What the Columbine Shooting taught me about pain and addiction | Austin Eubanks | TEDxMileHigh

The difference between feeling better and really being better. Because I learned to accept

pain

. I had to stop looking for quick ways to improve. I had to do the psychological work I needed, no matter how

pain

ful it was. After many short-term treatment attempts, I finally found the desire to do

what

I needed to do and was under constant care for 14 straight months to find out. It took me going through the stages of grief that I had to go through at 17 and 29, but I refused to run away anymore and it worked. (Applause) We are fortunate that there is something called "post-traumatic recovery," and you are seeing it on stage today.

Post-traumatic stress relief is defined as: a positive psychological change that occurs in people after they have been exposed to a traumatic event in their lives. This means that when you are able to endure extreme suffering, this allows you to develop your personal skills and elevates you to a better performance index. But achieving improvement after trauma requires you to accept the pain. You can't escape it. It is not treated with medications. Then I have a challenge for you. Record the level of psychological pain you feel. Do you have something that makes you sad or hurts your heart and you can't face it?

Have you been exposed to a traumatic situation and have not been able to recover from it? If so, start identifying this pain. Call a friend, talk to a therapist, or even talk about

what

happened to a stranger. Take one small step to illuminate this darkness because I have seen what the darkness can do. I've seen it in hospital rooms when it didn't end the way it was supposed to. I saw it in prisons with people who were born addicted and never had the opportunity to learn anything else. I saw it at funerals of children who died before they even had a chance to live.

I saw it under the table that was in my high school library. I would like to leave you all with something I wish I had learned when I was 17 years old. No matter who you are, no matter what you've been exposed to and whatever way you've been exposed, just know this: in order to process it, you have to feel it. We won't solve the

addiction

epidemic overnight, but we will make progress when people begin to know the difference between physical and psychological pain and then choose how to treat it. In recovery we often say, “Keep what you have by giving it up.” Have the courage to accept pain and you can become a force to help others.

Thank you all. (applause)