Burn-Break&Become Unstoppable B3u

Addiction & How to Fight It!

• Bree Charles

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Addiction often begins quietly—with pain, prescriptions, sleepless nights, and the pressure to appear strong—and my own path through chronic pain, Ambien dependence, and a military mindset of hiding struggle shows how tolerance and numbness can spiral into broken relationships and denial. Hitting bottom didn’t destroy me; it woke me up to surrender control to God, embrace a greater purpose, and admit I couldn’t fight addiction alone. Recovery came through practical steps: daily affirmations, a clean environment free of drama, accountability programs, mentors who’ve walked the path, and strategies to protect sleep, manage pain, and reset the mind without substances. This message is for anyone tempted by “just tonight” or families suffering in silence—choose action now, fight fear with repetition, and surround yourself with people who expect you to win. The fight continues daily, but progress, not perfection, is the goal, and sharing your story forward begins today.

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SPEAKER_00:

Greetings everyone, greetings, welcome back, welcome back. I'm so excited, so happy to see you guys again. Thank you for tuning in to my YouTube channel. Okay, so today this video is actually influenced by one of my good friends. I love her so much, and I'm so um honored and blessed that she asked me to speak about this topic that I have some knowledge in. So I'm just gonna uh go ahead and get right into it. I hope that this video reaches many people, whoever needs it, okay. I'm just gonna give you my insight. Okay, I always said that I will never touch a subject that I have no knowledge in. So I'm gonna go ahead and um speak about this, and I hope again that um this video touches and reaches whoever, whomever, wherever they are. Okay, so they're our video with today, what we're gonna talk about is addiction, the types of addiction, some causes of addiction, how to overcome addiction and our fears, okay. And this again, this all relates back to our what our choices versus our fears and how we can be in control. Now, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that this is easy, okay, because we all, those for of you who know how addiction can sometimes really take control. We have to take back that control, guys. We have to choose to be free. Now, some types of addiction is our street drugs, our prescription drugs, maybe even food. And uh, what are these causes? The causes for some of these addictions is what peer pressure, family influence, low self-esteem. We look for an outlet, okay? Stress. Stress can be the number one cause of some of our addictions, okay? And sometimes pain. We'd be in so much pain. We look for that outlet. We look for that just that that break in our lives. Okay, so we turn to these street drugs, these prescription drugs, we overeat, you know, we we turn to these things because of, you know, what we may be going through. And I'm very, very familiar, very familiar with this subject. You know, um I like to be very open and honest so you guys know where I come, where I'm coming from. Okay. Um, as, you know, um someone who suffers from fibromyalgia, migraines, um, just all types of uh pain, you name it. So I was always, you know, um in the military, we would go in uh everybody who's military personnel, the first thing they tell you is what Tylenol, right? Tolanol, drink water, hydrate, you know. And that's what they would always give you. And, you know, um, also um, you know, I suffered from a stroke in my career, my late, my late career and my military career, I suffered from a stroke. And one thing I've always been is very strong-willed, very strong-willed. So when I suffered from that stroke, I always was like, I never wanted anybody to look at me as less of a person, or oh, look at her, like pity me. I never wanted anybody to pity me. So my thing was was what, you know, I gotta find some way. So, you know, nobody looks at me like a weak link, like she can't do this. Only have a few more years, only have three more years, and then I'm I'm good, I'm done, I can do this, you know. So I didn't want nobody to pity me. I had to keep that persona of the type of person that I was. So, how did I do it? I started with the prescription drugs. And we all know once you get hooked on something or you take it too long, should I say, it does what? It decreases. Now you need more. You need to up the milligrams. Okay. Um, so that's what I was doing. It's like I I needed a stronger dose of that medication to take that pain away so nobody could see what I was going through, and I was able to smile through it. Okay, um, another thing, um prescription drug that I suffer suffered with was sleep, and I I could never sleep. So the mill um I was prescribed what ambient, right? So ambien, you know, it works good in the first time. During the first, you know, few months it works good. Well, after a while, about six months, whatever, starts to what it starts to wear off. So therefore, you know, I started saying, okay, I I'm not sleeping. I mean, guys, I could stay up for a period of 48 hours, maybe even longer. That's how bad my um sleep was off. And then on top of the sleep, I'm in pain. I can't sleep because I'm in pain. My mind is racing a thousand miles per minute. I just need something to just put me to sleep so I don't have to think about a thing. Right? So it was the ambient. And so after that wore off, of course, it's like, okay, five milligrams wasn't working anymore. You know, telling the doc, you know, this not working. Okay, sure, we'll up your milligrams. So what they do, they up your milligrams. So now I'm taking 10. I'm sleeping good. So now it's like, oh, okay, oh, this is good. Okay, you know, the pain that we got the pain medication here. We got the sleep medication over here. And I mean, I'm taking them, and life is great. You know, I'm numb. You know, I'm right in that space that I want to be. I just want to feel numb. I don't want to feel nothing. No pain. I don't want to think. I just want to sleep. Right. Now, again, here we go again, right? It's not working anymore. It's not working anymore. So now things start to happen. Okay, I'm lashing out at my family. I'm getting aggravated because it's not working, no matter how many I take, how many times I take it. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm eating ambience like Tic Tacs, you know, and it's like, you know, none of this is working. I get frustrated because, you know, this pain that my body is in is not working anymore. I'm not who I used to be. I want to get, I want that feeling back. And if I can't get that feeling back, then I just want to feel numb, right? So after a while I notice that, okay, now I'm in a place where I'm hurting people. I'm hurting my family. You know, I'm doing things that I don't normally do. And it's showing. It may not be showing to the outside world, but it's showing to those that are close to me. What am I gonna do? But I'm so far and I'm so deep into this. I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna take them. I'm not, I'm just not gonna do it. But here we have another long night, and I'm just tossing, I'm turning, I can't sleep. And now it's like, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and take it. Because I'm gonna just just tonight, just tonight, I'm just gonna take this medication just so I could get through the night. And I promise I won't take it tomorrow. Well, we all know I was lying to myself. This medication now has taken over me to where the point where when you think you're in control, you're not in control. I was not in control. That medication was controlling me. Although I was tricking myself to say, oh, okay, well, you know what? It might work this time. You know, so you know, um, I'll I'll try again. I'll try again, you know, to not do it the next night or the next night. The next night turns into the next night. I just need to get out of this pain that I'm feeling. I just need to get some sleep. But all the while, guys, I was tearing myself down and in the inside, okay, with empty promises to myself. Still now I'm going to work. Nobody knows. Like, you know, I'm in at work is, you know, when we're out in the public, some addicts, some addicts are so good, we could play the public like a fiddle. Nobody will know. Only people that know is those that are very close to you. You know, some addicts are very, we we could be very tricky. You wouldn't you would never know because we hide that pain. We hide that pain because we don't want anybody to know what we're going through until it becomes out of control. Now the drugs have taken control. Now, not only do your immediate family sees it, but then you have people at work like, you know, that's just not the same person that we know. So then you get the little questions like, hey, everything okay with you? Everything all right? And then, you know, the moment somebody on the outside asks you that question, everything all right with you, you good? And you, you, you know, now it's like, oh, snap, you know, then caught on. So then what do you do? We we lash out at those that are on the outside who are just trying to, you know, help us, or maybe some are trying to be nosy, you know, you never know. But now you start, now it's starting to show. It's starting to show, and then we try to hide it even more. You know, ain't nothing wrong with me. Don't ever think something's wrong with me. You know, people wanted to get me help, and I'm like, ain't nothing wrong. I don't need no help. You know, I fought and I fought in my military career to stay in just so I could finish. So I was kind of also pressured from my peers around, I was just pressured to stay in the fight. I wanted to stay in the fight. I keep telling myself that I can do this, you know, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna finish. But I'm I wasn't hurting anybody but myself. I was hurting everyone who loved me. I was tearing them down with me. So, you know, that's what I'm saying when when we talk about how to overcome an addiction, you have to make a choice. You have to make a choice to choose not to let anything, anything or anyone to have that much control over you to where you start to lose yourself, where you don't even remember who you are anymore. Who you are becomes this is like a fantasy. You you can't even remember. If you stay in your addiction so long, you lose everything about yourself. To where not only you don't know who you are, but those around you don't even know who you are. And it, you know, it's it's it's a hurtful situation for everybody. But, you know, sometimes I would look at my family and see how I was, you know, just hurting my children and how they just didn't know who their mom was. And I I would look and I would be like, oh gosh, you know, they'll be all right, you know. They'll they'll be all right. We'll get through this, you know, and you just kind of just push everybody to the back burner. Your pain and your comfort is your number one priority. Until after a while you don't even, you don't even see. You don't even see, you don't even know. You're just in this whole another state of mind. And and after a while you just you stop caring. You stopped caring. But I tell you one thing, I will say that the way I overcame my addiction, number one, is because again, I say that I chose to not let anything, you have to have that fighting spirit. A fighting spirit. You have to find a purpose. What is your purpose? Uh one of my another one of my good friends, um I she she just amazes me how she was in the worst condition of of being an addict. And I stay, and I would never, never, ever have I would believe that she was a crack addict in my life. And I and I say that she was one who was, I mean, full blown crack addict. And I you can look at her today and you would never even know. And I asked her, I said, how in the world that I mean, now she when I tell y'all she was full blown. I mean, she don't you you see those people that be walking and talking to themselves and you know, um doing all kinds of weird things. We look at them, we be laughing, and they have no teeth and all of that. I'm telling you, you would never, ever, ever in a million years see this woman as a a past drug user. You would never even know. And I said, sis, how did you beat that? Like people don't come back from that state. She said, Brie, she said, I got tired. I got tired, and I was at my lowest point, and she said she just gave it over to God. And let me tell you, that is a a powerful, powerful move. And when she said that to me, it reminded me, I said, Yeah, uh to myself. I said, Yeah, I remember that feeling. That feeling that when you get so low, you can't get no lower. To where you are just, you are tired. I am tired of just being in this situation. And you have to give it over to God. You just have to get up, give it over because you are at that point where you have did everything under the sun to try to fool those around you, fool yourself, and it's not working because this drug or this whatever it is has so much control over you, you don't have it anymore. So therefore, you can't control it. It's controlling you, and you're you're just tired. So, one of the things I did was I found my purpose. I said to myself that this is not the life, this is not the way I want to go. This is not all that I've accomplished in my life to do to have something come and take it away from me and my family. So you have to find a purpose. First, you have to make the choice to choose not to let anything or anyone have that much control over you. You have to find a purpose, whether your purpose be your children, your family, your spouse. One of my biggest things was saving others, okay? Saving others can even be a great source of let me tell you, my biggest, my biggest, biggest things in my career were my soldiers. I always put my soldiers and people before myself. I always had the heart and the mind to want to save and help others. So how in the world, somebody, uh one of my commanders would has said to me, he's like, soldier, you can't save anybody if you are torn up, if you are broken down. How are you any good to these soldiers if you can't help yourself? And that that people, you know how when you're on the airplane and they tell you to put your mask on before you and then assist the person next to you. Sometimes the things that people say to you, it's like that light just clicks right on, and at that moment you say, You're right. You're you're right. How am I helping my soldiers if I'm not helping myself? And then one thing I hate to be as a hypocrite. When you're telling soldiers or you're telling people to hold on, and you're up here, you just all torn apart and you fell apart on the inside, but you still trying, still trying to help someone else. First, you have to make yourself your purpose. Make yourself your purpose. Okay, make yourself your purpose first so that you can do whatever your passion and your purpose is. Have faith in yourself. Faith, even if it's a small, as they say in the Bible, as a mustard seed. You have to have faith. Sometimes in our minds, we just be like, I can't do this. I I can't do this. You you're right. You can't do it on your own. When you just sit and say, I can't do this by myself. I can't. I give all of my being, all of myself unto you, Father, my creator. Only God can save you when you are at the point of no return. But you have to have that small little faith in yourself, and you have to have that purpose. Look around you, look around you. Some people don't have a purpose. Some people don't have a purpose. They say, I don't have a purpose, I don't have any kids. You know, I don't have any kids, I don't have, you know, look, what do you like to do? Find what is it that before you let this addiction take control, what did you like to do? Did you like to write? Did you like to read? Did you like to sing? Did you like to help others? What is your passion? What is your passion? Whatever your passion is, that's your purpose. Okay? Motivational speaking, helping, saving others. That's my passion. So this is my purpose to get myself right and not let anything control me. And then I don't want to be hypocritical. I don't want to be saying things to my audience that I'm not doing myself. And then you have to believe in yourself. If you don't believe in you, nobody else is. Nobody else is going to believe in you if you don't believe in yourself. You have to have that faith in yourself, faith in God, and then believe in yourself that you're going to make this through. And know that nothing comes easy for those that are determined to succeed. If you are determined to beat this addiction, if you are determined to not let your family watch you suffer or hurt your family anymore, or you want to be better than those before you, you must know that this is not going to be easy. I would sit here and lie to you if I said that everything that I've done in my life is easy. Everything I have done in my life, I have worked for. Nothing to me ever came easy. We look around and we say, oh, look how this person did it. Or, you know, you look at other people who survived, and you was like, oh, I don't know how they did it. You know, they make it look so easy. No, bruh, sis, no. No, it's not easy. It's not easy. Not easy at all. By no means. Okay. Reach out to those that love you enough to stand by your side to see you succeed. And if you don't have anybody there on your side to help you succeed, then believe in you are all you have. And you have to have that faith in God because you're not alone. You think you're alone, but you're not. I challenge you to give it over to God. I challenge you to say, I can't do no more. I'm done. God, I give it to you. I have faith. But faith without works is what? Dead. You have to do the work. You have to do the work. Okay? Now, how, and then, you know, here come these fears again. I'm not gonna be able to, I'm not gonna be able to do this. I need to go and I need I just need this one little fix. I just need this one little thing. And then I promise I'll start tomorrow, the next month, when the pills run out. I promise I'm gonna stop overeating like that as soon as the food is gone. No, sis, my brother. No, the time is now. The time is now. Kick that fear in the rear. I like that. It rhymed, right? Kick that fear. Kick that fear. Repetitious speech. What I always say about repetitious speech. I can't. I will. I will not let this take me down like it took my uncles. My father, my mother, my sister, my brother. I won't, I don't want to be like that. I want to change the circle. I want to change the circle. I'm gonna be that one that changes my family history. I'm gonna be the one that changes all of that repetitious. I can. I am going to, I will. And you have to fight. You have to fight like somebody about to kick your dog or somebody about to hurt your child. You gotta fight because all of this addiction is hurting your family. Now, for those of you who love your family, those of you who love yourself, you ain't gonna let nobody run up on you. You're gonna fight, right? So don't let addiction run upon you. Fight, fight. Positive thoughts. Positive thoughts. You have it is so hard. I not do it every day, guys. Every day I am fighting. So don't think that, oh, you're just saying, no, things God is still working with me. Every day I wake up, I am still fighting. My feet are still pounding the ground with repetitious thinking. I'm fighting. Yo, my mind is not gonna take over me. I refuse the negative thought and the negative, I've I dismiss all negative energy from around me. I don't want it around. I can't even watch TV because it's too much drama. I can't do it. If TV is overwhelming and my husband, he laughs at me like you never finish a series. You never finish a TV like this snowfall. I can't do it. I can't do it because it's too much. I don't want no drama around me, period. That's how serious I am. So I'd get positive thoughts, and you got to watch the things and the people that are around you. Even the things that you see on TV or the people that you're around, you have to let me tell you, a positive environment. Surround yourself with a team of people who want to see you excel, people who believe in you. Okay, my grandmother, God rest her beautiful, beautiful soul. Okay, she was a beautiful woman and she had the most potent words that you now that I think back, you know, now you know, as I'm grown, I think back, I'm like, why would she say things like that? That was just a funny saying. But she would say, you lay down with dogs and you'll wake up with fleas. That was the truest statement. Now that is something that I tell my children, I tell uh all those around me, and I'm telling it to you. Repel your fleas, repel them. What which and your feet, your fleas are your fears. Repel those naysayers, repel those people that don't mean good for you. If you're around other people, you know, misery loves company as long as you are around with people that's doing the drugs, oh, they're your best friends. They're your best friends, you know? They are your best friends because they're comfortable and they want you to be comfortable in the misery with them. But if you want to do more, then people start to act what? Funny, right? No, repel them. Repel them people. Um, be become greater. Get out of your own way. Get out of. We always, when we try to get and take control, it never works. It never, it never works. It always fails when we get in our own way. Okay? Let the creator take the will. You you are no longer the driver because you're impaired. You don't, we're not supposed to get in a car and drive drunk, right? So hand over the keys, people. Hand over the keys, give them to someone, give them to someone else, and let God be the ultimate control where you're gonna where you're trying to get to. Be in control of your fears. Don't let the fears run you, run your fears away. Okay? It's not gonna be easy. Once you get that team, you get that person that's on your side, okay? You're gonna need all the help you can get. There are programs that are out there. Programs that are out there to help you beat addiction. You need a whole team, you need a whole tribe to get through addiction. Addiction is one hell of a thing. One hell of a thing to get to, get through. But people, you can do it. I'm telling you, I have seen. I have seen with my own eyes people who have beat addiction. And I I I'm so proud today that I have these people in my life because once you start to talk to people, talk to people who have done it. Ask them, how'd you do it? Sis, how'd you do it? Bro, how'd you do it? Find again, surround yourself with a team, a team that is going to be by yourself, somebody who you can't sit around another drug user and say, Man, how you gonna do this? And they're gonna feed you some false narrative. Oh, one day I'm I'm gonna go ahead and just put this down. I'm just stopped. And they still doing it. You know, you can't be, you need to get around people who has done the work. Choice versus our fears be in control. Choose, find your purpose, find your purpose. I challenge you on today to do that. Find your purpose, get out of your own way. This can be done. It's not easy every day. I am still fighting a fight. I am still in the struggle of repetitious thinking, positive outcome, positive surroundings, and I fight each and every day, and you can too. I challenge you on today, people. Thank you for coming. Thank you for listening. Again, any questions, comments that you may have, put them in the comment box. I'm listening, I'm here. Again, I tell you that my way of fighting my some of my demons is by helping others. Okay, and I'm proud to say that I am getting through each and every day, and I'm getting stronger and greater and better. You can do it too, we can do it together. Thank you for tuning in. Y'all have a blessed, blessed day.