From Childhood Struggles to Community Support: Alex Johnson's Recovery Journey

Ever wondered what it really takes to turn your life around from the depths of addiction and grief?

 Drop a ❤️ if you’ve ever faced a moment that changed everything for you.

 Alex Johnson’s story is a powerful reminder that even in our darkest moments, there’s hope. From childhood struggles, exposure to addiction, and losing loved ones, he’s been through it all. Yet, he used those hardships as fuel to find purpose—becoming a peer recovery specialist and advocating for those still fighting their battles.What truly stood out? His unwavering commitment to helping others and his belief that every pain carries a lesson. His journey shows us that change is possible — even when your world feels unsteady.

 If Alex’s story resonates, know that your past doesn’t define your future—your choices do.

 #RecoveryJourney #MentalHealthMatters #PeerSupport #HopeInHealing #NeverGiveUp

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:14

And we're going to talk about his journey with mental health. Ian Alex, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:20

How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_02 0:27

I don't want to talk about it. Um in my other job, um, I run an influencer marketing business. And then I reached out to I and I can't even remember his name. Um, do you remember his name?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah, um, my close, close friend, more of an uncle Jerry Santa Maria.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Yeah, and so you would like me to do a podcast. I have the perfect candidate for you. And I was like, oh, cool, send him over. And then that's when we connected. So um I'm gonna let you take the floor. Um, if you don't mind just kind of introducing yourself and letting me know who you are and let our listeners know who you are and um what what you're up to nowadays.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yeah, beautiful. So my name's Alex. Um I uh I'm very I'm very involved in the field that I'm in. Um I uh I work full-time as a peer specialist. Um I'm still at a men's facility where I stay humble to where I got my start. Um also appreciate very much. And I sit on two boards, um a parole and re-entry board down in the Washington South County area. And I'm also a board member of H ⁇ I, which is a narcotics anonymous um group that go around to different facilities and we uh share the journey of uh hope, strength, um, recovering. Um that's uh basically everything I'm up to now, which is great because I'm I'm so busy that I don't have time to have you know certain distractions um come into play with you know too much time thinking, right? Um and what I mean by that is uh coming, you know, we're talking about mental health and addiction. Um my journey started in my childhood.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I I totally understand that. Um a lot of people know that I've worked in substance abuse. And so your mind is the most dangerous thing when it's not busy, when it's not busy. And so yeah, just kind of start. Can you talk to us about like your journey and you know, just kind of give us an overview of like where you started and how you how you got to become a peer recovery specialist?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yeah, absolutely. Um, do you want to go into like the younger years or like a little bit halfway?

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Just give us maybe like give us an overview of your childhood and then just kind of form the basics, um, and then lead us into like an overview of how you got to where you are today.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

All right, and I can just kind of briefly touch on some of that. Yeah, certain things I you know I won't say. Um so um I grew up in Richmond, Rhode Island, which is known as West Kingston, um, borders Hope Valley, um, Exeter. So great parents growing up. Um I was the second oldest to my uh my brother Aaron, that was my father's um child, so shared a different mother. Um I was the first child of my mother and father when they got married, right? I would go on and have a younger brother, Corey, um who was born five years after me, and then uh I have a younger sister as well. So in a lot of ways, I was kind of like the older child. Um and uh Yeah, I was very I was very shy as a young kid. Um I remember going into stores uh with my mom and and kind of latching onto her purse, and she's like, What are you doing? I'm like, I don't I don't want to get lost. And that was a thing when I was when I was a young kid. Um my mother never really worried um when I was younger because I was I would latch on. Um I was shy. I wasn't an extrovert. Um but there's you know events that would happen that would change all that, right? And it and it's just so funny because you know, sometimes what things are laid out to look like end up happening and being the complete opposite. You know, it was my my younger brother who in the beginning years kind of scared everybody because he was very daredevilish, you know, and I I wasn't so much, I was think about things a little more so, right? But yeah, I grew up in a nice neighborhood. Like I said, suburban, and it was a great place because our neighbors were all lending a hand, helping each other out. It's like old school um things that you you don't hear, you don't see anymore. You know, life has changed so much. Um so I was very sheltered and then around five, four and a half, five years old, I met who would become my best, best friend. Um, still to this day, my brother. Um, and I was exposed to his lifestyle, um, how he grew up and his brothers. Now, they they were um I don't know if you if you know of different tribes, but they were all Narragansett Indian, right? From the Washington, South County, Rhode Island area. Um and great-hearted people. But growing up, my friend would sleep over my house a lot, and like we were together 24-7 because um, you know, I had all these toys and all these different things. And he struggled a little more because his dad was uh a Masonist that worked hard, but he also, you know, had struggled with some addiction and alcoholism. And he would end up getting clean for close to 20-something years. But my my friend lived the struggle, right? So growing up, um, I was heavily influenced by music. You know, classic rock, hip-hop, um, and really Motown. And I would listen to music like Marvin Gaye and and and hip-hop and things, and I would start to see things firsthand, right? Um, you know, my friend's five years, six years old, running around the neighborhood barefoot because he doesn't have shoes and and kind of starting to be exposed to a lot of things. And that's when my horizon started to open. Um I remember being a young kid in elementary school and just mouthing off because I knew he had my back, and that was it. And that would trickle on throughout a lot of my life, right? Um fast forward a little a little later on in life, we were teenagers, early, early, early teens. Um, I remember my best friend's brother, Clay, who was also a brother to me, um, went to training school for a year. And, you know, he was getting wrapped up in some things. And, you know, and around the around that time in my life, I started seeing different things and how my you know, my best friend and his brothers, they loved each other, but they were so tough on each other, and and then I would get into that, and then that would kind of those that was like the diversion, that was like the start of what I was gonna end up becoming, right? A lot of great values, but when you see things at a young age and you start to be exposed to certain things, um, it does have an effect on you. So fast forward, um, I went to Catholic school for five years. So fourth grade, take it back a couple years, so like 10 years old to 14. I graduated from there. Um a lot of great kids, you know, I had a lot of good friends. I still have some people I keep in contact to this day with. Um but yeah, I I I did that, and my struggles as a young kid was kind of like, you know, just regular stuff. Kids pick on each other, this and that. And in that school I didn't have some of my surroundings that I grew up around, but it was completely different, and I think sometimes even at that age, young age, people would didn't know how to take me. And it's because I was seeing things that they weren't, some of them were never gonna see in their life, right? Um, and that's around the time I want to say it was like eighth grade, maybe going in seventh and eighth grade. I had a friend that I was in that school with, and I remember I had struggled with acne bad, right? So I was in like pain, and I was on this thing called Accutane. And it would also have psychological effects.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Ooh, Accutane?

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yes. Oh wow, okay. Because my skin, it it was like the it was breaking out, and my my lips would be all chapped, and it just and you know, kids would say things, and and that that was like the start of like some hurt and some pain. We overcome it because I you know, I don't have that. I don't have that anymore. I outgrew all that, you know. But that was around the time where things in my life started to happen a little bit, and and I wanted to feel a sense of numbness. So I was, I want to say 12, 13 when I had convinced my friend his father had a back surgery. He's like, Oh, my dad's got Viking. I said, Well, I think you should take some and and bring him into school. You know, do what you gotta do to get some, right? And now here I am. That's criminal thinking at 13 years old.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Right. And he did. He got him. So I remember going we were going from one class to another, like bathroom breaks, whatever in between. And I just remember taking it was two Viking and I took. And I I just remember within moments, just because you know, psychologically you knew you took something.

SPEAKER_04 9:42

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Moments that led up to the numbness, and uh, I would chase that feeling for the next 23 years of my life. So sorry. No, don't be sorry, because the one thing about me, I admit all my faults in life. I take full accountability for who I am, what I've done, um, and I don't you know, be like, oh, that's I'm glad you overcame that, but I don't ever tell people to feel bad for me because a lot of my life I put myself in those situations too, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

So um, but yeah, fast forward I would go to high school, I'd go to Etsa West Greenwich High School. Great school system, great. And and in a way I was a little ahead of the game because the things that we were doing in ninth and tenth grade, I had already done in Catholic school, right? So that kind of gave me the I don't really need to take this too serious. And um that was the age. Now I'm going to school. I remember I had like a cup, like they call them sippy cups or container cups, like carry cups. That would be first thing in the morning, I'd go in the kitchen and I my parents would have even if it was cheap booze, good booze didn't matter, and I would sneak it and I would mix it with the orange juice and I'd go to school. Um and I would I would look for you know, at that age, that's when when I started to seek things in my parents' medicine cabinets, you know.

SPEAKER_05 11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Um horrible, right? And and mental health played part of it. And cravings and and addiction played the other part. So I'm in uh Etzel West Greenwich High School. I had a good good core of friends, still kept in touch with some of my old friends. Um and then I uh I met a good friend um who would introduce me to a kid that would become like my uh kid brother, my younger brother. And we had a we had a good band in high school, we were all musicians, but we were all in trouble. We were all in true and see court, we're all in drug family court, all these things going on, and and I just remember like we had a like a talent show and we couldn't play it because um the lead singer in our band, he would end up going away to train in school. And then on he was on the anklet, and then he got sent to Oceantides, Christian Brothers, for was there for a few years. And when he actually got to Christian Brothers, I had two friends there waiting for him to kind of look out for him and protect him. So here I am at this young age. I'm only I'm 16. 15, 16, and I'm already I already have friends that are like that. I'm already exposed to different things. You know, I remember even taking my kid brother to um to men's clubs when we were like 17, 18, and he was younger, and just seeing different things, and you're around different people that are doing they're partaking in a lot of illegal activity, right? So if whatever comes to your mind right now, most likely I saw it, right?

SPEAKER_05 12:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

So I was very intrigued by that kind of lifestyle and and being around people like that, and um, and the lead singer of my band, he would in school that we had, and I was also in a school band too. I was very active in music. I took um writing classes, I took a a a guitar one and a guitar two class, and I had actual people in my class that that was their main instrument was guitar. They had me do the solo, like it was very musically inclined. Um, drums was like my main instrument, so music was like, I think, a savior in a way. It almost kept me out of some of the trouble, right? But my friend um that was in my high school, you know, band, he uh he was so musically, he is still to this day so musically talented when it comes from setting up equipment to recording, to mixing, to breaking things down. So being in the city life, he got exposed to hip-hop, and he was it like me, we grew up literally five minutes away from each other, not knowing each other till then. And uh he was very talented, even with hip-hop music, and he would go on a perform on stage with people like Jada Kiss and J. Cole and different artists, and his group of friends, one kid was actually signed to Rick Ross on his way to be signed. Um, his name was Carlos, so I'm not gonna say his last name. He was somebody I became friendly with. Um, and I had a lot of memories of just, you know, my my boy that I grew up with, I was the only one that he would take around that environment. Providence, his people, because a lot of them would gain affiliated.

SPEAKER_04 14:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

So here I am, I'm around that, I'm going to shows. I was in, I was at two shows. They opened up for half the there was like three or four members from the Wu Tang clan. And it was at a place called Tommy's Lounge in Pa Tucket. And as soon as my friends got off stage, it was him, Carlos, a few other people. I remember my friend just grabbing me by the shirt. We gotta go. Because game violence broke out. People were pulling guns out, and and cops were showing up. And I was in another situation like that where it was nonstop violence, right? Chairs breaking, pool sticks breaking, guns getting pulled out. So here I am in my late, you know, 18, 19, 20, 20 years old. I'm around all this stuff, right? Driving under the influence. I'm doing what I gotta do to get pills. I also I also had connections to older people that were in my life that had scripts for oxies, per cassette, right? So I always had what I wanted if I needed it, and I always worked, right? I my first job in life. I worked at a hardware store for probably like eight years, um, and then at 21, around the time I was around a lot of that stuff, um, my cousin, God rest his soul, Tom Savoy, who's a union organizer and rep, and um, he would get me in the carpenter's union at 21 years old.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Yeah, so let's go back to what is your advice for, you know, so obviously, you know, when you're in that kind of type of, you know, friendship and you know, in that arena of friends and stuff, and you you're you're doing pills and you're drinking, and would you say that that is what started your journey um with like the addiction and you know the pills and when I look back on it now, it it all happened for a reason because it gave me such a gift.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Right. But I had no intentions on ever doing what I did, what I did now. Right. It's not like I found it in a way, I kind of reached out for it, but it it kind of grabbed me, right? Yeah. Um I was uh I was determined to, you know, I got in the union at 21. I was determined I was gonna work construction, I was gonna maybe have a little side construction business and then become like maybe a foreman in the carpenter's union one day or an area superintendent. That's what I really that's what I envisioned, and and it's not, and I'm not gonna say I was the best guy on the job, but I certainly wasn't the worst.

SPEAKER_05 17:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Another construction worker guy that hunted around with construction workers and fishermen, and I just, you know, I I I partied. I worked hard and I I partied harder, right? So that was also a piece of my life. And I also, you know, yes, I was around, I grew up around the Narragansett tribe, I sort of things, and they're their own group, they're their own government. I grew up around people that were, or I was exposed and around a lot of people, you know, 16, 17 years old. I'm hanging out in Providence in the middle of the night a lot, right? So it just, you know, I had that, but I also had a great family. I also had friends that had nothing to do with that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

So you see where I'm kind of Yeah, and so my reasoning for asking is um we do have a lot of families that listen to my podcast. And so I, you know, my hope is that through your story, um parents can be open and more aware of their children's surroundings, you know, like it's definitely it's so hard being a parent, right? And then not only to have to worry about things like this of that nature, but you know, it's it's hard when you know those things are happening. And I'm sure your parents were like, were your parents aware? Like, how was how is that?

SPEAKER_01 18:45

My parents started to notice things when I started struggling with like you know, mental health and and and being on Accutane, and I think they started to like see little little bits and pieces of things, right? And I was always getting in trouble in school too. That was another thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

And this is totally random, but um like I I learned that with Accutane and women, that you cannot be pregnant, you cannot even think about being pregnant, because somebody told me that if that if that were the case, then you would have a baby coming out with two heads.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Pretty much. It's it's got bad side effects and it's got um high risk for SI, suicidal ideation. Yeah, and it's got some HI too, homicidal ideation, it's got different effects. So when you mix that, and I was also put on Adderall as a kid, didn't like it, didn't like it. I I was off of it after a couple of months, right? But this is my other advice, you know, to any families or parents. Doctors are great, providers are great, we need them, yes. But pay attention to how things work, right? Everything's got a system. What's the trickle down to, and there's always money involved, right? So some people need that chemical balance, they need that pill. Some people need something organic, some people just need nothing that at all, but besides their own mental health, their own ways to cope with things, um, whether it's exercise or going to church. So there's different, you know, they are all different, but there's all different types of people in this world, and not everything that works for me is gonna work for you.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Right, exactly. And that's that's so huge nowadays. You know, there's and and look just like you said, like there's tons of medications for ADHD. There's tons of, you know, for all things. And on my journey, it was like, you know, they put you on the one medication. Well, just because it works for others doesn't mean it's gonna work for me. So so that was things. So yeah, so you started your constru you started in construction. So talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

So I was um God, first company I ever worked for was so I had gone to school and then I got put with a company called I think it was East Coastal Designs. Um, we were setting up like unloading trucks, but doing all the finished work of like setting up cubicles and and on ins and different like things, right? Blinds, like like the pretty up stuff, right? That was my first uh experience, and then a little after that, I fell down a flight of stairs at my house um because I was drinking and I I snapped my wrist and I also broke my uh ankle the same set same fall. So what do I get? Pain meds. Yeah. So and this is around the time I had gone with another company, and it was a cousin uh it was a company that my late cousin uh Raymond worked for too. He was a union drywaller. I got a job through the union hall with uh custom drywall, and I was with them for quite a while on and off. Um Because that's the thing at the time. I got in at a really bad time. I got in in 2009-10-ish. There was not a lot of construction going on at that time. We just hit the friggin' housing crisis. Like there was so many things going on. So even commercial companies and stuff weren't going up. So no big jobs were really being done. It was like piecework. So that was tough too because structure. You know, be on a job for three months, go to school for a week, because every every three months I have to go to school in uh Millbury Mass for a week, right? And you could either stay there or drive back and forth. And um that's where the inconsistency of my life, I think, started to build because I kind of got in at a bad time. I was struggling with substance abuse. I got in a couple of arguments. I got an argument with a foreman. I walked off of a job. Um, then I was working residential for a while, and the union called me to go out back on a union job, and um the BA, it wasn't my cousin Tom that got me in, it was a BA. And he said, Are you working? I said, Yeah, I've been working. And they knew you had to put food on the table and you had to do hustle side work, right? Um, even though you weren't technically supposed to. And uh I said, yeah, I'm working. He goes, Well, I got a job for you. I ended up calling him back. I said, Can I just prolong it? I got this other thing going on. I I got two checks coming in right now, and um, I ended up having to go in front of the union board and in front of my cousin that got me in and kind of explained my situation. They said, Alright, you're good. You know, we're gonna we're not even gonna it wasn't really a write-up or anything. It was just wasn't a mark, but it was like get your shit together, right?

SPEAKER_05 23:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

And I did, I went on a few more jobs after that. Um, that worked out good. Um But here I, you know, even that though, even saying, you know, just cause I was going to work every day, when I was on point, I was on point, but I was also using after work or using even sometimes on the job. You know, going in the bathroom and just, you know, it's like you can't be you can't function the right way when you're when you're doing that shit, right? By any means. You're not gonna be as strong, you're not gonna be as fast. Like it's gonna it's gonna fuck with you. I mean, it's gonna mess with you.

unknown 24:08

You're fine. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Um, so no, you're good.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

It's all good.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Natural, right? So that um, you know, that that put me in some situations, and then uh, you know, things weren't really getting that that good. So I was like, you know what, I stayed working residential because it was, you know, I it was closer for me. Um and at the time that was really that was another thing that was messing me up, was like going from Boston to Rhode Island to this to that. I was at this point in my life dealing with so much anxiety. So it was like starting a new job all the time, and it was it was messing with me, right? So nope, I'm just gonna work residential. So after three years, I did that, and my cousin Tom, nicest guy in the world, before he passed away, um, because he he passed um that winter 2014, and he said, the union will always be there for you. You know that. If you want to come back, you're good. If you want to get in the labor's union, I got ya. Don't worry about it, right? Because my grandfather, my my cousins like really involved, right? Um, and my brother still to this day is a union carpenter. So I said, no, thank you so much, cuz. And I remember that night, it was at my grandfather's 70th, and I bought him a bought my cousin Tom a drink, and that was the last time I'd ever see him. So I'll never forget how special he was to me um in everything he did for me. Even when I was messed up with, you know, addiction, he knew, like he knew. Um, so yeah, carry on, went worked residential for a year, year and a half, was working with my friend, my best friend that I grew up with from age four, and uh we were working for an old-time, old school Italian guy named Um John Aiello from North Providence, and he owned a lot of Richmond. He owned businesses, he owned Richmond Santa Gravel, like he was just uh an entrepreneur, businessman, and he taught me and my best friend like so many good values um while we worked for him, you know. And uh that was that was a great experience. And then that's around the time I met my soon-to-be wife, and that's when she's like, Alright, you know, you're doing good, you're you're making good money, decent money, but we need benefits. Let's buy a house, let's do this, let's do that. And that's when I said, Alright, I'm gonna go to General Dynamics Electric Boat, where they build submarines, right? 2000 and 2013, 14, that time, that's when I uh went there, which would last for like nine years, but I actual like actually working on the job was around seven, seven and a half due to some medical issues um and being in the hospitals. So we'll we'll touch on that in a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Yeah. Um, so yeah, so it you had already endured so much up until this point. Um what continuously got you through all of these events?

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Well, uh when I when I met my wife, um that was like a bright, that was like a bright new light, right? Love, compassion. Um, we had a lot in common, you know. Um, and and her family were they were good people. Um I I just think I think, you know, when I look back on on it now, everything that happened was supposed to happen. My she also came to me at a point in life where I was still kind of messing around a little bit. Even though I it looked like I really cleaned things up. And um, you know, with that relationship, that really got my that also helped me get my start in like real life, right?

SPEAKER_04 27:42

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

You know, buying a house, getting pets, getting engaged, getting married, like going on vacations, like things that you know kind of put the other things at bay for a while.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Yeah, and how did it how did you maintain that life? Like, are you guys you guys are still married today or no?

SPEAKER_01 28:06

I've been divorced going on three years, so okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

And how did you remain neutral?

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Two years, two years, but three separated. So got it.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

How did you remain neutral during those years that you were married? Like what was what was the married life like?

SPEAKER_01 28:23

It was really good in the beginning until I started um becoming like an absent husband, I think. Mm-hmm. You know, um there was well, so there was struggles, there was things on both ends. And this is where I'm not gonna I don't want to talk about that too much.

SPEAKER_05 28:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Um, because eventually I'll I'll talk about that more down the road one day. But yeah, you're good. There was um there was you know, we were busy, we had a lot going on. We we had motivation to do things, build a house, build a maybe build a family one day. We were both like indecisive about that, and you know, having kids, but um, you know, like I said, we bought a house, we had a beautiful wedding, married on uh in Bristol, Rhode Island, beautiful. At Colt State Park, and um, you know, it was it was it was a great day. All different types of people and and family members that came and you know it was nice. We we had a great time. Everyone still says to this day, even though things would happen the way they did, it was still one of the funnest weddings they ever went to, you know. Um, but yeah, that was to me, that was life. I was just, you know, paying my bills. I was going to work. I'd started at EB on first shift, then I went to second, you know, um, and I was on second for like five, five plus years. And I missed out on, I feel like a lot, but I feel like it kept me out of trouble too. Like I remember a supervisor at the time saying, um, he's like, I'm worried about you going to day shift because you're kind of you you do, you know, you're on second, and you're and I think people, even if they didn't say anything or no things, they would kinda they knew it was probably safer for me or better. And there were certain people that I knew that would go on day shift and it wasn't like and I was just built for that. And my wife at the time was working nights. We were just working all the time, put money into our house, got a dog, like all that stuff, you know. Um, the normal stuff that you do in life, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:15

And not, I mean, not only that, but like the mental health of switching from day shift to night shift and vice versa, that's a a lot in itself.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

It is, it it is in a way, but what would be way down the road when I got into this field it made it so I can work any kind of stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Yeah, yeah, it's not that you need to talk about it. Like over the last 20 years that you need for that, like the document like the learning harder and uh what year and talk about like what do you do now? So what are the listeners now, like where you're at now, what are you doing now for a living? And um, what was the ultimate turning point to you getting there?

SPEAKER_01 31:13

So what I do now is I uh I advocate, I'm a peer recovery specialist down in Washington, South County area. And what that means is I meet clients one-on-one, right? I have a caseload. Now, on my actual caseload, like there's a lot of names, as a it might be over a hundred people on my, you know, but as far as things ever flow, right? So I'll have my my regulars that I meet with all the time. Um I'll have clients that I meet with and then they get better, and then it's just like I just follow up with them, and then I have clients that are doing great, and I just give them a call, and if they want to see me, we can set something up. Um, but I, you know, that's basically doing that, meeting one-on-one, offering support. Um, I also like if say someone comes to the health clinic that I work at and their child is a little, you know, off or or or anyone's struggling, I'll get called into what's called a warm handoff. I'll go in there, I'll give them resources, I'll talk them, talk them down, let them vent, right? Um and then I'm also really involved with the community, right? So whether it's we're representing for our company, kind of like marketing type stuff, right? Advocating, going to the state house all the time, like there's so many things. We're out in Block Island now, a couple times a month. Um, that just kind of started up. And I also run support groups, which I take a little bit of NA, which is Narcotics Anonymous. I take a little bit from AA, which is Alcoholics Anonymous, and I I make it like a core recovery open group. And it's great because I have clients that have 30 plus years um clean, clean time. Some clients that are still struggling, some that are doing good, and have some, you know, some that have three or four years, and some that are miracle stories. So um it truly is amazing. And this is why I said I don't ever like anybody to feel bad for me because all the pain in my life that I endured was meant for a reason.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Yeah, a hundred percent. Um yeah, and I absolutely love that. So walk us through, walk us, yeah, so walk us through that turning point where you realized that this was for you, like that you had realized, like, oh man, this this is for me. This is what I'm meant to do. Um you know, walk me through that that.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

So I'll I'll tell you the couple of key factors, take it way back around the time I'm getting ready to go to EB. My cousin Raymond DeLore passed away, right? I say this all the time. He was handsome, sweet, and drunk, right? Yeah. And he struggled with alcoholism so bad. Um, but he had this the biggest heart in the world, and he was a union drywaller, so I would follow in some of his steps in a way, right?

SPEAKER_05 34:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

And um, I just remember when I was a kid, when I was like six or seven years old, he grabbed me by the arm and he said, I want you to do good things. I I don't want you to ever be like me. Don't be like me, kid. It was everything was always kid.

SPEAKER_05 34:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

2013 he passed away, and I had two very special encounters with him before right before he died. Um, and I'm not gonna even touch on that right now, um, but I will touch on this. My cousin Alicia wrote a book called Something Is Better Than Nothing and Something Is More Than Nothing, and it's by Alicia Barksdale, and it's on Amazon, and it's actually about my cousins and her life and addiction um and mental health and so many different things. Um it's it's a bestseller. So I just want to throw that out there. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. So that realizing a little bit through my cousin Raymond, I think, and his heart and who he was as a person, and then stories that my mother would tell me throughout my whole life about my cousin Steven Delore, who was the oldest. Um and throughout my life, I loved both of them so much. Um, and my cousin Kevin, who recently passed last year, God rest his soul. Um, but Steven and Raymond were in trouble with the law addiction. My cousin Steven was notorious. He was involved with a lot of different things, um, and he was notorious. He just had pull, like you wouldn't believe. He knew the system and he was in and out of prison half of his life. Um, but he was uh one of the best chefs out of Rhode Island and he ran so many successful restaurants. Um I can't say enough good about either one of them, right? So that was maybe the little bit of the insight the life I would live on and off, like always toe on the line of something, right? In my own pain, and then um what would happen was I started having some health issues, and um a little bit before that I was in a situation where uh as my marriage would go on, I remember when my cousin Raymond died, my cousin Steven was in prison, right? For actually fighting with him and stuff. He was doing a three-year bid, and he got out. I remember in 2014. So when I took my wife to uh it was it was a they call it I I don't know if you ever heard this term, but Rocky Point. So Rocky Point was like a famous establishment in Rhode Island, right? Amusement park. And then there was the Rocky Point Chowder and clam cakes and all that. My cousin with his buddy Anthony, when he got out of prison, he opened up the you know, the Rocky Point Chowder House in the in a parking lot in Warwick. And I remember taking my wife there and seeing Chef DeLore and blah blah blah. He's here anywhere he was or even cooking or working, he was always advertised because of who he was. And um he wasn't there that day, but then fast forward it was like a few months later, would start what would be a 10-year relationship, like a 10 or a nine-year relationship that was magnetic and closer than I can even explain, right? Um, so I ended up in a situation take my wife, my family, everyone would go to my cousin's last restaurant he had, right? He had it for like probably five, six years till like COVID hit and everything, and then that's when he would relapse. Um, so fast forward all that, because I'm gonna leave that for another day, but I ended up in a situation where um I was with him every day for the last year of his life. Now at this point, before that, like I said, I lost Raymond. Um I lost my buddy John from an overdose. I had a another friend I lost from suicide in 2017. And and my my friend Chris, who uh committed suicide in 2009. So I'd already had people that I was close to that I had lost. So I already had this pain I was carrying, right? And then my other friends are struggling because they're in and out of jail. They're they're they're struggling with addiction.

SPEAKER_03 38:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

And then I also lost before I would leave Electric Boat, it was 2015. It was the night my friend actually at work started preaching sobriety to me. This is the first time I really heard the words, right? Yeah. And all this. 2015. And I would go home that night to find out that my childhood first love overdosed and died. Someone that I was around since I was basically born.

SPEAKER_05 38:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Still 18 years old on and off. And there was always that connection. And uh, she reached out to me like probably a week before she passed away, and we made somewhat of amends, um, because there was a lot of different things, but there was a lot of pain when when I found that out. So I had already been carrying all this stuff through my life, and that's why she passed away right before me and my wife and my family went on a cruise. And that's why that's another reason why I think my marriage never really had a chance. Um, but fast forward, that cousin Steven of mine, who was magnetic and and special and had the IQ of like one, he had the IQ of a genius, like 160. He can recite the whole Bible to you. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_05 39:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

And he knew the prison system, he knew the he knew the system, he knew how things worked, and he was notorious because of key people that he was involved with or around. You know, he was known in like a different kind of life w without me saying too much. Um but I would be in a situation where I was with him every day having some of the best moments. Um I'll never forget. And um near the end he started saying, you know, cuz I'm tired. I said, What do you mean? He's like, I just had enough of life, man. I'm not reinventing myself. I don't have the restaurant anymore, I don't have the money I had anymore, I'm sick. And I could see the jaundice in his eyes. And the special thing about my cousin Steven DeLore was when I was a child in my grandmother's house, I had stomach pains that you wouldn't believe one day. And I remember him saying to my mother, go put some flat stove soda on the stove, heat it up, we'll eat it will it will it will, you know, get rid of that pain. It'll ease the pain, right? And he did that for me. And at the very end of his life, when he had um got diagnosed with um live uh liver cancer, cirrhosis, these things, jaundice, all this stuff he was struggling with, and he was still drinking on and off. I was trying to keep him from doing that, um, I would be using the pain in his stomach. Going to the store for him, getting the mallocks. He even ended up with a DUI and did three years in intake. He had been out of prison for like nine years, and that aged him so much because he was sick. And that what started me caring for him at the last year of his life, when he got out, he said he was gonna go to the shelter. I said, No friggin' way in hell, uh, am I letting my cousin, my OG cousin, sleep in a f in a shelter.

SPEAKER_04 41:08

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

And I just remember he got out of intake. After three weeks, I called my cousin who was a correctional officer to make sure he was good and so he could call me. And I mean he did, and uh, and I'll never forget it. To this day, he drives to my house without a license. Oh my goodness. Hold on to these. He goes, You'll you might use them one day, right, for something, right? Yeah. Who would have thought? And then he went and sat down in my yard and he was crying and he was shaking. And I just remember holding him in my arms. I said, Don't worry. I said, We got this, cuz I got you.

SPEAKER_04 41:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

And that was our relationship, and my wife would let him stay, and uh he would stay with me, you know, six days, seven days, then a couple of days, and he'd go back to the spot up the street that he had, which was at a sober house, but he knew the owners. They were they they would go in his restaurant all the time. So he had always had connections somewhere.

SPEAKER_05 42:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Had his like Toby Hine set up there, all this stuff that I helped him fix and all this, right? And in that not even in my house, but sitting in his camper one day, as it was raining, I would learn some of life's most valuable lessons. Um But fast forward, uh, I think mental health and the addiction, it was just getting too bad, and I think he was in so much pain. And I just remember one morning after a Christmas event, I went and checked on him and he wasn't there, and um, he had tried taking his life right. And he drank a bunch of Zoloft and he just he was in so much pain though, and I and I get it now. He was so sick. He was getting to the point where he couldn't cook anymore, which was everything to him.

SPEAKER_04 42:49

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Um, he would be in the hospital for 40 for a week. Over Christmas, I'd go spend, I got the pictures of us in the hospital together. I brought him gifts and I had him laugh, and and that's when it dawned on me, I knew he tried to hurt himself because they had a watch person, right?

SPEAKER_05 43:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

And I looked at him, I said, You really tried to do this? And he goes, What? I said, Come on, no. And uh I kissed him goodbye, I told him I loved him, and um he drove my wife at the time nuts because she was working at Rhode Island Hospital, so he's calling her every minute, and then he's calling me, you gotta get me out of this place, it's worse than jail. I said, Stop it, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

And um, and he would come home with us for four days. I remember it was like four days and four nights. And uh we watched The Star Is Born with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, because it was his favorite movie, and that was kind of him and Kim's story with the restaurant, right?

SPEAKER_04 43:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

And then he looked at me, and I almost like had a flashback of all the memories me and him had already walking Federal Hill and together, and everyone coming up to him, and just the aura of me and him and some other family members standing on a corner of uh of a famous restaurant, and just you know, him getting pulled over by the police when he was. Out on bail, and the state trooper saying, I'm gonna let him go, but do not let me catch him driving again. All these memories started to fast forward, right? Because I had heard about him my whole life, gotten so close. Now I'm in a situation where I'm basically with him every day and caring for him. But I'll never forget that last four days with him. Um, and then what happened, you know, and he had he had said it to not only me to other people, and I would say, Stop talking. And that was what he said when he got out of the hospital after the four days when he was with me. He goes, I told you, cuz, I'm tired, man. He's like, I don't have it in me to reinvent. I don't have it in me to go cook. I just can't I I've lived my life and then some. I you know, I I've done everything in the world. And better yet, I've had all this time with the family and you. And I said, Stop talking like that. Just stop. And um he came over New Year's Day, which was like a week after that. Um he looked healthy, played with my sister-in-law at the time's baby because he loved children, because he had a daughter that he never had a relationship with really because of his life, right?

SPEAKER_05 45:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

And he looked at me, he said, My church is fun, your church is boring. He goes, I want you to come to my church. We sing, we dance. And he seen me, he had a glow on him, and then the last thing he ever said to me was 86 convictions. I can't even adopt a puppy. I said, Stop. I said, You're a beautiful person, you've never heard an animal, right? Or a child. And he looked at me and he said, Um, promise me one thing. And I said, What? He said, You always be a man of your word, no matter what. Because at the end of the day, that's all you have.

SPEAKER_05 45:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

And uh he took his life like a week later, four days later. He uh barricaded himself in his camper and he hung himself up. But I learned so much from him.

SPEAKER_05 45:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

And it was the day we drove down West Shore Road in Warwick, and somebody broke down on a motorcycle, and he goes, cuz, he goes, You're not gonna stop, you're not gonna help that guy. We need to help him, and we did. And he taught me so many valuable lessons along that road. And I would end up in the Pierre R Pierre World Role, the addiction world. Well, all his friends that were reformed and changed their lives around. All my clients that I got at the men's facility where I ended up working, either worked for him in his restaurant, did time with him. So, you know, with that, and and what got my start in it was was caring for him at the end of his life, the relationship I had with my cousin Raymond, the life that I was already exposed to, and things that I had already done, struggling with opiate addiction at such a young age. And then after my after my cousin's um after my cousin's death, I I stayed out of work because it was something that would not let me go back for a little while. And I ended up going back and I worked a solid year my last year at electric boat. I had two friends from Baton Rouge, Louisiana that became like brothers, and they really got me through, and some other good dudes that were just good supports. And they were they all played a part. I mean, I I got love for everybody that was good to me in life. And um I I did that, and then that's when I got hit with my medical condition. And the time I got hit with my medical condition was a time that um my best friend's father and brother, my second father and brother, um would be found, would be found in their house from an accidental overdose. So it was uh a chain of events of three years from my cousin's death, Steven's death, um, and then Clayton and Rudy being found. And and my friend's father was the second in command of the chief of the Narragansett tribe. He was a wonderful stonemason and just a wonderful, wonderful man. And he he was clean for so long, but he had gone through a separation that broke him back into that. And um and my friend's brother was in prison for seven years and had gotten out around the time of my cousin's death and uh from a from a car accident where his girlfriend was killed. And that was the news of that all started around my wedding. So even my wedding, you know, had like a black cloud over it um because of phone calls my best friend was getting and just different things, man. And um, so that was it, man. It was getting hit with a medical condition, I'm getting sick at work. Um, I leave one morning to go to the funeral for for Rudy and uh Clayton, and I call it the saddest, most beautiful day because as I showed up, all the Indians greeted me, kissed me on the cheek, hugged me, all the cousins I grew up around, and they were both in their caskets with the war paint, like the Indian war paint, the feathers, suits, and uh they both looked beautiful, man. And um we lowered them into the ground. And they were the only two that were buried behind the stone pillar gates at the very end of the res, um, along with another family member. So that was a very day, and like a very special but very sad, sad day. And I just remember me and my best friend symbolically throwing the roses in the ground after we lowered them, and so you know, that my cousin's death, that, and then the third year in a row, um, me and my wife, our marriage had just had enough, man. Um, and I ended up in a situation, um, police had come because we had gotten an argument once, and then um things were really going bad. It was so toxic.

SPEAKER_05 49:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

Toxic near the end. And then I ended up in a situation where I got um I got hemmed up. I got arrested. I got falsely accused, but I don't regret being arrested because I had so much anger and had such a short fuse most of my life that I think I was gonna I think I f if everything didn't happen the way it did, I think I would have ended up doing something that would have really probably put me in a worse situation in life.

SPEAKER_05 49:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:45

So yeah, I got hemmed up with a domestic violence charge. So it was like three three charges because when she called the police and said what she said, I didn't really know what was gonna happen. I was trying to leave the house, and um it was I'm not even gonna get into detail with that, but I wasn't gonna let her see me get arrested. So I ended up going to my parents' house, which is like seven minutes away.

SPEAKER_05 50:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

I let them take me in from there.

SPEAKER_05 50:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

And the you know, the three cruisers show up and they arrest me, and they know, they like, we know you didn't even they're saying she did this when they say, you know, you when they read me my rights and all that. And uh, but it was the chief that knew. The chief knew I he goes, he's not guilty of this. Um, but yeah, they they brought me in and and I and then I, you know, I'm I'm in the police station for half a day, and then I got a ring, so I'm in the bottom of the courthouse, and uh I'm in the courthouse, I'm in the thing, and I'm with three other people that are getting the one of them's going away for three years, the other one's going away for two weeks, and the other one was going away for a year. I'm sitting in there and I'm reading the paper, the list of stuff that I gotta deal with now.

SPEAKER_05 50:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

And I told my mother, and even though his misdemeanors is domestic, domestic does not look good, and I'll get into that in a minute. Um, but I remember when I got hemmed up, as soon as I was getting cuffed up, I looked at my mother, I said, Call my lawyer right now. So by the time I got ready to arrange in Kent County and everything, even when I was leaving, the chief said, Oh, you're gonna you'll be out pretty soon. I mean, you'll be out by the end of the day, right? But I still didn't know what was gonna happen because it all depended on the lawyer at the end of the day, because if not, they could hell me, right? Yeah, they could hell me for two weeks, up to a month, whatever. Um so I'm in the room and uh my mother calls me. Oh no, not my mother calls me. They send, they send a the it was the chief or whatever who was down, um, the sheriff. He goes, Your your attorney's here. It's a different attorney. It's not my my attorney that's representing me in the divorce, it's his criminal attorney. So, you know, you're talking through the glass, like this whole nine things, right? And he's like, Listen, we're gonna get you through this, but you just gotta, you're gonna have to do one thing. You're gonna have to really like stay out of trouble while this is going on and not do anything wrong. And um, I remember going back in the cell and he's like, all right, you gotta wait a little bit of time, they're gonna we're gonna bring you back upstairs, right? And I remember being in the cell, and I'm looking at the paperwork, and I'm just like, man, this sucks. I kind of like I wasn't crying, but I was just so upset because like I'm like, man, I'm gonna let a I'm gonna let a woman in a relationship destroy like start to destroy my life. Now this is at a crossroads that I'm kind of at, right? That my cousin predicted and and said, Meanwhile, another thing I will say um before this happened, around the time I was leaving electric boat, I was also on uh FBI surveillance with a friend that got locked up um being watched. So there was like there was other things. My mind was already stimulated and going, right?

SPEAKER_05 52:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:48

Um that happened, and I'm in this, I'm in the cell with these three guys, and I I look and I'm like, man, I am not going back to drinking. I already had a year under my belt not drinking any booze. I said, I am not going back to drinking. And as I was leaving, the dude that was going away for two and a half years, he was he was covering for his cousin because his cousin had kids. He said, I took the heat. My cousin didn't do anything wrong. I said, That's really stand up of you, you know? And uh he uh That was my turning point and he shook my hand as the sheriff was taking me out and he goes, Listen, my brother, he goes, You do what you're doing, you you do not give it in, do not give in, do not go back to drinking, do what you gotta do. Yeah, do what you gotta do. And I did, and I did. And the sheriff's busting my ball, he's like, What are you doing? You're holding court, and they're like, What are you doing? And uh he's like, You you can go, you know, you're good, you're good. I'm like, Thank God, right?

SPEAKER_05 53:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:38

Um, but what happened was because of money, greed, a house, animals, 401ks, I ended up being on bail for almost nine months and getting dragged through the courts. I remember going there one day and the lawyer the the the judge looked at my lawyer and her lawyer and he said, I am sick of seeing him get brought in here. You two better figure it out, because I am I am sick of this, right? And the whole time, the whole entire time, I was getting phone calls from different numbers, and I'd have to call the police station and say, I just want you to know, I'm not trying to talk to anybody. The the the other person is contacting me. I am doing what I gotta do. I'm walking the straight line to not get jammed up, so yeah. No, you're good, you're good, you're good. But even during that time, even though I was walking the straight line and not talking to because there was no contact orders, restraining orders, all that stuff went in place. Right. I was wasn't drinking and still battling with opiates.

SPEAKER_02 54:36

Yeah. Well, we we only have a few minutes left. Um and so I kind of want to say, like, what is your what is what is the mission and vision of what you do and what is your hope to accomplish to where you're going and your goal?

SPEAKER_01 54:56

So absolutely. Um I got in I got in this, my main goal was I one day want to help the youth, right? I want to reach the youth. I want to reach the children because I never want them to go down the road I went, be exposed to things I was exposed to, and if they see signs, step away, right? Um because it's so important. And and I wouldn't trade my life for anything, but I like I said, I wouldn't want it for any other child. Um, and basically how I led into this, what happened was I woke up one morning, still on bail. Um, I was thrown out of my own house for like four months, couldn't see my animals, was let back in my house, it was left destroyed. By the time I got back in my house, I got a few nights in. I woke up one morning, I said, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm done. Yeah. Stop with opiates. And I said, once these straps are off my ankles, meaning court, divorce, fixing my credit, like just different things. Yeah. I'm gonna go on to help people. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna go on to help people. And literally got let off bail, every charge dismissed, had 90 days to pay my ex-wife out, got to keep my home, got let off bail two days later. I got hired at a men's facility that my cousin found recovery in, a close friend found recovery in, and that would be the full circle, beginning stages of the full circle that would open the door to my full-time job now where I'm so involved, but that's why I still stay loyal to that place. Um, and that's what happened full circle, and and for me, I said this is great because I'm working with the adults and I'm seeing the after effects, I'm seeing the struggle. And as I start to work with the youth and children, I'm really gonna develop my skills all the way around. And and my main goal was advocacy, right? So just to to advocate, to act, to be an activist, to to push the envelope on how important education is, right? Yeah. We we all know I worked construction for 20-something years, but what was I around? Other other attics, materials. It was a playground for me in so many ways, right? Right. Um and you destroy your body if you don't if you don't take care of yourself the right way. I wasn't taking care of myself the right way, so I was just destroying my body, right? Um, but you gotta, you always gotta, you gotta reach, you gotta reach for the stars, but you gotta keep your feet grounded, right? And with me, one thing uh a boss to me said years ago, he goes, uh, and this is when I was at electric boat still, he goes, I give you, I put more on your plate because you just need that little bit. You do better what when you have a little more to do than not enough to do. He couldn't have been more right about me, talk about knowing me better than me in some ways with that. And that's why when I got my main job, I said I'm staying loyal to the place that I got my start at. I'm gonna do social media, I'm gonna do content, I'm gonna become a voice. I joined HI. I became I started speaking throughout the state at different facilities. I got on a re-entry parole committee board, and now I'm starting to a little bit at a time, I'm starting to do things where I'm gonna be working with the youth. Um, like I said, between the warm handoffs, I I spoke to a couple of people that I know that teach um little league baseball and and and hockey and different things. So I want to start with with them first, people that are in sports and youth, because we all know steroids, painkillers, it all goes hand in hand. And I really, my vision is to get into the schools um and to bring a program with some of my friends that I grew up that were active with me, heavily in addiction or getting locked up or whatever. And I want to go to the schools with them and maybe a couple of keynote figures that played a big part, whether they were close to my cousin or close to me in a way, and guided me and also changed. And I want to bring that all together. Um, and I'm doing that. I got a recovery page that is phenomenal. Um, we're up to 400 followers. It's booming though. Like we've only had it up for a little over two months.

SPEAKER_04 58:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

All types of great social content um that I share. Social content of my late cousin Kevin, who was in the mortgage industry, but a lot of that relates to recovery and mental health. Um, some famous footage of my cousin Steven.

SPEAKER_02 59:00

And where where can people where can people find you on social media?

SPEAKER_01 59:04

Right on Facebook at any recovery RI. So it's New England Recovery, Rhode Island. Okay. And my partner is um my good friend Chris Van Dyson, and um he was an entrepreneur, and uh his story is amazing too. So we're almost everything I'm a part of, and I'm uh also part of like the Ripper, the Rye Cares, pushing the Pierre movement forward in Rhode Island. We're bringing a whole new wave between me, him, my supervisor. We are bringing a whole new wave of um recovery, and it's not just recovery for addiction, it could be recovery for mental health, recovery for it could be even cancer related, like anything, everyone in life has a struggle, and it's how you deal with those and how you you know you pull through, right? Right, that's what I'm trying to do. Break the stigma, a little bit of harm reduction centered, and and being proactive for the mental health. And and that's why it's so important too, whether it's your friends, your family members, to check in on people. Yeah. Say, hey, how you doing, or what's going on, man? Um, and that's and that's my goal is is to really do all that, reach the youth, and continue to get educated with the classes and uh sort of certifications I'm getting, and there's even thoughts of me going back to school.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:20

I can do a lot though with my credentials, believe me. I could be a director with the credentials that I'm working on, but I really want to just advocate and and who knows what's down the road. I mean, there could be I could have a recovery house one day named after any recovery rhode island. You never know. There's yeah, the options are unlimited. I'm doing things I never thought I would be doing in my life, and it's only one day at a time. But as long as I do the right thing, walk with integrity, and and keep myself clean from those opiates and that alcohol, which I've done. I got I got four years with no drinking.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:53

Awesome!

SPEAKER_01 1:00:54

Three years with no opiate use.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:56

That's great, Alex.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:57

Way to go. That's why that's why no matter all the pain, the hurt, um, and the the the funny thing was, um, you get tested in life, right? I thought after Steve and passing, I thought after I got in this field, I thought everything was gonna be good now. I got three years of horribleness. And then uh I want to pay a little bit of tribute. Um I lost who was like my kid brother Michael at the end of December to an ATV accident. Um two things that make a peer coach phenomenal motivational interviewing and meeting people where meeting people where they're at, right? And this kid did that his whole life. Um and he was such a special person. So uh that really that was like a test and you know to so many people. Um, and I didn't, you know, when when any little slight thought came in, I heard his voice, don't you dare you keep doing what you're doing, right? Yeah, and and that's it. And and just knowing recovery is possible, right? Change is possible, but life's gonna happen when life lifts, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

And my motto is I'm perfectly perfect at being imperfect.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:09

Yes. Well, um, on that note, Alex, thank you so much for sharing your story and your testimony and what you're doing now in life to help pave the road for others. And it was definitely joy to have you on to talk about where you're at now.