Trauma, Recovery, and Life After the UFC | Jessica Eye

Jessica Eye joins Never Alone Live for a powerful conversation about trauma, addiction, recovery, mental health, and life after professional fighting.

A former UFC fighter and title contender, Jessica opens up about growing up with abuse, using fighting as an outlet, navigating alcohol addiction after retirement, and the work it takes to heal from years of survival mode. She shares her experiences with PTSD, athlete mental health, recovery, and finding a new purpose beyond the cage.

This episode is an honest look at resilience, healing, and what recovery can look like when you're willing to face the pain you've spent years trying to outrun.

📅 Find all Never Alone Recovery livestreams, meetings, support groups, and events:
 https://neveralonerecovery.com/events/

📧 Register for meetings and join our email list to stay connected with the Never Alone Recovery community.

📞 Need support? Call our confidential helpline:
 855-831-9996

🌐 Learn more:
 https://neveralonerecovery.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome everyone to Never Alone Live. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. I'm Johnny, of course, joined by Krista the Sober Barbie. And today we have a very special guest, Jessica. I, retired UFC fighter and recovery. Uh and not only are you in recovery, but you're an advocate. And uh before we get started, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna do something different, and we're gonna play a little video to kind of set the tone, if you will. Uh so Megan, if you want to play that video, please.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

You just threw your gloves down. Does that mean what I think it means?

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Yeah, I think it's time, you know. Like I've been a pro since 24. Sorry, since uh 2009. You know, I've had plenty of UFC fights. I met Basie. I met Macy right after she won the contender series, and she was sitting by herself, and I could see the talent in her. And I invited her over to sit and talk with me and not feel like she was alone. And if I could give anything back in this sport, it's we need to stop separating ourselves and help each other as fighters, project ourselves in so many ways. I've won inside the octagon, I've lost, but I've spent my entire 20s and most of my 30s. Like, I'd like to see what the rest of the world looks like. And dang it, Joe, can I get on your podcast one day?

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Let's do it. But listen, thank you very much for all your entertaining fights inside the octagon, and best of luck to you and everything you do in the future. It's been an honor to call your fights. Jessica, hi, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

I have the chills all over.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Well, we might yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:58

That video is so bittersweet.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

We might not be the Joe Rogan podcast, but you're on the Never Alone Live podcast right now.

unknown 2:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 2:09

Well, I appreciate no matter what who wants to talk about things, but yeah, I mean, it's so bittersweet to like even just watch that video and to think that was four years ago almost now. And it's mind-blowing to, you know, see her and see that version of myself, right? To to see that. And um, wow, what you know, what a what a beautiful moment. We're obviously we'll wait for Joe Rogan, eventually he'll have us on there. But um, yeah, cool, cool life, cool experience, you know. And it's crazy. Obviously, I came back to fighting, you know, on some level. I can't, I haven't said I'd done, you know, I haven't done MMA, but um, you know, at that time in my life, MMA needed to have like um a closure. You know, I needed uh to I needed to retire from it for a while.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

So let's let's uh let's dig it into it. Let's go back and not and we'll talk about, you know, tell us about yourself. Tell what how what got you into fighting, what got you into the UFC, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 3:11

Yeah, you know, it's kind of a crazy long story. And you know, over the years, the way that I've told it, you know, essentially it's never really changed, but it's evolved. But the main reason, you know, I got into mixed martial arts was, you know, I was a child abuse victim, you know, I was abused as a young girl and you know, mainly by men. And I wanted to find an outlet. I didn't want to, you know, I didn't want to fall victim to addiction. I didn't want to see or be like some of the things that I had seen growing up. And I really fell full face into fitness, into mixed martial arts when I was 19 years old. Um, I happened to meet a really good group of guys that were really already involved in the early years of the UFC. And, you know, I was super fortunate that I met them and you know, found my way. I mean, back then, you know, there were no women in the UFC. Women were barely even fighting. I mean, shoot, you used to have to go to Blockbuster to rent UFCs to watch them, you know. So, um, you know, I was fortunate up to meet the right amount of people and was able to develop such a strong career that, you know, Rhonda Rousey came around and everyone, you know, was like, wait a minute, is the UFC actually gonna bring women on? And they finally did.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

That's amazing. That's amazing. So I'm and you know, we talk a lot about trauma and trauma release, and a lot of people, you know, take that trauma and they use it in and getting getting high and escaping. And you used it to whoop people's asses.

SPEAKER_05 4:51

Yeah, you know, it was something about like, you know, what where's the saying, you know, the idol mind's a devil's workshop, right? They at least that's something I've heard. An Idle Mind was a devil's workshop. And for me, you know, that idol mind and a place that I wanted at the time, you know, I lied to myself in my early nine, you know, 1920, even throughout my 20s, and being like, I don't have PTSE, that's a choice. And it wasn't until later years of my life that I was like, wait a minute, Jessica, that's just not true. And you know, thank goodness during that time I used it as an outlet, right? I I did deny myself some level of understandingfully during that time. It kept me so motivated and so driven. You know, unfortunately, the addiction that I've suffered from the most has been, you know, my alcohol use. Um, and even my exploring of other drugs throughout my career and being around the spotlight and you know, being a young person and being kind of exposed to that, you know, lifestyle. That um during those beginning years, I was so focused and believed in myself so much that I was like, I could do this. That really my addiction was in the gym too much. It was constantly in the gym. It was almost denying the fact that I had had other issues that I needed to deal with. Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

So if uh so as you got into your career in fighting, um um you know, how did that progress with the alcoholism, with the addictions and things like that?

SPEAKER_05 6:30

You know what's crazy is like I and I I feel like um it's kind of reversed, right? Like for me and where alcohol was, it was because there was three times a year I would be fighting, right? So I would not be drinking for 90 days. So like if we did the math, you know, 90 times three, you know, that's what uh almost what what's the math? Oh my god, that's so bad. What is that math on that?

SPEAKER_01 6:53

270 days sober.

SPEAKER_05 6:55

What is it? 200 okay, 270 days out of the year, I was sober, right? I could guarantee that, you know, because of all the years of fighting, and from the age of 19 until you know, 35, I knew I could literally count the days of what days I'd actually drank, right? It wasn't until that video that you posted, you know, that I really faced on that there was nothing to stop me from drinking. And that's when the years, you know, really became like wow, or I should say those two solid years, it's almost brought me to to this point of full spray, is that there was something to look forward to. I had a competition, I you know, I wouldn't drink, you know, and then again, it the things that showed me I had a problem would be the binging, right? As if it was over and we're talking for a week straight, seven days straight, I'm drinking, right? That's a problem. That's not that's me, you know, not balancing my disciplines, you know, with myself. So it really didn't surface heavily until you know fighting was done, right? Jess is retired, right? She's you know about her her little bit of money now, she's got free time. What are you gonna do with it? What are you gonna do with all that free time you have now? And then that's it really exposed. I exposed myself um to my own self that you know I had had a problem that I was able to keep almost in into almost in a cage, right? Because it was there. Um, but then what was gonna happen the next 20 years of my life, guys? Like, what was I gonna do? I didn't have fun, right? With what was gonna stop me from you know not getting there. And unfortunately, I I in that time I got arrested twice, you know, hurt myself multiple times, you know, uh physically. I wrecked my motorcycle because of alcohol. You know, all these little things started to happen that never happened in my whole life throughout my entire career, you know.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

This is uh that well, I don't know what happened to the connection. I know we so we are officially off of uh Facebook and Instagram because I think of UFC copyrights for showing that video. Uh but this is all being recorded and it's all on YouTube. So it's oh no, yeah, uh, but it's uh we're good no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

They moved quick, they moved really fast.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

They uh they didn't I don't think they liked us for that.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

But they let'll mess around.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

But now we know uh so okay.

SPEAKER_05 9:27

Gosh, yeah, I'm so sorry. Who knew who knew that was gonna happen?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

No, what are you sorry for? It's uh you know, it we didn't know that that was uh gonna happen either. I since you were on it, maybe uh I thought that it would be okay. But um uh back into the conversation. Krista, what do you what do you take from all this that we're learning so far?

SPEAKER_02 9:47

I'm just uh I I'm in awe of you because like just realize like looking back and reflecting on all that and like being able to see why you did certain things and um that like there was always you were just trying to escape it really with another thing and another thing, and and now you have that moment of clarity and you're able to like see for what it is, and now you're ready to really heal and grow, and um it's super it's really powerful from watching that clip and then everything you just said, it's just very empowering, and um like such a short time of recovery, and you are already like realizing all that take it took me like eight years to like get to that point, so that's really powerful.

SPEAKER_05 10:36

It's kind of it's like you know, I think I had mentioned, you know, most of the people have been following me know that a year ago I had made the I had said publicly, like, hey, I'm not drinking alcohol, I don't support alcohol, it has no um there's no place in my life anymore. It's bringing out sides of me, and you know, alcohol was never one of those things, like I never tried to go out and fight people at the bar. You know what I mean? It it was always traumatizing to my life, or unfortunately, I um it came out a lot in my intimate partner from my boyfriends, right? And that makes sense, right? I was traumatized by my father, the first love of my life, you know, though it makes sense because of all of the things I've done, all the different um healing modalities, the different facilities, you know, I I went to to try to seek help, to seek understanding, that I was still using alcohol on occasions that over the last 45 days of being sober again, officially for like lifetime, like this is forever. It nothing is more true than to say that to myself, that everything finally makes sense. You know what I mean? And I'm pretty, I'm I'm pretty like standard in the way I think of things like if it makes sense, it works, right? Like if it's fixed, don't break it, you know. So it's allowed me, it's allowed me peace.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

The the self-awareness is is the key, you know, and recognizing, you know, replacing one addiction for another, you know, even though and and and I I'm a firm believer that not all addictions are bad addictions, and you know, a healthy routine and a healthy addiction, you know, is going, you know, I'm a runner and uh I've run uh a few marathons and you know the 18-week training program, it's intense and and it's addictive. And you know, but I you know that's that doesn't you know give negative it's it's addiction is all about powerlessness and unmanageability. When something makes my life unmanageable, that's when it becomes a bad thing. When it, you know, be it drinking, drugs, uh gambling, um, you know, whatever, you know, those addictions are the ones that you know bring you unmanageability. You know, bringing it and honing it in, honing in your trauma into a healthy addiction of going to the gym and you know, beating people up for a living. That's uh, I don't know, that's not a bad thing. But then when that ends, that's the big part. That's the big part is what do I do then? And you know, and now we're into you know, so you retired in 2005, and that's 21 years ago.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

Do not know 2022.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Oh, you require 2022 arbitrary. Oh, okay, good, because that's a that's a lot of time.

SPEAKER_04 13:28

Yeah, 2022.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Um, the uh the so 2022, and in four years, that's uh that's when you you know had to find a new outlet, and you went after an outlet that is a it's very common to go after you know drugs and alcohol because of the escape. And we get to escape the thoughts of the past, we get to escape the thoughts that we're not doing what we were doing before. I mean, it's all escape, right? Um, but and then now then we had the then we get the yes, these things that didn't happen to us yet that lead us to our bottom, that lead us to that gift of desperation, um, where we actually get some humility. Um and I know you've touched briefly on it, and when we talked before, you know, about the like the motorcycle accident. Uh this is something this was this was uh kind of a God moment where you know it's like we look at it at the time and it's like, oh my god, this is the worst thing ever happened. But now, hindsight being 2020, that motorcycle accident where you survived, you know, you know, kind of pushed you to a place where you know it's like like hey, I have to look back and I gotta get a change some shit. I know I rambled there for quite a while.

SPEAKER_04 14:51

I think that you know, unfortunately, no, that's great.

SPEAKER_05 14:55

You know, you said it best, though, but like, you know, and unfortunately, due to what how I how I have developed my character traits, right? Like, we have character faults, we have character traits, who we are as a person, not only who we are authentically to ourselves, but because of our trauma. Naturally, me as a person, probably one of my best qualities is I believe I can do anything. I can believe I can do anything. Like, if there's a way, I will find a way to do it. And even down to the point at times it's negative, you know, it's just to saying, you know, what you're saying. So to be able to find myself to be able to hold myself accountable to that same mentality so that I don't self-sabotage myself is kind of like um there was an analogy that was once told to me about holding onto our balloon, right? And having this balloon, and basically that's what's keeping us grounded. And in any given time, I can let go of that balloon if I want to, or I can hold it. Yeah, I have that choice of how all of it, you know, how it gets processed, how I use it, and how I'm learning how to use that is not the same girl that used it at 19. I'm 39 now. I can't use the same techniques that I used back then. They have to evolve. And I've you know had time to practice and do that, you know, and you know, I've been fortunate. I was able to come out of retirement and take a fight that was really fun, and it pretty much was very perfect. You know, most people would say it's bare knuckle boxing, you know, it's fist. But to me, it was therapeutic as crazy as this sounds, as somebody who has felt fist on my hand, you know, face from my father and the abuse, that it was like a fun, it was like poetry, you know. I mean, I was able to do it healthy. I didn't have a parasite, you know, which is one of the reasons I retired from the UFC and a bad parasite. I wasn't feeling my best, I hadn't emotionally healed, but I got to come out of retirement, walk out and do a corn song, just felt completely badass. And I got to do that. So if I never fought again, I think I could be okay with it because I got to come out feeling the best way I am, and now I'm alcohol free. I'm smiling all the time. I'm happy, I can be an outlet to other people. It's it's giving me the opportunity, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Uh-oh. Her connection has been pretty.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

I think we pissed, I think we pissed UFC off, period. Okay. Um this is good stuff. I want to hear what she else she has to say. But she's literally saying there's a silver lining in it all, and there's positive in the negative, and to embrace the negative. You know, she literally embraced it. And retirement isn't for it, it might not be forever, it could be temporary, you know. And from what I see, people who love something that they really, really love to do, and they retire, they always go back. They always go back.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

They end that's it. That they do. What do you should uh should we uh should we end and restart? I don't know uh what we should do here because uh it this whole thing is just messed up everything. Should we do that? Um Megan, uh I'm I'm messaging you. Um, there we go.

SPEAKER_05 18:02

I was trying to get it back. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Oh, there you are back. Yes. Okay, so we were uh you were right on right on a roll, and you were talking about uh retirement and and all that stuff. Um, you know, I know we we've we've got we're back. We're back. So talk to me about you know what recovery is.

SPEAKER_05 18:29

Okay, we're back. Sorry guys.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

What does recovery look like for you? You know, you've recognized your your character defects, you've recognized that alcohol and and drugs are are not the option. What uh what do you do now?

SPEAKER_05 18:49

You know what's crazy is like I just explore more. I find myself finally being like um enjoying things like going to the beach, going to a mango stand like yesterday, you know, down on Fort Lauderdale Beach, just walking around, being on the beach and you know, being sober and not being like, okay, just because I got my workout in, I let's go pick up a bottle of tequila, let's have cocktails in the afternoon. That I'm finding myself enjoying things more of just like again exploring things that like normally it was always like, oh, just grab a bottle, we're gonna go drink while we go do this activity. And you know, by the end of it, you're just drunk and then I'm tired or I don't feel good, or you know, it's leading to bad eating. And you know, for me, it's like um, it's it's actually been probably what other people would say is like I'm really disciplined, probably almost a little anal to the point of like being like Jessica, like you, you know, like it's easy to not do that because I've made that commitment that I don't even really think about it, right? Like, but I have I found myself wanting to do more things like every day find something different to do, something new to explore, a new activity to go do.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

You know, retire retirement is tough for anybody, but retiring as a young person has to be extremely difficult. Um, you know, and you know, so finding uh a new routine and a new uh way of of you know we just look at life different. And I know you uh you uh you know, you get back in the gym, and you know, I uh I'm a big believer in you know using fitness. Um, and you know, I use fitness as a meditation. You don't use fitness as a meditation, you use fitness as a as a release, and uh, you know, uh talk about that and talk about you know your your new endeavor and new project.

SPEAKER_05 20:50

So really it's gonna again wanting to help other athletes, again, in my position, that transition to the next stage of life, right? Because it does happen a lot of times, right? Like most people retire when they're in their 50s and 60s, they've been at a longtime job, they have this retirement, they have this whole thing set up for them through their 401k. Whereas athletes, we don't, you know, a lot of times, sometimes your retirement is the fact that your body just no longer in your 20s. Maybe you've blown your out your ACL too many times, and you just have to retire from that part. It doesn't mean you're retired forever. It doesn't mean you're a youth, useless tool, and you're just thrown away and you don't have value, you know, and it's helping those, you know, athletes. So I most recently started um an organization called the the Golden Eye Athletics, and it's going to be, you know, allocated for athletes and to be able to help athletes with transition and mental health work. I think mental health is obviously very scary for athletes, you know, and it's for anybody, but you take MMA athletes, you take some of these football players, you know. only hearing about their mental health struggles after they've committed suicide or they've wrecked their car from a DUI. And you know, a lot of this is secretly done behind the scenes because we look as athletes as superheroes, you know, somebody that is capable of doing something in all reality, you know, quid pro quo what for what, you have the strongest human being might be one of the weakest emotionally. And um they just need to build those reps, do those mental reps, do those things that, you know, will help them. So I'm hoping as I continue to develop myself, learn from people like yourself who are already in the industry of helping of individuals, you know, I don't know how to bring these athletes together to be as vulnerable as I am and say, hey, look, it's okay to need help, right? It's okay to talk about it. It's okay to be sober. It's okay to figure out what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

What did you say the name of it is Goldeneye? Goldeneye Athletics. Goldeneye Athletics. That's awesome. And helping others is the key. Helping others is the next phase, you know, and you know so much about this. And let's let's we're gonna back up and let's talk about extreme sports and addiction because this is a this is something big and this is something that you know more about than than anybody.

SPEAKER_05 23:24

Yeah you know I mean you know let's talk about like um you know our physiology and our body a little bit and thinking about you know when someone is a uh PTSD or a C P TSC victim, right? Your brain neurons get developed in certain ways your body gets developed in those younger years that manifests in our bodies later. When it comes to athletes you know we train certain neuropathways right in our brain to be impulsive to be that way to be able to be react fast you know so we've trained our brains that way when we've added alcohol to already to the lobe of our brain that controls our impulse our emotions to a part that's already been abused if we're talking about football players right heads envelope trauma boxers you know what I mean like they're the ones that are naturally dealing with it already and I think that they're the ones that are exposed to it the most so that we don't we don't naturally think about it right in that way. You know like you already be you already trained that part of your brain to be a certain way but then we're also damaging it at the same time I mean I think that um it's something that needs to be taken care of more.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

You know traumatic brain injury is very common in NFL and in MMA that we're starting to realize how important it is to take care of it and take it take it seriously and and with that comes addiction right you know I grew up I grew up in the 80s and watching the WWF and watching the you know the Hokamaniacs and the rotten Randy Macho man savage and the Jimmy Superfly Snookas and the Ultimate Warrior and I could go on and on and on but that was and my kid has all the action figures right now we're in a fighting state and it was so good and you know and you hear the stories now of these guys and the amount of of drugs they did later I mean besides steroids besides this the amount of extra drugs has I mean they they're so high so intense that when they get done they come down and they need something to bring them back up again.

SPEAKER_05 25:35

You know and I know that that's still kind of commonplace right well you know it's one of those things it's like we're watching stories about it like those guys are this happened to people in the past that give us information about what is still going on in the future WWE still exists those moves still exist people are still getting hit that way if those guys are where they are now 25 years now from that why would we not look at that information and be like hey if this is what those guys went through this is our this is almost we're being told the future we're being told hey look this is what can happen to athletes this is what can happen we need to be conscious of it we need to be aware of it and how many WWE starts can we say of some of the females that are out there right now that I think it's Natalie right is one another one that's sober right some of these girls who have said now since like hey I need to be sober because of these things and because I did that to my body you know it's no fault of our own right we enjoy doing what we do and people enjoy seeing it but it's like being a carpet installer your knees are going to hurt eventually after 20 years. You know what I mean regardless of how how you how you did it you just wore it you used it you hurt it just has been overused so if we think about our brains and smashing it against the cage smashing it against another fist like we just have to operate in a way that says hey we have to take care of it.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Alcohol and drugs have absolutely zero place you know not only in a healthy brain let alone a damaged TBI brain for multiple years you know by choice you know because of our our career choice you know and it's it's so it's so right now you know pain is is is very common throughout the entire country and these pain pills are out there and people are getting addicted to these pain pills and I mean a UFC fighter a football player any sports player a carpet layer who you know anybody this is this is subject to anybody and there's all these pain pills and you know and now with the introduction to fentanyl fentanyl is is is killing our society because of our pain and fake pills are are so prevalent and overdoses are so prevalent you know fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for for people 18 to 45 and you know there's and it's all then this is where you know we need to be shouting from the mountaintops awareness because people who are taking pills and then getting pills elsewhere if it isn't from coming from a doctor if it isn't coming from a pharmacy it is most likely fake and the cartels and the dealers and everybody is out there pushing these fake pills because they're using your pain against you you're not taking a pain pill you're taking straight fentanyl and you don't even know it and you're becoming addicted to fentanyl or becoming addicted to meth or becoming addicted to something else and you know this is where we need to be the biggest advocates the biggest advocates of hey think about what you're doing because there's this it's not like when we were kids when you could experiment and try some different things no now today it's in there and there is no more experimenting because the tiniest bit of fentanyl could be a lethal dose and you know this isn't just getting addicted this is dying and this is uh this is where I'm so glad that you're on Jessica and I'm so because Krista's a huge advocate as well and today is National Fentanyl awareness day so this could this conversation is extremely poignant and couldn't have been it couldn't have happened at a better time.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Krista go ahead I just um I've been watching I've been following Hulk's daughter sharing on his what he was into right before he passed it wasn't what took his life but it's just it it made me realize like they like the doctors for the guys the people not guys but men and women that are in these sports these contact sports you're getting doctors prescribing you and they're they're not the doctors aren't talking to each other so they're all getting they're just you know putting a band aid on it here here here and they're just taking it unwillingly you know and then one day the doctor just cuts you off so what do you do?

SPEAKER_01 30:07

You go to the street and um there the dealers and the cartels and stuff are trying to trick the people by just putting a dash of that into whatever you know and it's scary and um that's why we gotta talk about it and I'm glad today is there's a day for it because it brings up conversations I can't hear you oh no hey Johnny Jessica can you hear you said oh no uh so we're talking about you know and she'll she'll be back hopefully um uh you know today is fentanyl awareness day we've been talking to uh Jessica who is an ex-UFC fighter and you know about you know extreme sports head injuries everybody's on a prescription everybody's on a prescription and this message goes for more than just that it goes for anybody taking any sort of prescription medication oh there she is and he's back it's okay it's okay it happens every other live I heard I heard someone I heard what someone about Hulk Hogan and the the doctors right you were saying yeah that that his daughter was saying the doctors were like cross prescribing and he didn't they weren't communicating with each other and he was just taking what was given to him when he's supposed to and his daughter went in and went through his back and got rid of all of it and like they got in a fight and he came to a moment of clarity the next day and he was like I'm sorry for fighting with you he didn't even remember it and he didn't even realize like sometimes you don't realize what what's happening because you you're doing what you're told to do you know just following doctors orders.

SPEAKER_05 32:02

I mean heath ledger he's heath ledger right yeah heath ledger was another example of that you know of of mismanaging of that and again you know I think that when you get to a position right like as an athlete like you want to trust you have to find the right kind of doctors to trust you know that are going to give you the right kind of advice and again you know I did read that about Hawk that it was they believed it to be a mismanage of medicines that truly end up ultimately you know killed him and it just breaks my heart it just breaks my heart that it's something that happens but you know athletes as much as normal people right like as normal individuals like we're talking about fentanyl and then being able to buy it on the dark web and being able to get fake stuff you know so accessible right they can get it right on the internet nowadays right shipped right to your house right and then you go to these doctor and then as as you get that high celebrity level and you can just afford anything and then you don't have people working together it's the same it's the same thing in some on some level does it make sense like you're exposed to it at a low level and then you're also exposed at a high level where you have people not even paying attention to the drugs they're even giving you to begin with let alone on a low level you're just getting whatever it is that you can get your hands on yeah like I'm prescribed I was prescribed a Xanax but I should not have been taking it but I was because the doctor said so and it got me in a lot a lot of trouble.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

A lot of trouble there's so many examples of you know what's kind of crazy go ahead go ahead jessica well no it's like it's almost like down to like like you said like you said the doctor give you sanity and you shouldn't have been taking them like it's almost at the point where like some level your doctor needs to have some kind of a background he knows what it was like you know what I mean like he may have done a rail of cocaine or two or had too many drinks one time in his life to be able to say okay you don't need this we have to find a better coping mechanism we're not gonna do this to you we're not we're not gonna give you that you know what I'm saying but a lot of times we these doctors subscribing medicine prescribing medicines that they really have never even taken themselves let alone know the side effects of them yeah for sure for sure yeah this is uh this is the this is the epidemic that's happening right now you know and I and I don't want to I don't want to fight too much against doctors and pharmacies because you know there there's a lot of good ones there's some bad ones of course there's bad ones everywhere but there's the big thing is and you actually hit on it is the the outside entities you know you can go online and get prescription drugs all over the place and then you pay for them with cryptocurrency and now it is completely unregulated completely illegal and people are doing it every day and there's nothing being done about it last year the DEA sees nine million fake pills nine million fake pills and that's what they they got 10% that means that there's 90 million fake pills out there and there are there's a a huge customer base of just regular people not addicts people that have been prescribed a Xanax people that have been prescribed Adderall people that have been prescribed Percocet they're all if you're not getting them from pharmacy if you're not getting them from a doctor they are fake and you need to recognize that and that there is it's it's the same thing as peptides peptides fake peptides fake steroids there's so many you're you like just those same websites that are doing the pills are doing fake steroids they're they're selling it to these fitness people who's who again think that they're doing the right thing again not trying to spend as much money because of what like you said they were prescribed it right like you can go online and get a thing of testosterone for $20 but you go to a real health lab and get it it's $125.

SPEAKER_05 36:05

You know what I mean? So like you said there are good labs out there. I've been very fortunate I've met an amazing group of people out here that are in that realm of wanting to create healthy labs right shut down those dark met you know dark you know labs that are like that that are not making good stuff that are not doing the right thing you know it's so important for this and this is why we need to talk about this that's why I'm I'm so glad you're here with us today.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

I'm so glad today is fentanyl awareness day and the conversation just coincides perfectly because this is what needs to be talked about and you know with with golden eye with never alone with every other nonprofit out there with every company that's trying to help the world this is what needs to be talked about this is this is epidemic this is uh you know and it's so sneaky you think you're taking TRT and who knows what you're taking and you know I recently had someone call in and they thought that they were hooked on ecstasy and it turns out they're hooked on meth. But they didn't know they didn't know what they were taking. They were just getting pills and taking them and and this one is a lucky case to be alive.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

They do make tests today that you can probably get from your local health department that are free and you can because if you aren't ready to quit it and you are with you know what's in there you know it's not what you're taking but you need it you want to be safer you can test your pro whatever you're getting you can test a little bit of it and it will tell you exactly what's in it and then you can't use Narcan on yourself so make sure you're not using alone and you're with somebody who has nowadays I would make sure they have at least three cases of Narkin because they're saying that one case won't even touch a lot of the stuff that's out there. But you can there are ways to be safe until you're ready as well.

SPEAKER_05 38:11

Yeah which is scary but it's the yeah it's you know at least you don't know but you don't know yes exactly and at least there's something out there to to stop it from happening you know again I live in Fort Lauderdale it was down at the beach yesterday and they were handing out the three Narcan at the beach yesterday you know the little um keychains right like the little top part that you put on her that you shoot them with yes yeah and and this is this is the again you know what's crazy is I go ahead no no no this is your interview you got stuff to say you talk about it no it's just funny I I mean again I I wouldn't even know how to use it it's like interesting they're handing out these free things all the time and it's like I wouldn't even know how to use it even myself so as somebody who's just you know involved in it it's like almost like man maybe I should do a video for people just in case you ever see it because I I wouldn't even know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

You know what I mean like they're handing these things out to people and I'm sure even in situations you know people just kind of freak out you don't know how to really do it right yeah they're really supposed to show you when they give you one but you a video would be a great idea you know narcan demonstrations yeah I'm serious I wouldn't even know how to do it narcan demonstrations narchan uh availability these are all the things that we should all be talking about all the time because you never know who is taking fentanyl that don't know that they're taking fentanyl um so you know this is an opportunity for us to be there and be able to save people Krista Krista so it was great Krista came to Chicago and I uh I picked her up from the airport and uh you know and right on her bag is uh a narcan holder with Narcan in it and remember what you told me and you said if somebody's falling out at the airport I'm prepared you know and we all need to be prepared now we all need to be vigilant we all need to have Narcan on us because in any place in any time somebody could be falling out and you know you know Jessica being uh a person who's at the gym all the time we go you go to the gym there's potentially someone there who's taking something that they don't know is fentanyl and could be taking a lethal dose this is where we need to be on the ready and this is where we need to fight this fight together crazy part about it is like I yeah I mean even recently familiar can you are you hear me did it cut out can you we got you now can you guys hear me okay okay good um but I don't know how much you guys are into social media or even knowing some of these things but most recently there was a social media star that got that had dealt with an OD that was starting to have issues we were at a dirty boxing event here in Miami and that same guy had been there that Klevikler I had seen him but there was another incidence right outside the Marriott with somebody ODing in in there right like so a lot of these things like again are happening and they're happening even at sporting events with people and a lot of time I hate to say but they're using it mixed in with usually cocaine and you're seeing a lot of these adrenaline drunky people and people that want that extra bit of energy and again like you said it's it's so common right nowadays like you're not getting the right kind of stuff and these people are exposed to that they can they think it's just a normal hey I'm gonna go party and have a good night and next thing you know they're OD'd right and that and that's been happening.

SPEAKER_05 42:03

I mean I've seen it very common here and again I hate to say it but some of these social media stars which devastates me I'm like this is what you want people to see you know like a lot of people think they're invincible too like it can't happen to me it can't happen to me um and then you end up burying someone you love or it is you or um and it's crazy that you said it's mixing with the cocaine because around here I've helped people a couple people test just random bags and they all popped positive for fentanyl and the people know it's in there and they continue to use it.

SPEAKER_01 42:39

Wow so that's why it's to just be as safe as you can and keep planting seeds you know well this this has been a yeah and that's sad and I it's sad like you said we can this has been a very I o I mean this is I hope everybody watches this I hope everybody who watches this really gets to um ex you know know the things that we're talking about you know that they pay attention to this uh this discussion about fentanyl and I mean you know this is going to we've had extreme technical difficulties so I think we're gonna have Jessica back once we get the technical difficulties figured out I know are you guys choppy too is it me is it has it been we don't see your face all the time we don't see your face you don't see me at all we hear you no yeah so uh this has been difficult but this has been so my face the whole time half the time and it was blurry but it's okay I think we're gonna oh no we'll uh we're gonna fin we're gonna fix our technical difficulties and uh we're gonna fix our technical difficulties we're gonna do this again we're gonna schedule Jessica to be on here again and um you know this time we won't play the UFC clip which got us into a lot of trouble uh if Joe Rogan is we ruined it from the beginning they it got us from the start we should have played that at the end megan now we know uh but uh we're gonna let's let's it do you have any parting thoughts before we shut down no just we'll get on next time with less technical difficulties and you know I'm I'm ready anytime I'm available anytime in the afternoon to talk with you guys and we uh we need to talk about how we can work together to to really push this message out and uh and that's uh that's the key working together everybody work together and love one another help one another and let's let's continue putting this good fight up and uh thank you everybody for listening and watching we've had jessica i uh on and she'll be back and we'll be uh we'll be uh able to see her hopefully then uh thank you everyone and thank you we'll see you next time have a great day everyone