Speaker 1: He's a nice side with Dan Ray. I'm Wbzy Costin's Radio.
Speaker 2: In addition, a big injury to Jason Tatum. Looks as
Speaker 2: if he has heard badly hurt his right ankle. Just
Speaker 2: saw some video of him being in a wheelchair being
Speaker 2: taken from the from the arena. That is not a
Speaker 2: good look, that is for sure. Well, that is not
Speaker 2: what we're here to talk about. It's been a tough
Speaker 2: night for the Red Sox and it looks like also
Speaker 2: a tough night for the Celtics in New York. They
Speaker 2: go down three to one. But we'll we'll move on
Speaker 2: to our next guest tonight, which is much more important
Speaker 2: on my agenda, and we're talking about the road to
Speaker 2: recovery in America. Last Thursday night, we had a very
Speaker 2: interesting guest during the eight o'clock hour. He's back with us.
Speaker 2: His name is Adam Vibe Gunton. He's a recovered drug
Speaker 2: addict attic, an overdose survivor, TED talk speaker, and founder
Speaker 2: of Recovered on Purpose and Behavioral Health Partners. Adam, welcome
Speaker 2: back to Night's that. I really enjoyed our conversation last
Speaker 2: week on Thursday, and I'm looking forward to giving folks
Speaker 2: an opportunity to share some of their experiences and ask
Speaker 2: questions of you tonight.
Speaker 3: Welcome back, Thanks so much for having me, Dan, and
Speaker 3: I just have this sense that there's someone out there
Speaker 3: that is going to hear something that is going to
Speaker 3: change their life tonight.
Speaker 2: I'm convinced of it, to be really honest with you,
Speaker 2: and it happens. Happens in radio quite a bit. So look,
Speaker 2: I want to recreate your story for those who missed
Speaker 2: your story last Thursday night. We were one of our
Speaker 2: eight o'clock guests. So I was surprised and it was ironic.
Speaker 2: You went to Columbine High School. And the other night
Speaker 2: I asked you that Columbine High School and you said, yeah,
Speaker 2: the shooting at Columbine High School I heard in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety nine. You were not there at the time. You
Speaker 2: you went to Columbine after this horrific shooting. Correct.
Speaker 3: Correct, I was at Colmine Hills Elementary. I was the
Speaker 3: first class that came in when the freshmen that were
Speaker 3: there had graduated.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you graduated from Columbine High School and I
Speaker 2: know you told me you played football. You was it
Speaker 2: twenty ten that you graduated I'm trying to remember from
Speaker 2: just our conversation.
Speaker 3: Thousand and six, two seven, two thousand six is my
Speaker 3: senior year football.
Speaker 2: Okay, two thousand and seven, Okay, so you therefore, I'm
Speaker 2: assuming we're born sometime in the late eighties. So you
Speaker 2: got out of there as most kids as a senior.
Speaker 2: You probably were eighteen years old when you graduated from Colln.
Speaker 3: High School, and I round up. I round up to
Speaker 3: the nineties, even though it was the late eighties.
Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough, Okay, that's good enough. Yeah, you don't
Speaker 2: remember much of the of the eighties. I get that.
Speaker 2: I totally get that, all right, So what did you
Speaker 2: do after high school? Did you go off to college?
Speaker 2: Did you continue your education? What? What? What? What? What? Where?
Speaker 2: Did life take you beginning in about the spring of
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I went up to college. I don't know if
Speaker 3: I really had a path in mind, except it was
Speaker 3: what everybody told me I was supposed to do. I
Speaker 3: wrote a really, really good paper for my English class
Speaker 3: about legalizing marijuana and got to got an A in
Speaker 3: that class and didn't have to do any more assignments.
Speaker 3: But I was mostly partying and didn't really have a
Speaker 3: career path in mind, and had a traumatic event happened
Speaker 3: my freshman year that kind of took me out.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you're having a good time as a senior
Speaker 2: in high school and you went off to college in Colorado,
Speaker 2: I assume, or somewhere.
Speaker 3: Else University of Northern Colorado.
Speaker 2: University of Northern Colorado, and it's party time. And at
Speaker 2: that point, I assume, even though you're, you know, eighteen
Speaker 2: going on nineteen years old, the hardest stuff you have
Speaker 2: a dealt with was marijuana or some beer an alcohol.
Speaker 3: I assume, Well, I was actually introduced to cocaine at
Speaker 3: twelve years old, and that's why I try to pass
Speaker 3: the message out that have the conversation with your kids early. Wow,
Speaker 3: and earlier than you think.
Speaker 2: How will you introduce to cocaine at twelve? I mean,
Speaker 2: will you hanging with a fast crowd? Do you have
Speaker 2: an older sibling who said, hey, try this stuff.
Speaker 3: An older influence.
Speaker 2: I'll say that, you know, by the way, we don't
Speaker 2: have to name names or anything like that. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm just trying to understand, and I understand that.
Speaker 2: I respect that, So I understand the story. Okay, So
Speaker 2: you go off as a college freshman. There were a
Speaker 2: lot of college freshmen in that era who would have
Speaker 2: been familiar with cocaine or marijuana whatever, it's okay. When
Speaker 2: did the slide you said that there was an int
Speaker 2: or an accident? When did the slide towards even tougher
Speaker 2: drugs hearted drugs start to occur? And was there an
Speaker 2: incident that that puts you on that path?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Actually, my freshman year, I had now drinking and
Speaker 3: partying all night like I did most nights, and I
Speaker 3: woke up to my phone ringing and vibrating down by
Speaker 3: my leg, and I swam through the sheets to find
Speaker 3: my hard phone with the bright screen that read four
Speaker 3: forty seven AM. And my best friend Chucker was calling me. Now,
Speaker 3: I remember having the choice that I could either answer
Speaker 3: the phone like I always do it, Hey, what's up Chuck?
Speaker 3: Or I could answer the way I was feeling was hello,
Speaker 3: and am I still drunk and state? I chose the latter.
Speaker 3: Twitch A soft voice replied, Hey, what's up? Why are
Speaker 3: you calling you this late? I was just calling to
Speaker 3: say Hi, don't call me this late again. And I
Speaker 3: hung up on him, and he shot himself and within
Speaker 3: a week of that happening. I was introduced to oxycont
Speaker 3: so and that was the thing that you.
Speaker 2: Felt responsible for your friend's suicide.
Speaker 3: Absolutely and for ten years.
Speaker 2: Why did you feel responsible? I you know, again, I'm
Speaker 2: not trying to pry, but why would you not say
Speaker 2: this guy, you know, it wasn't like he said to
Speaker 2: if you don't talk to me, I'm going to kill myself.
Speaker 2: He just he apparently needed to talk to you. You
Speaker 2: were not in a condition where you could really have
Speaker 2: a conversation. Why did you take that burden on yourself?
Speaker 3: You know, because I was young and I'd never been
Speaker 3: taught about it. And the thing is that if you
Speaker 3: don't know about tough communication, you know, I've done a
Speaker 3: bunch of communication courses at this point, so to learn
Speaker 3: how to have those hard conversations and learn how to,
Speaker 3: you know, take responsibility for your own actions, your own words,
Speaker 3: and then also let people take responsibility for theirs. But
Speaker 3: at the time, I'm eighteen nineteen years old, I didn't understand.
Speaker 3: All I can do is take everything personally, okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: And I had to bottle it down and I couldn't
Speaker 3: tell anybody about it.
Speaker 2: So then you slid right to OxyContin to basically suppress
Speaker 2: the pain that you felt, the guilt that you felt.
Speaker 3: I guess everything was partying until that moment, and after
Speaker 3: that moment, I was consciously using drugs and alcohol to
Speaker 3: mask the way that I felt.
Speaker 2: Okay, how long did you stay in school or were
Speaker 2: you doomed to drop out?
Speaker 3: Pretty quickly, very quickly, very quickly.
Speaker 2: Okay, So then you're in a kind of a spiral here.
Speaker 2: This is still twenty or so years ago, but you're
Speaker 2: in a downward spiral. And you told me last week
Speaker 2: that at one point you were living in an unheated
Speaker 2: house with six other addicts in Billings, Montana, in the
Speaker 2: winter time. When we get back, I want to know
Speaker 2: how you ended up there, and then I want to
Speaker 2: start talking about your recovery, how you were able to
Speaker 2: somehow get the monkey off you're back, and what you've
Speaker 2: done and what you're trying to do with other people.
Speaker 2: And I hope you don't feel on being tough on you,
Speaker 2: but I just wanted to get the story out a
Speaker 2: little bit more slowly than we got it out the
Speaker 2: other night, so that everybody could understand that this is
Speaker 2: not something that happened you overnight. Obviously, there's a sequence
Speaker 2: of events, one leading to the other, and then ultimately
Speaker 2: now you find yourself in buildings Montana, living in an
Speaker 2: unheeded home with six other addicts. That must have been
Speaker 2: an experience. And we'll talk about that, and then we'll
Speaker 2: talk about your own personal recovery, and we'll talk about
Speaker 2: what you're trying to do for other people. My guest
Speaker 2: is an amazing young guy, Adam Vibe Gunton. I can't
Speaker 2: tell you how much I respect people who overcome this.
Speaker 2: I've had friends, close friends who have overcome heroin. H
Speaker 2: There's there's that. The paths are there. People find the
Speaker 2: path finds them or they find the path and they're
Speaker 2: they're good people. And sometimes people don't don't find the
Speaker 2: help that they need.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And that's what hopefully we can do Tonight. We'll be
Speaker 2: back on night Side. If you like to join the
Speaker 2: conversation at any point, you know the numbers. We'll be
Speaker 2: back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray Boston's News Radio. You're on
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: My guest is Adam by Gunton. The organization that he
Speaker 2: has founded Recovered on Purpose and also behavioral health partners.
Speaker 2: So Adam, we're talking about a you know, high school
Speaker 2: kid who maybe drabbled a little bit in this and
Speaker 2: that goes off to call en parties hardy and then
Speaker 2: is adversely impacted by a friend who calls him at
Speaker 2: four forty seven in the morning, and not much of
Speaker 2: a conversation. Your friend hangs up and kills himself, and
Speaker 2: that puts you on a downward spiral. So I'm guessing
Speaker 2: this is sometime now in two thousand and six. If
Speaker 2: you're a freshman at the University of Northern Colorado, how
Speaker 2: long did it take you to hit rock bottom from
Speaker 2: two thousand and six?
Speaker 3: You know, rock bottom is such an interesting concept because
Speaker 3: I can tell you about different rock bottoms throughout my addiction. Okay,
Speaker 3: by twenty thirteen, I was in an apartment alone trying
Speaker 3: to write my own suicide letter. But it got worse
Speaker 3: from there, and I thought it was rock bottom when
Speaker 3: I was, you know, right in that suicide letter. And
Speaker 3: then I thought it was rock bottom three and a
Speaker 3: half years later, when I was in a homeless shelter
Speaker 3: looking around at the other men on cots and trying
Speaker 3: to say a prayer, and then they got kicked out
Speaker 3: of the homeless shelter, So my rock bottom it didn't
Speaker 3: exist until you can't.
Speaker 2: It sounds like to me, you're finding new rock bottoms
Speaker 2: as you're going, as you're bouncing along here. So now
Speaker 2: you're in buildings Montana in the middle of winter, which
Speaker 2: is a cold part of the world. Uh, and you're
Speaker 2: living in an unheated home. How did you find this
Speaker 2: group of fellow drug addicts? Is this the sort of
Speaker 2: thing that people who find themselves out in horrific circumstances
Speaker 2: can kind of almost sense that there are other people
Speaker 2: around them who they can affiliate with or.
Speaker 3: How does that work? Yeah, I mean when you're looking
Speaker 3: for drugs, you find the people with them, and then
Speaker 3: you don't want to be alone. You hang out with
Speaker 3: them and use drugs. And that house had no electricity,
Speaker 3: no running water, and during the winter we actually had
Speaker 3: a metal trash can in the middle of the living
Speaker 3: room that we had a fire.
Speaker 2: In inside the house to save the house. This is
Speaker 2: what year now, we're talking roughly two thousand and one.
Speaker 3: Two and sixteen seventeen.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you spent ten years on this downward spiral.
Speaker 2: Did you lose contact with your family members.
Speaker 3: When I was homeless. Yes, I actually remembered throwing my
Speaker 3: phone out the window of a car because I didn't
Speaker 3: want them to be able to contact me, because I
Speaker 3: didn't want them to watch me die. Because at this time,
Speaker 3: I didn't think I was going to be able to stop.
Speaker 3: I'd been trying basically this entire time for eight years,
Speaker 3: going to meetings or church or all kinds of different places,
Speaker 3: trying to stop, and I just couldn't. So I felt
Speaker 3: so powerless. I didn't want them to watch it anymore.
Speaker 2: So you periodically been in touch with them? Did you
Speaker 2: get a chance during that period of time to see
Speaker 2: them or were you always away?
Speaker 3: Well during my addiction, I mean they wasn't. I was
Speaker 3: high functioning. I was making six figures as a salesperson.
Speaker 3: It was just all going into my arm. I was
Speaker 3: able to have corporate housing all over the country. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was. It was only the last about year, year
Speaker 3: and a half of my addiction where I had nothing.
Speaker 2: You had nothing, Okay, So what happened in that house
Speaker 2: in Montana or in Billings, Montana that somehow allowed you
Speaker 2: to separate from this lifestyle?
Speaker 3: Well, after trying for months going to twelve Step meetings
Speaker 3: every day, church every Saturday and Sunday, Bible study every Tuesday.
Speaker 3: I even went to the local mmagent thinking they might
Speaker 3: be able to beat recovery into me, but nothing was working.
Speaker 3: And one night before Bible study, I was sitting in
Speaker 3: this car that this girl let me borrow. It wasn't stolen,
Speaker 3: but I did have to start it with a screwdriver
Speaker 3: for some reason. But I was sitting in this car
Speaker 3: before Bible study, and I had a realization that I
Speaker 3: had literally tried everything on the planet within my power
Speaker 3: to stop, and I still couldn't. And I sat back
Speaker 3: in that seat and I audibly said to God, I'm done.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to church, I'm not going to Bible studies,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to meetings or probation officer anymore. Please
Speaker 3: just let me die. And for the first time I
Speaker 3: said that was such conviction and honesty that I feel
Speaker 3: like He knew that it was time that I was
Speaker 3: ready to give my life fully up to him. And
Speaker 3: at the time I didn't realize that, but I heard
Speaker 3: this whisper in my heart that you know that whisper
Speaker 3: when you hear it, and it said it's time go.
Speaker 3: And at that point, you know, you would think you
Speaker 3: get super excited, like, oh my gosh, I'm going to recover.
Speaker 3: But I got angry at first, because what's different about
Speaker 3: this time than all the times that I've dumped my
Speaker 3: dope in the toilet at night saying I'm never going
Speaker 3: to use again? And then I wake up in the
Speaker 3: morning and I pawn my TV to go pick up
Speaker 3: What's different about this time? And I'm screaming and I'm
Speaker 3: crying in this car and I'm hitting the steering wheel
Speaker 3: and the roof, and what's different about this time? God,
Speaker 3: please just let me die? And I'm crying. And then
Speaker 3: after a couple of minutes, I'm calming down and I'm
Speaker 3: breathing heavy, and then that whisper in my heart just
Speaker 3: repeats himself, and he said, it's time go. I don't
Speaker 3: know how to explain it, but I got this sense
Speaker 3: of willingness that I had never had before, because up
Speaker 3: to that point, my entire plan had been so tightly
Speaker 3: in my grasp. I was scheduling my meetings. I was
Speaker 3: scheduling church and Bible studies and NMA jims and probation
Speaker 3: officers and mentors and all this stuff. My recovery was
Speaker 3: so tightly in my grasp that I could never actually
Speaker 3: attain it. And this oment, what I was doing was
Speaker 3: giving it all up, like God, whatever you say I
Speaker 3: need to do, I'm willing to do. And I go
Speaker 3: to the Bible study I bust in. I'm twelve fifteen
Speaker 3: minutes late, and there's there's there in the middle of
Speaker 3: prayer and I interrupt him and I dropped down with
Speaker 3: my hands in the air and I'm I'm like, guys,
Speaker 3: I can't stop. I used again, please help me, Please
Speaker 3: help me. And I'm this one hundred and forty eight
Speaker 3: pound mess crying that hasn't showered. And those guys loved
Speaker 3: me as if I was Jesus, as if they were
Speaker 3: supposed to, and they walked me through it. They prayed
Speaker 3: for me at the end, and you know that was
Speaker 3: that was what it took.
Speaker 2: So in effect, yeah, in effect, I'm going to use
Speaker 2: the phrase here that that probably you're gonna reject, but
Speaker 2: in effect, your spirit broke and you basically kind of
Speaker 2: surrendered and said, okay, you know, I'm I can't do
Speaker 2: it alone. It's up to you. I think that's what
Speaker 2: you're what I'm hearing you say.
Speaker 3: I have never heard somebody say that, Dan, and that
Speaker 3: is exactly what it was. My human spirit had completely broke, okay,
Speaker 3: and the only one that was going to be able
Speaker 3: to help me was God's spirit.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but
Speaker 2: I could hear it in your voice. Yeah, I really could.
Speaker 2: I've had friends who have reached that point, and so
Speaker 2: I've heard that. I've heard that plea before. So you start,
Speaker 2: how do you start? What's the first step? And we
Speaker 2: got a couple of minutes here before the break, and
Speaker 2: I want to continue the story on the other side
Speaker 2: of the newscast. But so now, okay, they're going to
Speaker 2: help you. Was the first step just to take a
Speaker 2: shower and get yourself physically clean? What was the first
Speaker 2: step you did? I'm serious when I get that. I
Speaker 2: mean you didn't go to sleep that night.
Speaker 3: I'm sure, Yeah, I mean it was. It was such
Speaker 3: a process. And the person who was leading that Bible study, Brendan,
Speaker 3: he's my best friend still and he you know, even
Speaker 3: up to that point, he was picking me up and
Speaker 3: taking me to coffee or breakfast or church or Bible
Speaker 3: study because I wouldn't have a ride, and you know
Speaker 3: he he would just continue to do that. Five days later,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm still out there trying to stay clean.
Speaker 3: But five days later, he picks me up and takes
Speaker 3: me to I Hop for breakfast, and I haven't used
Speaker 3: so I'm super excited to have five days. And I'm
Speaker 3: sitting there across from him and talking to him, excited,
Speaker 3: and I get this text message on my phone and
Speaker 3: it's from my dope dealer, and he was like, Hey,
Speaker 3: I just got some new stuff. It's fire. I'll give
Speaker 3: you a free twenty to try out. And right when
Speaker 3: I read it, I feel something going through the top
Speaker 3: of my head all the way through my body. My
Speaker 3: toes were tingling, my fingers were tingling. I lost my
Speaker 3: peripheral vision. All I could see was the phone, and
Speaker 3: then my thumbs just started texting back and it was
Speaker 3: in like King James. It was like, ye shall not
Speaker 3: text me again, texted me for the last time.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: And then when I finished the text, I feel that
Speaker 3: thing leave me go through my legs all the way
Speaker 3: up out of my head. And then I read it
Speaker 3: because I couldn't even read it. As I was writing it,
Speaker 3: I was like, what the heck? And I showed it
Speaker 3: to Brendan. I was like, dude, that wasn't me. I
Speaker 3: don't know what that was. I don't know who that was.
Speaker 3: He's like, okay, I pushed send, I close it. I'm
Speaker 3: putting it in my pocket, looking down in my pocket,
Speaker 3: and then I look back up and Jesus is sitting
Speaker 3: across from me. The entire restaurant completely disappeared. It was
Speaker 3: like I was in a trance. There was a glow
Speaker 3: coming from behind him. He was smiling at me. I
Speaker 3: immediately knew who it was. Immediately knew it was happening.
Speaker 3: Felt my face to the table, my hand up, I said,
Speaker 3: thank you God, Thank you God, thank you. Gus came
Speaker 3: back up and he was gone, and I'm I'm of
Speaker 3: the faith. I believe in instant healing. I believe in
Speaker 3: instant cheering, and he could take away all my cravings,
Speaker 3: on my withdrawals, everything in an instant. That didn't happen
Speaker 3: for me, And thank god it didn't, because for the
Speaker 3: the next three weeks, I'm shaking, I'm craving every day,
Speaker 3: I'm withdrawing. I'm sick. I'm sick. And the only time
Speaker 3: I would get relief. Was when I was sitting down
Speaker 3: with somebody that was sponsoring me through a twelve step program,
Speaker 3: or when I was sitting down and I was writing
Speaker 3: out my inventory and I finished my fourth step and
Speaker 3: I did my fifth step on day twenty five, was
Speaker 3: my first ever one, and the same sponsor was picking
Speaker 3: me up from the Sober living house every morning at
Speaker 3: six thirty am. Then on day twenty six, after my
Speaker 3: fifth step, he came and picked me up in his
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty three mailman jeep, and we were driving to
Speaker 3: this movie theater that he managed where we did the
Speaker 3: work in the basement, and I was looking over at
Speaker 3: this beautiful sunrise and for the first time since I
Speaker 3: was twelve years old, I had no desire to drink
Speaker 3: or use. And as I'm telling you this, I have
Speaker 3: chills all over my arms because I remember that moment
Speaker 3: when everything changed, as if my life had no hope
Speaker 3: to own my gosh, I don't want to use, and
Speaker 3: anyone out there struggling, it's real. I didn't believe it.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you it's inspirational story, Adam, and you lived
Speaker 2: it and you're able to tell it. And I had
Speaker 2: the same sense listening to you that I think you're
Speaker 2: you have a sense. So we're going to take a break.
Speaker 2: We got to do a newscast here. If we had
Speaker 2: scripted this, we couldn't have timed it out better. Uh
Speaker 2: So take a break, tape it, take a deep breath.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about your recovery and what you
Speaker 2: do for other people, and if anyone would like to
Speaker 2: join the conversation. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten
Speaker 2: thirty six one seven, nine three ten thirty. You've just
Speaker 2: heard an amazing story. But I'm a pretty good judge
Speaker 2: of credibility. That's what I've done for a living. And
Speaker 2: this is the real This guy is the real deal.
Speaker 2: Uh And I was impressed with him the other night.
Speaker 2: I'm now overly impressed with him. Now. I've never been
Speaker 2: where he was, but we all in our lives had
Speaker 2: those moments. And that was a moment that this man
Speaker 2: just described for us, pretty raw, but pretty real. Adam
Speaker 2: Vibe Gunton recovered on purpose Behavioral Health Partners. We'll be
Speaker 2: back right after the these the newscast. I feel the
Speaker 2: same thing he feels right now. I'm telling you, right now,
Speaker 2: there's something I hope some of you understand that this
Speaker 2: this is something that is to me amazing, but it's
Speaker 2: amazing and it's amazingly real and it can happen. Back
Speaker 2: after this on Night.
Speaker 3: Side, It's Night Side.
Speaker 1: Boston's News Radio. It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Back with my guest, Adam Vibe Gunton. He's recovered. He's
Speaker 2: told his story of sliding into deep deep addiction, his
Speaker 2: organizations that he's recovered, Recovered on Purpose, and Behavioral Health Partners. Adam,
Speaker 2: I don't know anything else that we need to tell
Speaker 2: in your story, but I think I want to go
Speaker 2: to phone callers and let them comment and ask questions,
Speaker 2: and then at the end, I want to make sure
Speaker 2: that we give people contact information as to how they
Speaker 2: can reach out to Recovered on Purpose or Behavioral Health Partners.
Speaker 2: Where are you physically located these days? Do you have
Speaker 2: a a place that you call home at this point?
Speaker 3: Yeah? And it's even heat too.
Speaker 2: That's good, Okay. I like that you know where where's
Speaker 2: Where's where's your organization headquartered.
Speaker 3: Or in Denver, Colorado? Recovered on Purpose? Both of them
Speaker 3: are national, although.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, that's fine, yeah, okay, So you serve and
Speaker 2: can help people anywhere they can be in contact. I
Speaker 2: assume yes, and you have resources, we'll talk about those,
Speaker 2: but I want to get to some callers, okay, So
Speaker 2: let's do that first, and then we'll talk about the
Speaker 2: resources that are available on how people can contact. They
Speaker 2: go to Will in Long Island, New York. Will you
Speaker 2: are next on Nice that with Adam Vibe going to
Speaker 2: GARRETA and.
Speaker 4: Will Hey, Dan, Hey, Adam. Listener's great to hear your story.
Speaker 4: And you know, I never shy away really from talking
Speaker 4: about my story. I mean I might have mentioned it
Speaker 4: to Dan over the years, but you know that's not
Speaker 4: me talk about on the radio really, but you know
Speaker 4: you do maybe, but in July, I'll be sober seventeen
Speaker 4: years right, and and for the people that are out
Speaker 4: there that are listening, which is why I don't shy
Speaker 4: I own a business in my community, I'm not afraid
Speaker 4: to talk about I don't just advertise it. You know.
Speaker 4: Obviously I wouldn't break anyone else's annybody, But as far
Speaker 4: as my own, I'm not ashamed to talk about it
Speaker 4: because you never know who needs to hear it. I'm
Speaker 4: not running around telling everybody I ever met, obviously, but
Speaker 4: when it does come across. It needs to be mentioned.
Speaker 4: You know, I won't be afraid to say something.
Speaker 2: Will was your drug of choice alcohol.
Speaker 4: I am what they call a garbage head. I remember
Speaker 4: when I called, when I called the when I called,
Speaker 4: like I tried many times to get sober for many years.
Speaker 4: I'm a very dan. I know you talk to me
Speaker 4: now and I sound somewhat like a normal human being.
Speaker 4: And I paid, well, let's not go that.
Speaker 2: Far, Will, Let's come on. I know you too well.
Speaker 2: I'm only kid. Go ahead, you're one of my best callers,
Speaker 2: you know that. Go ahead.
Speaker 3: But I was.
Speaker 4: I was a pretty low bottom person and i've and
Speaker 4: I used a lot of heavy drugs also, right, So
Speaker 4: I remember when I called the hotline the last time
Speaker 4: when I got sober, and I said, you know, I said, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, I I'm I'm smoking drugs and doing this.
Speaker 4: And he goes, well, how much do you drink? I said,
Speaker 4: who cares how much I drink? I just told you
Speaker 4: I'm doing all these hard, you know drugs, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. And he goes, well, how much do
Speaker 4: you drink? I goes much as the next guy. He goes, well,
Speaker 4: how much is that? I go I don't know, like
Speaker 4: a quarter or a leader of about the day. He goes,
Speaker 4: you're an alcoholic, I said, Alcoholics push shopping carts full
Speaker 4: of cans. Okay, I have a job and this, and
Speaker 4: you know, if I show up and then I just
Speaker 4: never really equated that the alcohol right and in my mind,
Speaker 4: I'm Irish. I would have to turn in my Irish
Speaker 4: card if I couldn't drink. And I said, just stop
Speaker 4: me from doing the heavy drugs, you know, the dope,
Speaker 4: the coke, the crack that. So just stop me with that.
Speaker 4: Don't worry about how much I drink.
Speaker 2: So you were sort of the You were what I
Speaker 2: call a five tool attic, mean, you could do it all.
Speaker 4: It's like, yeah, when you watch Fear and Loathing in
Speaker 4: Las Vegas, I was like that guy, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, Like I liked everything. But I'll say this,
Speaker 4: he mentioned something really important in my mind, like the
Speaker 4: spiritual aspect, the God thing. I never really got sober
Speaker 4: till I realized that I needed to rely on God.
Speaker 4: No matter how many times I tried, there was something
Speaker 4: always missing. And I know a lot of people in recovery,
Speaker 4: thousands over the years, and the ones that eventually, you know,
Speaker 4: wind up becoming old timers, meaning don't drink and don't die.
Speaker 4: They always have some spiritual foundation that's something greater than themselves,
Speaker 4: their religion, their God, whatever it is. There's a purpose, right,
Speaker 4: there's a reason. I remember when I prayed, I didn't
Speaker 4: even I finally was so beaten that I didn't even pray,
Speaker 4: Like I didn't want to pray for anything. I said.
Speaker 4: I would just say every day the same friend, God,
Speaker 4: just don't let me drink today. God just don't let
Speaker 4: me drink today. They said, I just want one thing
Speaker 4: I don't want. Don't worry about the business.
Speaker 2: Let me get in here. I want to get Adam
Speaker 2: to react to well, pretty much everything you said. Adam,
Speaker 2: let's get your analysis here of someone who walked a
Speaker 2: similar path.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds like him and I have the same
Speaker 3: kind of thing. And I learned that it's not about
Speaker 3: the substance. It's not about the alcohol or the drugs.
Speaker 3: It's about what happens to me and when I don't
Speaker 3: have those things in my system. And the only solution
Speaker 3: for someone like me is that spiritual solution. Because my
Speaker 3: mental state, in my emotional state, when I'm not on
Speaker 3: drugs and alcohol, is restless, is irritable. I'm feeling just
Speaker 3: not okay. And what I didn't realize that whole time
Speaker 3: is that drugs and alcohol were my solution, and then
Speaker 3: when they stopped working, I had to find something that
Speaker 3: worked a way to live, that solved my problems, and
Speaker 3: that was a reliance upon God. But a reliance upon
Speaker 3: God has a responsibility attached to it, and that's to
Speaker 3: serve God's people. That's what I learned, and I've been
Speaker 3: able to do say incredible things in my recovery, publish
Speaker 3: a book and do ted talks and travel and all
Speaker 3: this kind of stuff. I would give it all back
Speaker 3: if it meant I couldn't help addicts.
Speaker 2: You know, I just want to go back to your
Speaker 2: your your experience where everybody in McDonald's disappeared and you're
Speaker 2: looking at the face of Jesus. You're convinced that was Jesus.
Speaker 2: You're convinced that this wasn't a hallucination, right, but no doubt.
Speaker 3: And the reason the reason I know that is because
Speaker 3: my entire life changed.
Speaker 2: Well can you will? Can you You maybe never had
Speaker 2: that experience, will, But as somebody who was in a
Speaker 2: similarly situated. Can you identify with that experience?
Speaker 4: I know for a fact that I can. My I
Speaker 4: didn't have the face of Jesus, but I will never
Speaker 4: forget the moment, almost like an exorcism happened right and
Speaker 4: I didn't know that that was the moment I was
Speaker 4: going to get sober. I just knew that that was
Speaker 4: the moment that I was broken enough. And it was
Speaker 4: literally like God whispered into my ear. And I'll never
Speaker 4: forget how my box. It was a spiritual awakening. And
Speaker 4: trust me, the last time I got over, the one
Speaker 4: that lasted the whole time in seventeen years. All the
Speaker 4: other times before that, I never, I guess, really got over,
Speaker 4: but all the time that I had put together between that,
Speaker 4: there was something different about this one. Because I was
Speaker 4: so sick for so long, I didn't get better right away.
Speaker 4: There were other times in the past where I quit,
Speaker 4: where the shakes and the detox and everything was so
Speaker 4: much easier, and somehow yet I still picked up. This
Speaker 4: was so awful, and the mental addiction was so strong.
Speaker 4: For so long, I would gag, I would shake weeks
Speaker 4: after I got so months, I would take a shower
Speaker 4: like I was getting ready to go out to the
Speaker 4: bar to go to a meeting, and I would start
Speaker 4: calling like ooh and almost vomit because of the anxiety
Speaker 4: of wanting to use And even though I was going
Speaker 4: to the meetings and doing the program and calling my
Speaker 4: sponsor and doing all these things, and it was literally
Speaker 4: like God tied my hands behind my back and wouldn't
Speaker 4: let me drink even if I wanted to. It was
Speaker 4: because I finally had praised so much for one thing
Speaker 4: and one thing only that it was like I was
Speaker 4: spiritually bound and I'll just never forget the moment. And
Speaker 4: it wound up looking back now in retrospect seventeen years
Speaker 4: that that epiphany moment was. You know, today I look
Speaker 4: at it like I'm part of the no matter what club,
Speaker 4: you know, no matter how my life goes, no matter
Speaker 4: what I don't drink, no matter what, and all right,
Speaker 4: well within that, but.
Speaker 2: Just that real thank you for your call. You reinforced
Speaker 2: I think exactly what.
Speaker 4: Was a great caller and a good show tonight.
Speaker 2: Thanks Will. I appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Will. You're off, Thank you man.
Speaker 2: You well, we'll talk soon. Will is one of my
Speaker 2: best callers. We fight, we agree we disagreed.
Speaker 3: He's a fun caller.
Speaker 2: We are going to be back with Adam Vibe Gunton.
Speaker 2: I'm going to try to move everybody a little bit
Speaker 2: more quickly. I want to get a bunch of calls
Speaker 2: in here if you want to try, six one, seven,
Speaker 2: two thirty, six, seven thirty. Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1: It's night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2: My guest is Adam Vibe Clinton. He's recovering alcoholic and
Speaker 2: drug user, heavy duty drug user. An amazing story his
Speaker 2: the groups he's he's founded were covered on Purpose and
Speaker 2: behavioral health Partners. We'll get all that information for you,
Speaker 2: but I want to give the folks who have called
Speaker 2: in real quickly an opportunity. Tom had found with Tom
Speaker 2: down on the Cape. You're next on Nightside, Say had
Speaker 2: to Adam Vibe Gunton. What's your question or comment? Tom?
Speaker 5: He Adam, I want to congratulate you in your sobriety.
Speaker 5: It's very hard for people to do it on their own.
Speaker 5: I know you had some support, but I wanted to
Speaker 5: call up Dan for to tell you about the program.
Speaker 5: We're not sure if you'll ware in Massachusetts. It's one
Speaker 5: of the only US and four are the only states
Speaker 5: that provided is Section thirty five. And that's for the
Speaker 5: family members out there listening that may have children, our
Speaker 5: spouses or parents that have alcohol or drug problems that
Speaker 5: they can go to the courts file a petition. It's
Speaker 5: called a Section thirty five and the police. The judge
Speaker 5: will have the police go out pick them up, get
Speaker 5: them a drug test to make sure they have an issue,
Speaker 5: and then they will section them forty five to ninety days.
Speaker 5: They get them sober mental health and they have to
Speaker 5: take two hundred hours of classes on sobriety.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Tom, I appreciate that, I really do. And if
Speaker 2: you want to send me some information and I'd be
Speaker 2: more than happy to do something some night on that.
Speaker 2: But I I don't want to detract from what Adam
Speaker 2: is talking about tonight.
Speaker 5: I get it. I just thought that maybe some family
Speaker 5: members are listening because I know there's nothing that can
Speaker 5: This is great for the person that ads out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do be a favorite. Just hang on, hang on,
Speaker 2: and Noel will give you my direct phone number and
Speaker 2: also my email address, and you can just fold that
Speaker 2: I'm unfamiliar with what you're talking about. So I'm not
Speaker 2: I know what you're talking about exists, but it's it's
Speaker 2: it's a little more complicated than that because you got
Speaker 2: to get a court order and all of that. So
Speaker 2: but but hang on and feel free. You reach out
Speaker 2: to me during the during the day, any day, and
Speaker 2: I'll see what I'll get back to that promise. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, all right, no, give him my contact info.
Speaker 2: Let me go next to No, you got to take
Speaker 2: him down there and go okay, let's go to Jason
Speaker 2: and Walfam. Jason, you were next on nice at with
Speaker 2: Adam Vibe Goods and go right ahead.
Speaker 6: Then then thank you for having me and Adam. We
Speaker 6: say in the AA, thank you for sharing and thank
Speaker 6: you for hosting. Audition is very serious. I'm a I'm
Speaker 6: a recovery addict too, but my drag was chosen was alcohol.
Speaker 6: And then, like I was talking to the sheriffs, I'm
Speaker 6: going to start working with enough folk Sheriff's department trying
Speaker 6: to offer some help to those inmates.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that that is. I'm glad that that has
Speaker 2: worked out for you. Jason was on the phone with
Speaker 2: one of the sheriffs here in Massachusetts last week and
Speaker 2: we put them in contact and Jason, I think had
Speaker 2: spent a little time, a little bit of time and
Speaker 2: stirre at some point you told me, correct, Jason.
Speaker 6: Yes, but I didn't know. I didn't know how to
Speaker 6: ask for help. Yeah, it was just a culture thing.
Speaker 6: So I've been going to AA so so. But at
Speaker 6: last my last drunk in the AA, they said the
Speaker 6: last something called the last drunk, the last episode you had.
Speaker 6: Mine was when I went to Ohio to buy a
Speaker 6: Chess Bank building. I didn't get in touch with the rics.
Speaker 6: I ended up for a strip club. I drunk so
Speaker 6: much I don't know how the road. I ended up
Speaker 6: in a Chick fil a black that I went to
Speaker 6: jail and I drove back to my sischusters the following
Speaker 6: they that was my last drunk.
Speaker 3: That's what.
Speaker 6: That's when it clicked, like, you know what, I need
Speaker 6: to get this stuff together because I got a family,
Speaker 6: so like soberness is between life and death. So ever,
Speaker 6: since I been in AA, there's a saying a forever
Speaker 6: saying like whatever you put before your sobriety is going
Speaker 6: to fall apart. And I'm pretty sure, Adam, until you
Speaker 6: started pulling your sobriety.
Speaker 3: First, you didn't find.
Speaker 6: The sex siss the sex sss that you have right now, right,
Speaker 6: and also another saying that saying, Hey, when I was
Speaker 6: when I was drinking, I wasn't a growing up. I
Speaker 6: was just I just I just got taller.
Speaker 3: I was still a kid. I was I was still
Speaker 3: a boy.
Speaker 6: I just got I just got taller. And you know
Speaker 6: what I mean.
Speaker 3: So I didn't. I was still a kid until I
Speaker 3: got so bad.
Speaker 6: That's when I became a man because everything else was
Speaker 6: about drinking. So I don't want to take out too
Speaker 6: much time, but I just wanted to share that and Adam,
Speaker 6: thank you for sharing.
Speaker 2: Thank you Jason as well. Appreciate it and keep me
Speaker 2: posted on your work with the so Okay, I'm delighted
Speaker 2: to have been able to get you in touch with him.
Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Yeah, And if I can touch on that
Speaker 3: day Jason said, is so true. You know, I have
Speaker 3: a a program that I work and constantly in contact
Speaker 3: with God. And the interesting thing is that now whenever
Speaker 3: I'm having quote unquote a bad mental health day, right,
Speaker 3: I actually have have a solution for that because my program,
Speaker 3: my relationship with God comes first, and if it didn't,
Speaker 3: then during the hard times I wouldn't know what to
Speaker 3: do and I wouldn't be able to make it to
Speaker 3: the good times. So one hundred percent what Jason said
Speaker 3: is true.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, let me get one more call in before we
Speaker 2: got to end our hour, which has been a great hour.
Speaker 2: Nathan from Quincy. Nathan, you are next on nice Ie
Speaker 2: with Adam Vibe going to Grit ahead. Nathan.
Speaker 5: Hello, So.
Speaker 7: This kind of hits home for me. My mom at
Speaker 7: you dealt with love, alcohol and like weed addictions over
Speaker 7: the years, like I've found her like passed out twice
Speaker 7: and unfortunately didn't end well because on March twenty fifth,
Speaker 7: she committed suicide.
Speaker 3: She was dealing with mental.
Speaker 7: Health issues and everything and self medicating with both weed
Speaker 7: and alcohol and went off all medications. So like I
Speaker 7: as I've gone through like first hand with somebody that's
Speaker 7: dealt with these issues.
Speaker 2: Sorry for what you went through, Nathan, And uh, there's
Speaker 2: nothing that anyone can say to to you know to
Speaker 2: deal with that pain. Any suggestions. We only have got
Speaker 2: a benny left for Nathan that you could give him. Adam,
Speaker 2: is there anything that your groups could could help him with?
Speaker 2: If you wanted to get in touch with him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he's welcome to reach out. Adam at
Speaker 3: Recovered on Purpose dot org. And man, I lost my
Speaker 3: dad on Christmas Day of twenty twenty two, and there's
Speaker 3: you know, when I'm thinking about him, I make sure
Speaker 3: to think about it in a positive light. Remember the
Speaker 3: good time and you know, remember the good times with her.
Speaker 3: She loved you very much, and this disease doesn't take
Speaker 3: away our heart further. People that we love.
Speaker 2: Nathan, I hope that hopes. Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: calling and I wish I'd gotten to you earlier, could
Speaker 2: have given you more time. Thank you call anytime. Okay,
Speaker 2: thanks Nathan again. The way, folks, you can, you can
Speaker 2: check out Recovered on purpose dot org. You can go
Speaker 2: there directly if you want to email Adam Adam at
Speaker 2: Recovered on purpose dot org. Adam, your presentations and I
Speaker 2: exceeded my expectations. I had pretty high expectations. But we will.
Speaker 2: We will play this hour again on Best of Night's side.
Speaker 2: My intention would be to play at this Sunday night
Speaker 2: at eleven o'clock on WBZ as well, so people who
Speaker 2: missed it tonight I will have a chance to hear
Speaker 2: it then. Thank you so much. I'd love to keep
Speaker 2: in touch with you man, because other people you can
Speaker 2: help and have you back periodically. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for what you went through. Would you have overcome? Okay?
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you Dan.
Speaker 2: What did you say about email? I'm sorry you wanted to.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, saying you have my email? Also, would love
Speaker 3: to hear from you too. I think this is this
Speaker 3: is awesome. You have callers that love you, community that
Speaker 3: you know is out to help people. Also, I think
Speaker 3: it's awesome that the people that called in were calling
Speaker 3: into help, not not necessarily just for help, because there's
Speaker 3: people listening right now that can't reach out yet, and
Speaker 3: your callers wanted to call in and reach them too.
Speaker 3: That's awesome.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, just great, Adam Vibe Gunton, Thank you so much. Adam.
Speaker 2: The group is recovered on purpose dot org. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much. We'll talk again. Thank you, Adam.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, thank you