Triumphs Over Addiction and the Sanctuary of Physical Health

When Pat first tasted alcohol at a tender age, little did he know it would mark the beginning of a harrowing odyssey with addiction. His childhood, steeped in an environment where parties were the norm, unwittingly set the stage for his substance abuse struggles, starting at just twelve years old. In an episode that is as raw as it is real, Pat joins us to recount the difficult chapters of his life—his battles with rehab, family conflicts, and the unshakable grip of traumatic experiences. With a remarkable five years of sobriety under his belt, Pat's tale isn't just about the darkness of addiction; it's a beacon of hope, shedding light on the perseverance and resilience that propel one towards recovery.

Turning the focus onto a different kind of struggle, I get candid about my own transformation—a testament to the redemptive capacity of physical fitness and structured routine. Swapping out self-destructive patterns for the adrenaline rush of weightlifting and the discipline of nutrition, I've discovered an unexpected sanctuary in the regimen of the gym. This episode isn't merely a collection of personal triumphs; it's an exploration of how rechanneling addictive behaviors into positive, health-centric habits can redefine one's life. We're revealing how the simple act of self-care through fitness can ripple outwards, fostering not only a stronger body but also a more resilient mindset, laying the groundwork for a life brimming with success.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hello and welcome to Health. With the History Defined, I'm your host, anthony. Amen and welcome to another episode. We are going to talk to you guys a little bit about addiction and I think this is going to be a great guest to have on. He's had a crazy life story. You've done some reading up on him, part of having on the show. I'm excited to have it on Without further ado. Let's welcome to the show, pat. It's a pleasure to have you on today.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Hey, thanks man. I really appreciate you having me. It's great.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Yeah, Excited to have you on Kind of hear your story how you went from addiction to moving all the way, working out and achieving things. We'd love to hear a little bit about kind of what started down that rabbit hole.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Well, I mean the addiction part started when I was like super young. So you know my mother and my dad, they were both like super young when they got together and basically by the time I was nine months old they were already divorced. My dad was in jail for domestic violence and he left. So I was with my mom from pretty much zero to four. My uncle lived with my mom's real brother lived with us and it was kind of like the party house. He was only like 18, 19 years old and you know he had a pretty good job working at the mine. He had money and stuff and kind of just like the party house. My mom was never there. She dealt cards at the casino and basically probably worked 50, 60 hours a week.

Speaker 2: 1:43

I got left with a lot of different people. You know I found myself. I got drunk at like probably like three or four years old because of just like the aftermath of the party and I drank like the half drinking bottles. You know I didn't drink every day from that point, but I remember that point in time that it was really like it hit, because I still remember to this day I just had this great time. I'm like jumping off the dresser, I'm jumping off the bed, I'm doing all this crazy stuff like wild party stuff and, like you know, of course, I got in trouble for it Me and my mom's friend's son was there too and he did it with me and you know we both basically got in trouble.

Speaker 2: 2:29

Nothing really transpired anymore than that until I was like 12 years old and then, from 12 on, pretty much used drugs and alcohol, pretty much to risk, until I got clean in 2018 of September and yeah, so I've been clean and sober for like over five years. So yeah, man, that's pretty much how it went. Pretty much started smoking weed at 12 every day, ended up in rehab at 15, went out I'll call it's anonymous at 18, back to rehab at 26. I went to multiple detoxes family's houses and detox is just an awful experience. I got a lot of you no.

Speaker 1: 3:15

I understand. I think the question that most people are afraid to ask but I think I'm going to ask it is what do you think should have been done differently in your childhood to help prevent that outcome in the first place?

Speaker 2: 3:29

I don't know if anything could have really been done. It's just you know. You know the only thing you can really do is try and be better from that situation, because everybody's parents have not been good, you know. It's just the way it is. It's like they've done something.

Speaker 2: 3:55

No one's perfect right and I just had some really young I can't even say bad parents. They're just really young. They're on drugs and alcohol and when those things are involved, when you're young like you're gonna do dumb stuff, you know. So you're gonna make bad decisions, and you know, and the result of that was I was exposed to that young and some traumatic stuff had happened in between that time. That maybe became a little bit more deep rooted in my drug use and alcohol. Because you know, once traumatic things become deep rooted, I feel that you know you really start using drugs and alcohol to cope with everything and then once you do it long enough, that is gonna compound. You know it's gonna be. Those bad decisions are gonna compound and for me they compound at 22 years. So of course I'm going to be addicted. Anybody that does anything for 22 years is gonna be addicted to it, you know, especially mind altering substances, you know.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Yeah, I agree. And what caused you to get clean at 18? What do you think was the trigger to start realizing that you needed something else?

Speaker 2: 5:23

At eight. Well, at 15, I went to rehab. I got I had no choice, I had to go to rehab. And I basically got picked up and they're like had the doors locked and I'm sitting there like, oh, where are we going? And no one's saying nothing. And you know, we get like in the middle of nowhere where you can't jump out of the car even though the child locks were on, and they're just like, yeah, we're dropping you off at like this institution, you know. And they're like, oh great, this is awesome, you know. And no, it was not awesome.

Speaker 2: 6:02

And I don't know when I went in there, you just figure out how messed up the youth really was. When I think about it now, because, like, I've had time to reflect on all these things, because I feel like they mean something, you know, and it was just like you get around all these kids that have. You know, they're just like some are just like way gone, you know. And yeah, I mean at 18, I went to Alcox Anonymous. I was.

Speaker 2: 6:31

I went to Job Corps. It was like my last. You know anything about Job Corps? It's like your last chance at like an education and a formal education, really, you know. So I went there. You know they said they're. You know, you get paid if you get a high school diploma and you get a vocation. So I'm like, oh cool, they're gonna give me money to graduate this. Oh yeah, they do give you money, but it's a very, very tough thing to get through.

Speaker 2: 7:01

And basically, you know, my drinking drinking was the easiest thing to get my hands on and I would drink from time to time and sometimes I would drink too much and I'd make bad decisions and I put myself in a situation where they were gonna kick me out. Or you know, I could go to meetings and I started going to meetings and it was like this old school meeting with all these old bikers and it was rugged man, it was just like the smoke in the room, it was just like piled in there, like if you open the door, it looked like just like bog rolled out of this place. You know, it was like old school, like bikers, you know. But so I ended up and you know, I just started from there, man, pretty much so started getting a formal education and sobriety.

Speaker 1: 8:01

And what do you think ultimately got you to choose to get clean for good?

Speaker 2: 8:08

I mean, it was a lot of different scenarios, but I can remember, man, I was just like this. Last time I had literally drove to my mom's and she lived 16 hours away from me and I, literally, in one year, I drove there five times, all the way through and like, all the way down there I'm smoking cigarettes, back to back, you know, packs, packs of cigarettes, two packs of cigarettes, and I would drive all the way through and it was just like get there, you know, and I wasn't eating that well, I wasn't doing a lot of things well at that time and I just wanted to eat and sleep. And I did that like five times. And this last time I was just like, man, I ain't doing this again. And you know, my daughter lived with her at the time, no-transcript Me and my wife thought it was a better spot for her to live at the time, considering what I was going through and some of our Her family dynamics and stuff. So I get there and, like you know, she's like looks at me, like what is wrong with you, and I can just totally tell, you know, and I'm just like I Can't do this anymore, like I'm not gonna do this anymore, and I ended up, you know, picking up a few books you know probably one of the most renowned books in the world and I started to read it. And then I just turned one day into two and you know I went back to recovery and you know that's pretty much where the journey started from there and I Started getting into fitness about four years ago. I was like 250 pounds and I was just like man, I can't do this anymore either. So I just went to the gym, I started getting the weight off and before I knew it I lost like 80 pounds and then kind of just put me down this path of this is what I need to do. I hired a mentor, which is West Watson, and you know he gave me the blueprint as far as coaching and, you know, basically getting in shape and, you know, putting muscle on. And that's pretty much where my journey really took a turn.

Speaker 2: 10:32

For the best was when I started having more of a strategy on how to do the gym and I started getting confidence and my whole life's changed from it. You know pretty much I got rid of all the vices you know, for the most part the major ones. So you know I would, you know, in the beginning of getting clean, I was trading one vice for another, which was food in the bit. You know it's how I blew up to like 250. So you know it was like, oh, I can't drink, can't do drugs, but, boy, we're gonna eat pizza every day. Or you know, we're gonna eat pasta and we're gonna eat cheesecake and we're gonna eat, you know, and it is started to add up. Man, that's what I'm saying. Like it's just those decisions compound over time. So if you start Making better decisions and those compound over time, your life's gonna get tremendously better, you know. So I had to take a good hard look at the trajectory of my life at like like four years ago, and Was not looking good.

Speaker 1: 11:43

Yeah. Do you think Rehab worked in the sense that? Do you think it helped you move towards a better path? Or do you think it was more of an intrinsic motivation, like you said, seeing your daughter as kind of the motivation to move forward? Or do you think it was combinational?

Speaker 2: 12:00

I think I think rehab is necessary for For people that Are coming off drugs. I'm not gonna lie like especially like like, because the thing with me was was I was Pretty much done by the time that happened anyways. So I was like low dosing everything pretty much, so it wasn't that hard for me. It was hard for me to come off it, but the repercussions of like death were like really low. But there's, you know, there's people out there that you know the way they drink. If they just like stop abruptly without professional help, it's not gonna be good, you know. Or Xanax or different, you know, even even opiates too, you know, I don't, I don't really think you can die from Getting getting off of opiates, but it's gonna be painful, you know, and it's better to do that. It'd be better to do that in a facility, if you, you know, if you were going down the same road as me, for sure.

Speaker 1: 13:06

Yeah, I like that. And then, moving on to you, started going to the gym and working out. Did you use, initially, the gym as a trade-off, has something else to really focus on, as besides the Everything else you're doing the drinking and the drugs and then did he ever feel like at any point of giving up While you were in the gym with it? Relapse scenarios, then, would help to prevent from relapsing.

Speaker 2: 13:34

Yeah, I mean the gym. That was the replacement. Like I said, the food was the, the biggest replacement for me, but I could see that the food was Taking me down just as bad a path as anything else. So, and, and my gambling, and, and you know, I had to yeah, the the, I had to replace all that and fitness has done that. The gym has done that 100% and it is.

Speaker 2: 14:06

It is at times like, oh man, I don't want to go, I'm sore, I'm this, I'm that, and you know it's this, it's this mind thing that goes on all the time that's tricking you out of doing things. And Because you know your mind knows it's gonna help you get better, because your, your minds, wants to keep you safe, but at the same time, like my mind, I don't know how yours works, but my mind is trying to kill me all the time, so it doesn't want me to do anything positive. You know it's like yo, you want to go to the gym and get healthy. Oh, no, no, no, we're not gonna do that today. We're gonna. We're gonna watch the NBA or we're gonna just sit here and we're just gonna sit in our thoughts all day long and just go over and over and just have it turn over and over and over all day long.

Speaker 2: 14:55

You know, and no, you just, I just go, I go. Some days I don't want to go and some days I really want to go. But I know, I know one thing for sure when I leave the gym, on it, be like I'm gonna feel accomplished. I'm like, yes, that's a win. You know, that's a definite win. There's, there's Compiling wins that I add up every day. Just getting up, eating the right food, reading books and going to the gym, those are four huge wins in the morning, you know so.

Speaker 1: 15:33

No, I love this and I want to point out something that I Don't know if you've thought of or anyone listening is thought of. Everyone has some sort of addiction to something. It's human nature, and I think it's important to clarify that, because you might hear somebody like your story and go well, that's not my issue. But you have addiction to something and there's something holding you back from achieving things or feeling good. Maybe it's just an addiction to sitting around like we're watching TV. I think watching TV and self-renews is the easiest one. Yeah, it's gonna kill you probably not, but it's gonna have a negative feedback loop Associated with it. So why not turn something as simple as that into a positive Addiction, like the gym, which ultimately ends up becoming right? You're getting dopamine hits from working out and you get addicted to those dopamine hits and you constantly want that. So you constantly striving for more. But you're doing yourself a service. You're not doing yourself a disservice like everything else.

Speaker 2: 16:40

Well, yeah, and the thing is with drugs and alcohol, man is like I'm not no doctor, but as far as this is I this, none of them. This is what I've heard, so I can't say it's my opinion or it's like a fact. I have no idea. But from what I've heard, from being in rehab and treatment and being around therapists and doctors, that you don't even get high off the drugs. You get high off the combination between the drugs hidden, the drugs that are already in your body. So that's what you're addicted to. Is the dopamine getting released, the serotonin, whatever is getting released once that hits right.

Speaker 2: 17:22

So you're going to the gym, you're getting the uncut. You're not getting the psychoactive Mind twisting stuff. You know you're getting. You're getting the real stuff. You're getting stuff that's gonna open your mind. Because every time I go to the gym and I'm like I'm into it, like my mind's opening up to some other, like lack of a Duh-duh-duh, like a dimension, like it's it's opening up somewhere else, it's opening up doors. It's it's opening up doors that you don't even see because you're doing the work.

Speaker 2: 17:59

You know when everybody else is on. You know, not everybody else, but a lot of people are sitting around watching TV, they're sleeping in. You know different things and these, these things compound too. Like if you sit around and watch TV long enough, it's gonna compound to a point to where your life is. It's not all that great, you know it, just it's just reality. So if the guy that's getting up at four or five in the morning, even six whatever, and he's going to the gym and he's reading and he's like meditating and doing all these steps before you even wake up, I mean that guy's gonna win. I mean it's gonna be hard to. It's gonna be hard to beat somebody like that, you know.

Speaker 1: 18:46

No, let me add to your point because you're right. So, for example, brain Fog is. You get Brain Fog watching TV sitting around and you kind of don't feel like you have a clarity of life, which is what you were saying and you go to the gym and I'm just gonna use push ups, that's just a generic example. But any exercise you start doing, like your first 20, 25 push ups, and you're still in that Brain Fog and you really fight in it and then somewhere around like 30, 35, your mind just opens up and it's like you said. It's just that clarity that people use other substances for. But you can get it from the gym. You wake up to this, what I feel awesome and then all of a sudden, that workout, the first five minutes in that you were dragging it's 35 minutes later because you were just living in that dopamine high pushing through working out.

Speaker 1: 19:46

And it's crazy.

Speaker 2: 19:49

It's the most. I mean once you get going on personal development, it's for me it's been the most addicting thing, because I've always used like outside entities to try and fix me, like recovery or rehab or therapy or this and that. But once you start really getting down to, like, the root problems and the root causes of all this stuff and you start learning how to fix yourself, and I mean I had to hire a mentor to get me in that mind frame to be able to do that. But I mean that's invaluable for a guy like me, because now I can all day I'm like trying to correct myself on. I mean, man, dude, I'm at the point to where, like, if I eat a bowl of cereal or peanut butter, I'm like, oh man, that's not good. You know most people would be like, oh, that's not that bad, but like you start holding yourself to a higher standard, right? So you know, and by doing that and keeping yourself accountable, it's like this it just starts correcting all this hardwired subconscious stuff your whole life. You know you start being able to fix yourself and that becomes invaluable to somebody like me and probably a lot of other people too. But I'm just gonna speak for my personal. You know my personal opinion or what I've experienced. So through that process that's what I've experienced is just being able to like, basically go inside, fix myself, figure out what's wrong.

Speaker 2: 21:35

Boom, and the gym is the pillar. Like you can't fix yourself without the gym. You can't, because it's gonna give you the ultimate confidence, especially if you're doing it right, if your food's hitting, you know how to eat and you're going to the gym. Oh bro, you're firing on all cylinders. Like your confidence is at an all time high because, first of all, you're looking around the gym and you're like 80% of the people they're not doing it right. No, shame on them, I mean, I did it too. But 80% of the people in the gym they're not doing it right. But hey, they're there and they're exercising, which is a great thing. But once you start eating and you're working out, and it's firing on all cylinders. Man, there ain't nothing like that man.

Speaker 1: 22:30

No, I wanna point out a couple things you mentioned there and kind of discuss them a little further, that were very valuable. I did an episode a few weeks ago on great, but I think it's something. I think it's important because the lesson inside of the entire 40 minute episode was and it's something you mentioned right there is once you stop blaming others and once you start taking the blame Internally and saying, hey, how can I react? What can I fix with myself, that made it easier for you and for everybody in general to really Fix it and do better and live better and understand that doesn't matter what's going on in your life around you Doesn't matter. Whatever one else is doing, it's how you react. And that's something you can always control is by taking blame internally of how you react to respond to certain Scenarios.

Speaker 1: 23:23

And you were able to change that by fixing yourself and then reacting in a more positive way by pushing it towards Going to the gym. And then that's gonna compound and something you said, like I drink Way less than I used to when I was younger. I was, but it's because I have that positive reinforcement, it's like even in one beer, it's like Don't want that. That's gonna make me like struggle, deadlifting later. Yeah, I'm not gonna be drunk, but like I'm gonna feel that the gym, when you're exerting yourself that high level, like or even not even just alcohol, just hey me, just fried food it's gonna. You're gonna feel that later in the gym and you're gonna be like shit and it's gonna suck and you're gonna want that Hi from the gym. That don't mean it and you're not gonna be able to get as big of a hit because you didn't take the steps, the 23 hours in the day that you're not in the facility and you're not working out.

Speaker 2: 24:24

Yeah, and, and you know as well as I do that, the food, if you're going to the gym, it's the most important part, it's, it's, it's you can't skip. So I mean, if you're really looking for maximum results mind, body and soul it has to be across the board. And that's what I've learned, you know, and Through my coat, the learning, the coaching, you know it hasn't been able to come all across the board for me yet, which is fine, you know, I didn't even know I was getting into coaching. I had no idea all I, all I knew I signed up for was Brand building and getting in shape. That's all I. That's all I knew. I did so. But for me it's gotta be across the board.

Speaker 2: 25:20

And, like I said, the the biggest thing with the gym is Eating in it. Like, if you eat right and you're hitting the gym right, your confidence is gonna be sky-high and that is gonna make all the difference in your life. I mean, even if you're, you know, just working at nine to five, just trying to be like a good dad or a Good husband or or a good employee or whatever, but this is gonna be um invaluable to you as far as Making like, of course, what I'm trying to do in life is a lot harder than just going to nine to five and just put my time in. But the guy that Does just go to the nine to five and he's on this blueprint of a program as far as eating and working out, I mean it's gonna be invaluable. They're gonna. They're gonna kill, they're gonna kill it.

Speaker 1: 26:19

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And then Pat, kind of just to start wrapping this up, is when do you see your life Heading like? What's the future gonna bring?

Speaker 2: 26:29

Man, say the truth, man, I just want to help as many people as possible, man, I really, I really do and I, I think I figured out a way to do it and and it just gonna take a lot of work, a lot of grind and, you know, I don't know if it's gonna be hip-hop that gets me there, if it's gonna be coaching or motivational speaking. I got a lot of work to do, man. I I got a lot of. You know, I got a lot of places to go this year. I have a Lot of music to make. I got a lot of hands to shake and I got a lot of marketing to do and and, yeah, man, I'm just I'm enjoying the journey, but at the, at the end of the day, my main goal is to help as many people as possible on scale on. On scale is like be able to Help people on a large Scale, not just like one by one, like on a larger scale.

Speaker 1: 27:28

I Love that, and then I'm just gonna ask you one final question instead of a typical two, because that they should think it's so valuable. What advice would you give to People that are going through some kind of addiction now? What advice would you give them if you could speak to them directly right now?

Speaker 2: 27:49

Well, you can't give up and you can't die. So you gotta just you got to stay resilient, because I, I, that was the only reason I made is because I didn't die and I didn't. I Stayed resilient and I didn't give up. You know, and I Was a, I was a worst case scenario, you know. It's like I was like One drink away from living on the streets pretty much because everybody was, they had it. I was 34 years old. People had been seeing this for, you know, 22 years. So I, you know, right now, using drugs is super dangerous. So you know, the fentanyl thing and whatnot is it's an extremely Different time to party than when, when I was partying. So, yeah, so the the don't die elements there, just don't die and don't give up, man. And and if it's not drugs and alcohol, you have to, you know, you have to find something that is gonna replace that in a positive way, 100%.

Speaker 1: 29:01

Love that man, thank you. Thank you back coming on. Thank you, guys for this week's episode of help fitness. I forget, hit that subscribe button and remember this is medicine until next time you.