you know and then his marketing company starts growing he starts getting employees and things and then he buys a second house and he gets married and i was able to be in his wedding stand up there with him while he got married and he just had a baby like eight days ago his first baby boy and he stopped doing the the suboxone treatment the medically assisted treatment right at three years and he’s sitting on you know four years and some change and what that did was it gave him an opportunity to build this life that he can wake up for every day without without thinking about the drugs without without worrying about the drugs and medically assisted recovery medically assisted treatment is still it is still a decision it’s a decision to make the change for your life to recover from these drugs to recover from the hopelessness of being out there on the streets and they deserve the same credit that all of us do we can’t be passing around that it’s not recovery because if we’re passing that around then that’s making it so that people that hear that message that are struggling with opiates will be afraid to take this recovery route and i i i would much rather much rather support someone in whatever their form of recovery is than to watch that person overdose or watch that person never make it you know so we got to stop passing that stuff around we got to jeremy coming in from south jersey strong january 16 2022 first day of the beginning of the rest of my life amen sobriety day recovered on purpose family big love for all of you addicts and recovery so very proud of all of us you’re here we’re all doing this can i get an amen amen brother i’ll put one in the comments amen and guys this is like this is the life we are we are so we’re so blessed to be in recovery and in here we’re gonna add into that big love for anyone out there that’s still struggling we’re gonna add into this big love for out there anyone out there that’s still struggling the same amount of love for you that anybody else has because you are worthy you are worth it you are valuable you are loved everybody in this community everybody that you will find in the recovery community right you’ll have your bad apples and things that will say certain things or whatever but you you are worthy and there’s people here to help we love you we love you very much it’s good to see you jeremy always always always always so
a lot of people say that you know in order to you know find recovery we have to consistently say that we are powerless and there’s there’s some people passing around that you know 12-step fellowships are this and that negative stuff because the first thing you have to do is admit that you’re a powerless person and this is coming from people that are not in the fellowships they’ve never done the 12 steps all the way through they’ve never experienced this power that we get and what it actually says is we admitted we are powerless over fill in the blank our addiction drugs alcohol cocaine whatever is in that fellowship it doesn’t say we were powerless people if you have actually experienced addiction you’ve actually experienced this place where you can’t stop using drugs you can’t stop drinking you understand the powerlessness of that state on your addiction many of us are able to do a whole bunch of other things in our lives while we’re still addicted while we’re still using drugs me i was able to you know keep jobs i was able to do really good sales and make a lot of money while i had a needle in my arm i was able to do all these things with a lot of power and there was this one thing that i was completely powerless over that was taking everything from me and i never i never jived with coming in and saying that i’m a powerless human but i was totally okay with admitting that i am an addict and i am completely powerless over these drugs i can’t use these things i can’t drink without not knowing where i’m gonna end up i can’t drink without knowing if i’m gonna you know drink 40 or 10 and where i’m gonna end up and i can’t just smoke a little crack because i’ll be i’ll be homeless quickly doing everything i can to get crack it doesn’t matter what i put in my system i’m powerless over drugs and alcohol but when i did the the third step right and the third step is giving our will and our life over to the care of god as we understood it and what that does and what it was always meant to say and meant to do was enter into our lives an enormous amount of power something greater than ourselves because we’re powerless in ourselves over this alcohol over drugs so we had to flow in and allow in a power that was greater than us and a power that was greater than the drugs in our addiction and for me it’s god it’s the lord jesus you know and i was i was able to i was able to experience him in a new way because i always knew him in my addiction i always had this faith i always knew he existed and everything but when i actually admitted that i was powerless over this thing and i needed him and needed his power or i was gonna die that’s when a new form of power flowed into my body it was as if i had self-control again it was as if i i had the ability to make the decisions day in and day out i was able to take the actions necessary in order to recover and i never i never said in meetings like i’m a powerless person i’m powerless over my life i’m powerless over my work you know i just have to let this go and let god because i can’t do anything about it right and there’s some things that we we do need to let go of and let god take it because we’re it’s out of our control but we are in control of ourselves now we are able to make decisions we are able to take the actions necessary in order to stay recovered in order to serve others in order to have this power continually flowing in us through us and around us that’s the whole point of recovery we are introduced to an enormous amount of power that we’re able to utilize for the rest of our lives and it’s just we’re not powerless human beings we never were powerless over drugs and alcohol and it’s actually a good place to good place to be it’s a good place to be because that means that we’re able to make the decision to get rid of that and we have been in a dark part of our lives we’ve been in a dark place that a lot of people will never understand and when you re when you have something like that that you are completely powerless over that you have to rely on god and this power greater than yourself in order to survive we have learned that kind of reliance that we’re able to bring into every area of our life which means that we’re actually more powerful than a lot of people out there because we’ve experienced this and we’ve learned how to access that power because we had to we had to jeremy coming in love you brother happy friday happy friday congrats iris admitting you’re powerless is the start of our success yes yes yes amen to that great to be sober with all brothers and sisters in here
jeremy amen amen amen melinda guys i had the opportunity i was telling you a little earlier that i was able to go to cartagena this uh this week and i saw someone that you know i’ve been friends with him since i was like since i was like 20 years old so it’s been about 12 13 years and uh we built that pest control company together and i i was sick at the time i was using drugs but even even while i was using drugs him and i built this pest control company from out of his apartment all we had was a truck pesticides and a dream and he followed me he would come and pick me up every morning at like 7 00 a.m wake me up and get me out of bed and we would go out i would knock door to door and i would sell our service and i was sick you know i was using drugs but i had the power to create a company that 16 months later we had a two-story office building and six trucks and we had a couple employees and it was going great i was just powerless over the drugs and alcohol that were taking everything from me so i will i won’t ever admit that i’m powerless powerless over drugs and alcohol i’ve gotten to that point and i never have to use them again so life in recovery without drugs is boring and this is something that you know i was i don’t know if i ever really had this belief myself when i was using drugs but a lot of people that are still using think that you know when you when when you get clean and sober you’re boring you’re not really going out and doing things you’re just going to meetings and you know that’s all you’re doing with your life and us in recovery we have the opportunity to do whatever we want with our life we’re able to go out and chase our dreams we’re able to actually achieve our dreams we’re able to do these things with our life that we were never able to do in our addiction and we are we actually are able to get and and create fellowships and friendships that were able to last and i’ve done a whole bunch of crazy awesome things in my recovery with people that i’ve met specifically in recovery right like going and being in somebody’s wedding going skydiving with somebody for my six months clean and sober and i’d always wanted to go skydiving since i was like 16 17 18 years old i always wanted to go skydiving but i was never able to get myself away from drugs that long and it costed a lot of heroin in order to go skydiving but on my six months you know six months clean and sober i achieved a dream on that day on that date went out to longmont colorado and i jumped out of a plane that’s what we get to do in recovery things like that it’s not boring we have the opportunity to do so many things in our recovery so many things it’s incredible i was not functional addict work-wise yeah some of us i got to a point where i wasn’t functional anymore i definitely got to a point where i wasn’t functional anymore and you know i was always able to go door-to-door and sell it didn’t matter how how sick i was if i if i needed the drugs i was always able to go door-to-door and sell but i was doing it for so many years and able to support my habit for so long with that that i got to a point where i literally called my boss and told him i can’t do this anymore i have to quit i’m enabling myself i’m i’m gonna die in this addiction because if i’m going out and selling and i’m making this amount of money you’re paying for my my housing you’re paying for my you know my bills and everything and then i get a check every week with that i’m never going to be able to stop using i’m enabling myself at that point and i made the decision to you know leave that job leave that industry and i ended up homeless and it still took me you know five six seven months of homelessness before i was able to actually find recovery and and keep recovery do the 12 steps actually do the work go out and go to church go to bible studies every week you know i was doing that for months and i was trying i was trying so hard but you know it took me a while if you’re out there struggling there’s there is something that you have to do there’s not always something that you have to find but there’s work to do there’s for me it was the 12 steps i had to do the 12 steps in order to find recovery i did the fifth step on day 25 i went through the steps super super fast really quick every single day i was writing i was doing them you know getting picked up at 6 30 a.m by my by my sponsor in his 1983 mailman jeep and just going at this recovery thing and when i did my fifth step on day 25 on day 26 the obsession to drink and use had completely left me and it hasn’t come back i haven’t had a thought in recovery where i thought that i could use like a normal person which is what the obsession is that’s what the craving is that’s what us we think about this is the only disease that tells us we don’t have a disease we’re sitting here thinking like how could i how could i make it work this time how could i use recreationally how could i just use in the morning or maybe i only use right before work and then right after work and right before bed maybe if i do that i can control it you know and that’s the obsession i have not had any thought like that since day 26 of recovery no thought of maybe someday somehow i’m going to be able to use drugs and alcohol again period it just doesn’t exist in my life anymore and for me that was because i did the work i did the 12 steps i did them quickly i didn’t urgently as if my life depended on it because my life did and that’s the only way that we’re going to be able to find recovery no matter what path you go down no matter what journey you decide to take to find recovery you have to do it all in you have to do it a hundred percent as if your life depends on it because it does for so many of us we literally don’t know how long we have to live in active addiction the overdose rates are continuing to climb last year was a hundred and seven thousand and point something 107 plus thousand people and it’s actually grown in 2020. the numbers haven’t come out yet but they’ve done some preliminary results and things and it’s growing and if that’s the case guys if you’re out there and you’re struggling it’s time it’s time right now to do whatever it takes and for the people that reach out for help i’m i’m here i love you i’m here for you i want to help and when we talk and this goes for everybody in recovery right when we talk with an addict that’s suffering that needs help if we know a certain path that works we know something that works for recovery and we give them all of this that we possibly can we give them all the help we possibly can right and if they aren’t willing to take it that means maybe that path isn’t for them maybe we can recommend something else you know because there’s a lot of people out there i promise you the more you share your story the more you get out and decide to help as many addicts as possible there are so many out there that are willing to do whatever you say just tell me how to recover i will do whatever i’m at a place right now where i’m willing to do whatever and that’s what it took for me i had to get to that place in order to find recovery where i was willing to do whatever i was told to do by someone who knew and for me that was that someone i found in a video on a youtube video he was a he was a conference speaker for a couple of the fellowships and when i heard his message i i just knew that this was for me i knew this message this journey this path of recovery is for me doing the 12 steps urgently quickly thoroughly and getting through them finished and i called him right after i actually heard that heard that video heard that story heard that that share i called him i googled him i found his phone number hit him up and he hit me up the next day i left a voicemail at like 12 30 on his home phone and he called me the next day and he helped me and i believe to this day the reason why we’re still friends we’re still connected and you know he gets value out of telling me how to recover and me following it so guys we have to be willing to let addicts find their path and continue looking for the ones that can take the path that we took and it’s a really hard place to get to but it’s necessary because there’s so many suffering there’s so many suffering we to be out there we got to be talking to as many as possible and find the ones that we can help because then guess what those ones are going to get to a place where they’re going to be helping people also
jeremy’s been ben scott having also an experience like no other amen jumping out of a plane that feeling like right before you jump out of that fear like oh my gosh i’m way up here that that thing going up in your stomach up to your chest and then you jump out and it’s just like oh my gosh this is the coolest thing i’ve ever done this is the best feeling i’ve ever had better than dope better than dough period
likewise 12 steps so well needed amen jeremy and guys if you are out there and you’re struggling and you have you have a an idea about the 12-step fellowships or the program of aaa or na or ca or ha or whatever whatever fellowship you’re thinking of the fellowship and the program are different the the fellowship can put things into it like you know go to a meeting every day and and get a service position and all of this stuff helps this stuff helps you know call an addict every single day you know call someone that’s in recovery every single day those kinds of things you know don’t hook up with anybody or stay single for for your first year those kinds of things help that’s not the program that’s not the program the 12-step program the 12-step program is is found in how it works in the big book of alcoholics anonymous that is the program right there it tells us exactly what to do and how it works how the program works and i love my fellowships i love the different things that we do in order to help people to add structure and meaning to life to give them to give them ways to serve and all of that it’s so helpful but don’t think that in order to recover you have to get indoctrinated into these things you don’t have to so if that’s taking you out go in and find somebody that will just do the 12 steps with you and and do it like that if that’s the only reason why you’re why you’re not sticking around if you’ve never done the 12 steps go do them see if it works do them like you have never done anything in your life before doing hard hard finish them quit sitting on your fourth step and sponsors if you’re out there don’t let people sit on their fourth step i give my sponsors two weeks two weeks reason being is that’s how i recovered my path my journey what i know that works is doing them quickly having it having a very specific system on how to do it i have that system how to do it quickly and i’m i’m i’m not gonna i’m not gonna let somebody sit on their fourth step when it can be finished right now we can go to the fifth step and then we can start six seven eight quickly and start not as soon as somebody is on the ninth step and doing doing their 10th step inventory and everything they have a new life a hundred percent of the time 100 of the time when somebody does the steps they they do a thorough fourth step they do the fifth step and they’re working on their amends as soon as they do their first amends actually do it and they have a plan to finish the rest they have this like something has happened something different has happened so that’s what we have to be focused on to to get somebody to that we’re sponsoring and you know again this is my form this is what i believe you can sponsor people however you want whatever’s working for you i spent a lifetime in hell and it only took me 12 steps to get to heaven amen that’s a good one i love that amen and when she’s talking about heaven right here right we’re talking about life and recovery and addicts like all of us know what hell is like a lifetime in hell where we are just sick and suffering we we can’t stop we know what that’s like and i i want every addict that’s out there suffering to experience this what this right here means because it saddens me that so many will never give themselves that chance and how can we how can we as people in recovery how can we make it so that more people know this exists how can we make it so more people out there suffering know that this exists and that it’s possible to attain that’s what my entire focus is how how do we get this message out to more addicts i love my fellowships love everybody in the fellowships love every single one of them i qualify for all of them and you know i i couldn’t do it after after like a year and a half two years of only being in there to find attic suffering i had to find something else because a lot of meetings i wouldn’t i wouldn’t find an addict coming in that has never been there i wouldn’t find somebody that is fresh fresh of all of the junk never been never had in the ideas never you know been indoctrinated with anything that might be you know not useful you know it’s hard to find those types of people in the fellowship for me so i had to start and although i keep going and i keep finding sponsors and things out of the fellowships i i had to find more ways of reaching more people so i could give them everything i possibly can that’s just what this is about and that’s what we’re all we all need to be focused on how do we reach more g’day mike only saw the notification aaron awesome and guys i love i love that you are turning on notifications there’s i mean i love hanging out with you guys you guys know that i’m doing this five days a week uh tomorrow i’ve got someone awesome coming on the show at 10 a.m central and uh you know we’re gonna be talking about social media censorship and what that actually means he had a platform of well over a million followers on one of the social media platforms that we’ll be talking about and they took down his account they took it away from him because of something that we’re gonna show tomorrow and now he’s back up to like 500 000 or something and he’s starting to experience that stuff again and you guys know i wouldn’t be bringing anything like you know you guys know i wouldn’t bring anything in here that should be censored from social media so we’re gonna be talking about that how we can uh you know how we can continue moving and getting this message out without having our platforms taken down right andrew i too was functionally dysfunctional for many years until i became just plain dysfunctional yeah bro and i’ve heard your story i know your story and uh it’s you know more people need to hear it bro more people need to hear it i can’t wait to have you on the show
the addict mind is always trying to figure out how out its next high so glad i made it out now i have all this time amen listen up good message my soul mate boyfriends sunset was my sunrise amen pam just be yourself being a kind and genuine human being to an addict goes a long way amen amen share as much as you can with newcoming or addict he’ll know when you said something that clicks with them getting sober amen and when we do this when we do this and that’s exactly what i do i share as much wisdom that i have learned in recovery as possible and i only share things that have worked for me period i’m i’m not someone that’s willing to you know take this thing from the grapevine the uh the the words and the telephone game and stuff that people say that works you know um like i was never able to get sober by writing a gratitude list every day i did write a gratitude list every day for a very long time let’s get back to that but it wasn’t sufficient to give me recovery it wasn’t sufficient it wasn’t something that if i practiced it i could find recovery so it’s something that i don’t talk about to an addict that’s suffering to start doing right now because i’m going to try to get as much into them as possible on what they can do right now in order to recover then when they recovered start adding in all those things start adding in all those things that can you know help them find a better life find a more free life a happier life you know that happy joyous and free life
jumping way better than dope yes yes we’re talking about skydiving it’s way better than dope this family is so awesome love all of you love you too brother all of you are here doing it we’re amazing amen i agree responsibility felt amazing that first time after recovery yes taking responsibility for our actions taking responsibility for you know the way that we show up in the world the way that we show up for addicts out there suffering because every every way that we act everything that we do every decision that we make the we you know i’ve never thought of this we can look at it like the addict is like a child that’s watching a parent they will watch what we do and how we are and how we treat people more than listen to what we say to do so we have to be practicing what we preach and we have to be preaching what we’ve practiced in my first you know 30 60 days of recovery the way i was what i did every single day day in and day out is very different than what i do now and that is that’s good i don’t want to be living how i was the first 30 to 60 days of recovery but i have to be talking about what to do in the first 30 to 60 days of recovery right now in this moment with addicts out there suffering right now i have all these other things that i do i have these other practices about you know waking up at a certain time and doing the list of six and going and doing doing gym work and all these different things journaling certain things all of these practices that are great for life and recovery but we can’t overload the addict suffering with 56 different things to start doing today in order to find recovery when in reality there’s like three like three things to start doing right now today in order to find recovery and we have to be coming together on this stuff we have to be coming together on what we’re telling the addict that is suffering to start doing right now in order to recover because if this person says you know go to meetings every day get a sponsor do the 12 steps work on them every single day that person is telling those three things and then this person is telling the same person in the same meeting do a gratitude list uh eat healthy take these vitamins and then this person over here is saying you know don’t get in a relationship and you know run every single day and these different things right if that addict is sitting in there and you know they’re they’re suffering they’re trying to find how to get sober how to get clean and sober we have to separate these these lists of three from what to do to find recovery and then what to do when you’re in recovery to add purpose add meaning to your life and recovery add freedom add joy you know add a more connection with god you know we have to be sharing the message of what to do in order to recover period we have to differentiate them differentiate them spread the good word and share share share amen what’s up brother what’s up michael good to see you brother love your story bro love that you’re here man jeremy how i usually do this for addicts outside of the normal meetings i go to where the homeless rate is high in my area and pass out food and beverages and just talk to these people how i get how i got out of homelessness a hundred percent one of my absolute favorite things to do right now because of my because of my spanish you know i’m not like fluent but i’m able to basically tell my story in spanish and talk about god in spanish so that’s like all i all i do you know when i’m talking to someone i will literally you know uh i say cinco anos estaba arito de heroina si nugari uh tu vegos quando
and then it starts this little conversation and you know i’m able to and then at some point just say dios te ama dios de alma you know god loves you and it’s so simple that you know i’ve i’ve watched how and man i’m just thinking of this i have literally watched how my simple spanish the very little that i know of spanish is able to light somebody up because i’m only able to share a small portion of what i know i was homeless addicted to heroin five years ago i had an experience with god when jesus met me face to face at breakfast and i haven’t used drugs since that those little points of my story right light people up and that’s that’s what we can be doing out there and obviously like when we’re speaking english we can be you know talking a whole lot more with them and like talking specifically about their situation and things like that but man it’s it’s simple to pass a message of hope we don’t have to be thinking too deep into it about you know how how can i do this perfectly to hit this person perfectly so that you know they will find recovery you know that’s something that we can let go and let god and we can take control and responsibility for just showing up just start talking to the person just start sharing just go out and share and spread food out you know go out and serve go out and help people and just start a conversation god will show up god always shows up at the perfect time for that person and it’s such a beautiful feeling and jeremy i know that you’ve felt this where you’re talking with someone that’s suffering and you just feel in that moment and you just know that god set this up that god set this conversation up you don’t necessarily know exactly what’s gonna happen with this person you don’t necessarily know exactly what you can do after this conversation you’re like holy cow this is clicking god put me here to talk to this person and this message is reaching them you know and maybe this is going to help them that feeling is better than skydiving it’s better than skydiving when you know that you’re making an impact on somebody’s life that could possibly change their life forever and i was somebody in my addiction i ended up in a homeless shelter i ended up being in that line to get lunch and i don’t remember man i don’t remember anybody being there that was specifically sharing a recovery message i don’t remember anybody ever talking to me at that homeless shelter about how they got off drugs and alcohol so bro jeremy that’s amazing that just that just clicked for me that’s something all of us you know all of us could be doing at least once a month go to a shelter you know serve those people as if they’re you because they once were you know you once were and we have that opportunity we have that opportunity in our recovery and it’s it’s there’s so much blessing and and favor and good feelings that come from serving people you know and i was in a place at that time in my life where man i i needed that food i needed that place to sleep and i really needed people to love me there were absolutely people in there that loved me there was you know less that that was basically the manager of the homeless shelter he introduced me to my best friend brendan who ended up being the person that walked me through my whole addiction to finding recovery you know there was there was incredible things that happened there at the shelter i think us in recovery should almost like have a have a norm that we should pass around that this friend group this fellowship you know we take turns so that every single day of the month somebody is at that homeless shelter from our fellowship that is serving and spreading the message of recovery because there’s a lot of message right in in the shelters there’s a lot of messaging for jesus which i think is incredible i love jesus and there’s a lot of people that you know work at work at homeless shelters that are serving at homeless shelters that you know are incredible incredible people that haven’t experienced drug addiction though you know and we know this no one can reach an addict like a recovered addict period i don’t care what your qualifications are i don’t care how many phds and mds you have you will never be able to reach an addict the way that me jeremy crystal michael pam iris aaron andrew you know none of no doctor can reach addicts the way that we can so us you know we got to be out there working got to be out there working and i think that’s a really good idea and if any of you want to want to take that on in your hometown you know bring it to a uh bring it to a a group conscience or something how can we set up that we’re serving in the homeless shelter and spreading the message of hope spreading the message of recovery you know um getting back in these hey crystal good to see you hope to see you in like 16 minutes 16 days to my two years brother god is good amen and bro you got it you got an awesome story brother you got an awesome story i hope that you celebrate hardcore for your two years hardcore do something amazing for yourself brother you deserve it you deserve it
i’m going through some stuff brother i’ve been with my girl for almost nine years but she’s still using do you have any suggestions for me oof
um
so i’m gonna i’m gonna talk about this a little bit vaguely as well as specifically because there’s different situations for this exact thing going on if it’s if it’s marriage personally in my in my belief you know you are a strong leader of that household and your example of how you live staying clean and sober and not bashing this person and shaming them and guilting them and stuff but continuing to love them and have boundaries like none of that in here no drugs in here that’s that’s a that’s a hundred percent no for me because you need to keep your recovery period and just live as a person who is recovered continue to bring that light into your life continue to you know work the steps continue to do your program continue to show up and serve you know and talk about that constantly talk about recovery constantly don’t tell her everything she needs to do because she knows and like we were talking about earlier in the show addicts that are still using addicts that are still suffering will be much more attracted to who we are what we do how we act then what we tell them they need to do because if we’re living a life and of example we’re living an example right something that someone would want to have you know then then they will be attracted to it and we will be there to help them now in certain relationships and i’ve i’ve talked to people about this that aren’t addicts you know if someone is struggling depending on what depending on what the drug is you know if they’re not willing to get help if they’re not willing to stop you know i’ve heard of successful ultimatums when the ultimatum was made in a way that was out of love you know i personally can’t continue my life with someone and count on someone for my future if they’re still using i can’t do it if i want to be here for you i want to help you and if you’re willing i’m willing to do whatever it takes to help you find recovery there’s that conversation and if you aren’t willing and you’re not ready to get clean and sober you’re not willing to do whatever it takes and find recovery and live this life with me and build this future together that we can be proud of that we can be counted on for our for our kids for our family for our fellowships for our community then i’ve got to go find you know i’ve got to go on my own because i’ve got i’ve got a relationship with god that i have to be clear about you know and it’s a really really hard situation to be in brother really really hard situation to be in
i love with her and it’s so hard watching someone i love and want to die with i feel you bro i feel you i i haven’t experienced it in a relationship i’ve experienced it you know with friends that i love i was friends with for you know 13 years at that time 14 years of that time so we were friends since we were not 15 years we were friends since we were 14 years old and you know um in our you know in our active addiction we started using together at like 22 23 24 and when i got clean and sober you know i couldn’t do the same things you know i couldn’t hang out with him the same way because it was like a habit it was like when i hang out with him like that am i gonna end up using am i gonna end up going down that road and then you know meth does things to somebody’s mind that make it really hard to keep that person in the same place in your in your mind and in your heart that you can spend time with him and i tried doing other things i tried having bible studies with him and you know bringing him bringing him in and doing these different things and there were constantly you know meth induced blow-ups that i’m able to see but i but i can’t do anything about and i’m like offering help i’m offering to go to 12-step meetings it came to one or two but if you’re if you’re not ready and not willing you know reach me when you are you know reach me when you are and i’ve had to make that decision and it’s hard because i love people and especially my best friends that i’ve been with for so long variety is good continue our normal connections and keep making new ones amen sounds really painful yeah yeah humbly blessed to have not relapsed during the pandemic as many people in my area sadly have some not any longer with us but will we still one day at a time rocking july 25th 2013 am amen pam amen my son is watching with me what’s up what’s up dude good to see you good to see you you guys at work i’m guessing yes yes yes you’re blessed crystal you are blessed i was homeless living on the side of walmart living in tents yeah man yeah man we don’t got to live like that anymore we don’t got to live like that anymore does anybody else get excited that we used to live like this and we never have to again like we never have to again we have we have things we can do in our recovery that ensure permanent recovery ensure that’s another thing that gets passed around is that you don’t you don’t don’t talk about the future you know don’t say that you’re always gonna you know be in recovery and that kind of stuff i do i affirm that constantly i’m never gonna use drugs and alcohol again period not happening i have too much that i’m that that i’m counting on to do with my life that will never happen if i do that there’s too many people i believe out there that i’ve never met that have never heard me that are counting on me and my message in order to find recovery not doing it point blank period and every single one of you out there that’s in recovery there’s literally someone right now suffering right now there’s even someone right now that’s probably using drugs for their first month right now in this moment because everyone on here we got we got time to live in our recovery we have time to be here clean sober free there’s people just starting their journey of drug use that later on in our recovery we’re gonna meet we’re gonna meet these people someday and we’re going to have wisdom have a message have you know action steps to take and be able to help them people that are just now starting their addiction think about that we are absolutely allowed to think about the future we can do that in our recovery when we know that we have done the work we’re keeping our foundation of recovery and we’re going at it we’re going at life and recovery we’ve made the decision and the decision is to cut off decision literally means to cut something off so if we’ve made that decision to cut drugs and alcohol out of our life forever why not continually dream continually pursue and think about a life permanently free of that hopeless state of mind body and spirit ever again never happening
i was unfortunately kicked out of the shelter for fighting a skinhead who was beating on homeless veterans put an end to it they kicked me out for sending him to a hospital i prayed for the gentleman i hit and then god he was okay i didn’t want to do this but i don’t know bad time i feel you jeremy i feel you brother and uh you know i was kicked out of the homeless shelter also not for something so noble i uh
i went into basically psychosis inside of the shelter at lunch and i’ve never shared this story really actually it’s in my book but went in there and there was just like i don’t even know how to explain it but it was really embarrassing looking back on it because it was lunchtime and i went kind of crazy in lunch with everybody there like 100 people there getting food and stuff and uh yeah i was freaked out so i got kicked out couldn’t stop using they drug tested me the next day and i just told him i was like can’t stop using amen crystal good to see you can’t wait to see you there i would be gladly to talk with them in baltimore and bethany beach delaware amen brother i’m trying so hard brother i know man love and light come in peace and with loving intentions amen amen
so we’re at my mom’s house my little brother’s in town awesome awesome awesome awesome daniel coming in from youtube i was homeless in a five-star hilton in cabo maid service was crap joke peace love recovery amen daniel amen
i don’t know what it’s like to be homeless in a five-star hotel in cabo san lucas mexico but uh if you’re struggling from the disease of addiction it doesn’t matter where you’re at andrew was talking about it earlier a little bit but he was struggling with his addiction in a very great outside you know realm outside life but it’s it’s about what we’re go what’s going on with us in here that really matters
so happy to share i was just approved for the governor’s pardon in ohio let’s go let’s go
let’s go the celebration lights are so happy to share i was just approved for the governor’s pardon in ohio i will be getting help pro bono to get my record expunged i’ve been working on this for five years and out since 2010 just needed to share sarah that is absolutely amazing congratulations you absolutely deserve it you absolutely deserve it congratulations man you no longer have that life sentence given to so many of us addicts you no longer have that you are you are a new creation and i’m so proud of you and thank god for the system and the people that are in place that have helped you do this because you are 100 worthy and deserving of living a new life congratulations yes yes yes congratulations and guys i gotta hop off you know three minutes early because we have the uh the group coaching for the course and uh we do that every friday at 7 p.m we all get in and we talk about sharing our stories and i coach you on how to do it thanks i can’t stop crying so i bet i’ve got a couple things i need to get expunged at some point so uh congratulations sarah i’m so so happy for you so so happy for you love you guys so much
