Reaction Recovery

Eight years ago I wasn’t doing great.

I lost my job, my career, had no source of income, we had a baby in the house, and I had a body and mind that were about to enter a yearlong acute/post-acute withdrawal that would drift me in and out of complete despair.

It felt like life was over.

I was court-ordered into treatment in June of 2013, but 2014– 2016 still only consisted of brief periods of abstinence followed by progressively worse relapses.

Memories from those years are foggy.

But in 2016 by the grace of God, I asked for help and followed direction without questioning much and things started to change.

For the first time there was no sense of urgency.

No sense of needing to make up for lost time or prove to anyone that I was doing better.

I was content with just “waiting and hoping” (in the words of the Count of Monte Cristo).

I stayed within my recovery circle, didn’t have any social media, was rarely on a computer, and my life got hyper-focused.

I believed my brain would heal but also knew it probably wasn’t going to happen quickly.

Over a decade of daily opiates, benzos, and amphetamines.

At high dosages.

[To this day I haven’t met anyone who took larger doses of opiates. Not that I have some superhuman body, but I had unlimited access, so the numbers climbed year over year without anything slowing them down].

That first year I picked up work where I could, started a little furniture business, helped my uncle as a pest control tech, helped my sponsor with some electrical work here and there, went to recovery meetings, and kept busy enough.

None of it was “beneath me”, and I knew I just needed to stay alive and sober, and things would get better.

And they did.

Life has gotten full.

I give as much of myself to the various commitments and responsibilities, but still struggle with the feeling that it isn’t enough.

That I wish I could do more.

If you’ve followed along on this account, I appreciate you.

You’re some of the world’s greatest people, and I’m lucky to have gotten to know a lot of you.

In some ways eight years feels like an eternity, and in other ways I know it’s just the beginning.

Onward and upward.

11/12/16 ♥️

"I'm sorry, Jeff. I'm afraid you can't do that." (proceeds to lock me in the basement until I 'turn it over')

Not everyone's favorite topic to talk about - especially for men.

Some updated and relevant mental health stats (DM me if you want sources):

* 23% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in the past year—that’s nearly 60 million people.

* Su***de is the seventh leading cause of death among men globally, with men dying by su***de at nearly 4x the rate of women.

* 2023 saw the highest number of su***des ever recorded in the U.S.

* The highest su***de rates in the U.S. are among Caucasian men over age 85.

* 1 in 4 men in the U.S. have had suicidal thoughts.

* Only 23% of adults with a substance use disorder received treatment.

* In 2022, only 40% of men with a mental illness received care, compared to 52% of women.

* Mental health issues hit younger men harder: 44% of men aged 18-24 worldwide report anxiety, compared to 22.8% of men over 55.

* 49% of men feel more depressed than they admit to those around them.

* Globally, 36.8% of men reported feelings of depression, according to a survey of over 12 million adults across 115 countries.

A lot of people are struggling.

It’s not just you.

Help is out there.

World Mental Health Day 2024 ♥️

What were your thoughts on the VP debate?

Being alive is expensive 💸

And right now is about as bad as it's been for a long time.

But still, there's a time to spend, a time to save, and a time to invest.

And it's important to have a plan of when to do which.

Your first year of recovery should be an investment in yourself in every sense of the word.

Nothing wasteful.

I recommend writing down everything you spend money on each month and circle all the crap you don’t need.

Then invest that directly into yourself (or your little kids if you have them).

You need that plan.

The likelihood of accidentally stumbling on the right course of action is low.

People ending drug addictions have usually had money problems for years.

The abstinence alone won't solve all of them.

You’re gonna live 50 more years.

(I just checked my crystal ball).

In the world of compounded interest, if you get this first one right, the next 49 might not have to be so hard.

My clients all complete a "My Ideal Life" exercise.

They visualize and write down their five year vision.

And then they attack it week by week.

God speed out there ♥️