I've been duped by alcohol | Paul Churchill | TEDxBozeman

I feel like I've

been

fooled. I remember in high school motivational speakers would come to my school and say, don't do drugs, don't do crack, don't do heroin, don't do cocaine, and don't do meth. I told myself, okay, I heard you loud and clear, I won't do drugs, but in those conversations there was no reference to

alcohol

because of what I saw on TV in the movies, when I was 21, everything was going to be okay. . I started drinking in college and I loved it. I had a great time. I started drinking more and more and fell in love with it after majoring in business in Spanish.

I had a bright idea to move to Granada, Spain and buy a bar. Looking back it was clear that I had a drinking problem at that time which lasted for the next three years can be summed up in three words in total show now my

alcohol

consumption became so bad in Spain that I would pass out from five to seven nights a week twenty to twenty five drinks a night that was the norm one night I ended up in the emergency room I was thinking I was having a heart attack but it ended up being alcohol induced withdrawal symptoms and a severe anxiety attack.

I thought to myself: what the hell is going on? Smart guy, why can't I get over this? My alcohol consumption only increased, so I did something smart. I stayed away from the bar in Spain hoping that a geographical change would cure my alcohol consumption, but it didn't decrease, in fact, it increased to a At a time when it seemed like my friends were giving up heavy drinking, I was getting back into it. to wonder what was going on so I decided to do some research and went to Dr. Google now with the help of dr. On Google I found an episode on the Freakonomics podcast where Dr.

David Nutt, who was hired by the British government to classify the harm of 20 of the most addictive drugs in the world, his findings surprised me: he discovered that magic mushrooms cause the least amount Of damage. for those who take them and others and guess what made it to number one it wasn't meth it wasn't crack it was a local stick or heroin it was alcohol buddy I'm not like I was totally and completely fooled by alcohol and why hadn't I known What could be so dangerous? It turns out that alcohol is quite addictive, but what I didn't hear from those motivational speakers and speakers in elementary and high school was that alcohol kills more people each year than all other drugs combined (almost 33% of all drug deaths). traffic accidents involve alcohol.

Around 11,000 in this country alone. 85,000 Americans, more than 3 million people worldwide will die this year. Two alcohol related causes, so at age 28 I decided to quit smoking permanently, but I couldn't because the addictive properties of alcohol could drag me back into a vicious cycle of addiction. I have one week a month a year. I want to crawl back into addiction, but finally, after a decade of being sick and tired of being sick and tired. and a failed suicide attempt or that damn stigma of September 7th. I sobered up. Now let me tell you why this is my most important achievement in life. 5% of people will make it to 90 days, of those only 5% will make it to 2 years. i.e. 2.5 people out of every thousand will reach 2 years of sobriety after making the decision to stop drinking, so at 2 months of sobriety I went to an AAA meeting, I was ducking and dodging behind trees.

Thanks, stigma, and two things came up. Mind number one, I knew I would go back to drinking if I didn't do something different, number two, there are so many people struggling, why are we so secretive about their drinking? So I selfishly started the recovery elevator podcast to create accountability for myself. I did not do it. I care who heard me, if it was just me, my brother, my mom and my dad then great, as long as I stayed sober, if it helped a couple more people along the way that's a big plus though , what happened next stunned me.

The podcast was downloaded. 1 million times in all 50 states and more than 140 countries. I'd like to think it's because I'm a highly trained interviewer or that my topics are incredibly revealing, but I know it's because there are so many people who struggle with alcohol and what I learned after having 120 interviewees on the podcast is that alcoholism is not It is an indication of weak morality, it is one that lacks willpower and does not discriminate. I have interviewed doctors, lawyers, engineers, even the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In 1956, the American Medical Association classified alcohol addiction as a disease.

In 2016, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recognized addiction as a chronic disease of the brain worthy of compassion, just like any other chronic disease like diabetes or heart disease, why do we still have the date if? Alcoholism addiction is a disease or not, it is a mystery to me, but I know that it has something to do with stigma and it is this stigma that forces us to reach our most severe moments of pain before seeking help and many times it's too much. Late coming out publicly is someone with a drinking problem it has

been

the best thing I have ever done for myself I created accountability I found a way to help myself by helping others and as a result I am approaching three years of sobriety this coming September , thank you, thank you very much, that means a lot now with so many people fighting and the odds are not in our favor, how do we get through this?

How do you return to a life of happiness? It must be clear that we are facing two powerful adversaries. number one, a dangerous and addictive drug called alcohol and number two, the stigma surrounding addiction. What I have learned after hundreds of conversations with those who have been successful in sobriety is through community is the best way to confront this issue now regarding stigma. To eliminate shame, this is a disease like cancer. Now imagine if someone noticed a mole on the back of your arm, it was rapidly changing size, color and shape, they would get it checked out pretty quickly.

Now with alcoholism the opposite happens. try to keep it a secret, implement unrealistic rules and strategies now, what is the silence and anonymity that perpetuates the stigma surrounding addiction? So I encourage you if you are struggling with alcohol or know someone who we are not so reserved with. I'm coming before it's too late because it's easy and understandable to get fooled by alcohol when people rarely talk about it, thank you.