What's up everybody? This is the Betray, the addicted, and the expert. My name is Brannon and I am the expert.

And I'm Ashland and I was the portrayed and I'm Kobe the recovering addict.

What you're going to get is three unique perspectives on recovery and

tools for hope and healing.

Hey guys, Brandon here with a Friday 5

and I just want to talk a little bit about the underlying issues of addiction and

oftentimes we can get caught up talking about the symptoms and focusing on the symptoms.

So the symptoms of addiction are acting out,

are using something, numbing out. Another symptom is avoidance of vulnerability and not being

able to attach to people in a healthy way and empathize a symptom as being mindless, not

being connected to yourself or being mindful. But you know all of these symptoms of addiction come out because of something and

what is that something and that's what I want to talk about today and just outline because

you know you can treat the symptoms of addiction and you can get it under control but unless

you actually go after the roots of

addiction then the addiction won't start to heal and so knowing what those

roots are important I ran a retreat last week and I loved running the retreat because what we what we focused on was was addressing the roots of addiction and the retreat 18 men came to the retreat and we did

experiential activities we learned about why they have gotten caught up in addiction and they practice courage

and vulnerability and connection.

Why does somebody turn to addiction?

And usually it's because they're missing something in their life.

They need some outlet, some escape, some numb out, and so why are they

missing something in their life? And the roots of addiction are shame which leads to low self-worth and

...