There's been a lot of talk about credentials lately, and those are great. We should go out and go see licensed professionals, get professional treatment whenever we can. But what about the millions and millions of people around the world who can't afford to get that kind of treatment? What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to just lay down, roll over, and give up? Well, here's my answer to that. What is up everybody? This is Chris from The Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution.  So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell.  I've been feeling a little attacked. I've been feeling like, oh my God, everybody's attacking me. And I know I teach you guys not to care so much what people think, but it's something that I've been dealing with lately. So I actually just went to a doctor's appointment, and I was waiting and stuff, and I had a chance to meditate. And one thing that I love about meditation is that it's free, but it also offers me some clarity, right? Like my ego and my inner voice just goes crazy, right? And when I'm meditating and got some clarity today, and I have been meditating, but today I just got that, pfft, aha moment. By the way, for those of you meditating, the aha moments don't happen all the time, but when they do, woo hoo girl, it feels good. And I sat there and I just remembered, I remembered. I remembered why I started this channel, why I started the rewired soul. So I remember working in a treatment center here in Las Vegas, and it was a ritzy treatment center. All right? Like I'm talking like expensive, we had celebrities come through there, expensive treatment, okay? A lot of times we had, you know, wealthy people coming in, or people whose parents, young people whose parents had really good health insurance. I remember doing groups and one-on-ones and things like that, and you have people in there who just don't want to be there, don't care, not paying attention, goofing off like it's high school. And I remember going, hey, giving them a little bit of that tough love, Chris action, and saying, you need to be grateful that you're in here, all right? You do not even understand how many people are outside of this treatment center who would give their arm or leg to have the same opportunity as you, all right? This treatment center, if you didn't have insurance, it was about $30,000 for a month. And even if you did have insurance, sometimes your copay or deductible was thousands of dollars. I knew a ton of people who wanted to come to treatment, even with insurance, their copay was insane. So I remember sitting there thinking, I was like, I want to help more people. I want to help more people, but how? How do I do it? What about all of the people who are never going to have the opportunity to come into an addiction treatment center, to go into a mental health treatment center, to afford therapy, to afford a psychiatrist? What about those people? Are we just going to forget about them? And I was like, no. So you know what I did? I was working full-time at that treatment center. I came home, I turned on this camera, and I started recording, right? I had a lot of positive feedback from my clients, as well as fellow licensed professionals that I worked with. And they loved what I was doing. And I was like, well, why don't I just do that for free on YouTube? People can watch. And worst case scenario, they got to watch a couple ads. But as long as they have an internet connection, it's free. So that's one of the main reasons I started this channel. Because I know, I know there are so many people around the world who do not have the financial means to afford the right type of treatment. They still need help, and we cannot. We cannot forget about those people. And you know what absolutely disgusts me? You know what disgusts me? So I'm a guy who went through 12-step programs, and I was fortunate enough to have my mom pay for my sober living, OK? I never went to treatment. I never went through therapy. This was my only option. I had to take the free route, because if I didn't, I was going to die. And what disgusts me is when I hear these professionals, these mental health professionals trying to turn people away from 12-step programs. It's absolutely disgusting, because those things are free. I remember, so a lot of you know I'm a big neuroscience nerd.  So I'm watching this dude who says addiction isn't a disease. I'm like, OK, let's see, let's see where you're going with this, right? So I'm watching, I'm watching, I'm like, OK, you're making some good points, but you're still not explaining how this isn't a disease or whatever. So then he gets, he gets to the climax of this neurological presentation, right? And he starts explaining how transcranial magnetic stimulation is a great solution for addiction.  That's not the scientific term. And it sends these magnetic pulses to different parts of your brain. It is an excellent form of treatment. And if you can afford it, go do your thing, all right? It's great. And basically what it does, it can help reset your prefrontal cortex, mess with different neural pathways and all that stuff. I'm like, OK, OK, sir. All right, Mr. Science Man. So your alternative to 12 step programs is to get transcranial magnetic stimulation. Like, I don't know if you guys got the memo, but drug addicts often don't have that much money because they spent it all on drugs, OK? So when I see these mental health professionals getting really upset about these free options, I have to sit back and start questioning their motives, right? Are you just upset that there's a free option out there that people might be turning to so it's less money in your pocket? I don't know. I'm not saying that people, all people are bad. I've worked with some of the most amazing, amazing, just nothing but like selfless mental health professionals. I've worked with so many amazing people. But when I see garbage like that, I have to start questioning their motives, especially when you look at the addiction epidemic with tens of thousands of people, over 70,000 people alone in the United States are dying from opioids. That's just one substance, all right? And we're supposed to say, oh, well, you can't afford treatment. Sorry, you're SOL, all right? So where are the free options at? So last night I was having a little back and forth in the comments of one of my videos, and here's one of her replies. She says, considering I have credentials, I know what you're attempting to do. It's poorly done. And to be honest, the video is overly defensive. You have no credentials. If you think that's fine, fine. But don't package it in a way that is seen as not a valid criticism. The fact that you're a recovering addict who posts four videos a day and replies to comments within 10 minutes honestly makes me think you're not in a good enough place to even attempt this. So I'm sitting here and now I have a new response.  Don't get me wrong.    Mr. or Mrs. Credentials, why don't you start a YouTube channel? When's the last time you offered free therapy to somebody? When's the last time that you took time out of your day giving back without expecting a damn thing in return, all right? That's what I started this channel for because I know there's people out there who get turned away left and right because they don't have the money in their pocket. And is that fair? Hell no, it's not. Now, again, those of you who know me, I promote professional help. I am not a fix for you. I'm here to provide you with resources. So if you're in the United States, I am here to let you know about two excellent resources, all right? One of them is SAMHSA, okay? I'm gonna link it down in the description. It's up on the screen. Basically, it will help you find government funded treatment facilities, whether it's mental health or addiction, here in the United States, a lot of them are free. Problem is, is that the waiting list is too long. In some places, in some places, the other thing is, when you are looking for therapy, ask therapists, all right? Ask them, say, do you have a sliding scale? What that means is that they will adjust their pricing to match what you're making, right? So somebody making a decent amount of money, maybe it's $100 for an hour of therapy. If you're not making that much money, maybe it's like $20 or $40 for an hour, all right? So I do always recommend seeing a professional, but we can't stop thinking about the people who can't even afford that. I've seen people say that they can't afford my Patreon at the lowest tier, which is $1 a month. Well, guess what? I have over 700 videos on this channel. I think it's over 700, but anyways, on this channel that are free. And again, worst case scenario, you gotta watch some ads. Sorry. So again, licensed professionals out there, how about you get out of the problem and get into the solution? You start offering free treatment, you start raising money to scholarship people for treatment, because here at the Rewired Soul, we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution.  I made a promise to myself that when this channel got bigger, I was gonna give back as much as possible, all right? So make sure you're following me over on Instagram because there's an amazing book. It's called Lost Connections by Johann Hari. So Johann Hari is actually another, he is another unlicensed professional who is talking about mental health and Lost Connections is one of the best, the best books on depression and anxiety that I have ever read in my life and it was one of the best sellers last year. But what those Cambodian doctors knew intuitively is what the World Health Organization has been trying to tell us for years. Depression is a response to things going wrong, deep in our lives and our environments. Our pain makes sense as the World Health Organization put it, mental health is produced socially. It's a social indicator. It requires social as well as individual solutions. So if you're following me over on Instagram, I am giving away five free copies of this book. The details are over on my Instagram. Go check it out, all right?  Like, I don't get what the big hubbub is about.  There's an entire self-help section for people who can afford books but they can't afford professional treatment. I don't know why this is even a conversation. But anyways, anyways, something else that I'm going to be doing starting next month, the month of February, all right? I'm saying this on camera to keep myself accountable because something that I wanted to do when my channel got bigger was do monthly live streams to raise money for different organizations. We're talking about the Suicide Foundation. We're talking about other mental health organizations that deal with eating disorders, depression, trauma, abuse survivors, all those things. So every month, I'm going to start doing a live stream where you donate super chats and all that money goes to charity, all right? So mental health professionals out there, again, if you've got a problem with my channel, quit talking about it, be about it and start giving back, all right? But anyways, that's a like out for this video. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a bunch of free videos talking about mental health, all right? A huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing and thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.