“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created it” -Albert Einstein. I could not relay on myself to stay clean. I celebrate 10 months and 10 days of being clean today. I have had to look and get help from very many sources. Trust for myself is something I’m learning but it is defiantly not an attribute of a suffering addict.

I'm proud to say that i'm a recovering addict, I struggled through a battle with opiates for quite some time. I found a lot of the inspiration, confidence, courage & self control through watching talks & documentaries like this. And for that, I thank you!

Addiction is the worst illness ever, in the fact that your very sick yet society is looking down on ya as most of them just think it's a case of self control when really your brain became hardwired to want drugs above all else. The fact that mother's lose or give up their kids demonstrates how powerful it's grip is. I'm doin ok now but still very jelous of folk who don't have any addiction issues, it just complicates life so much

I can agree with this im going tru it right now . Im a meth addict and its so true you have to find and love yourself to get you realized you are better than that . Thank yall ..God bless

This is quite powerful. It presents a few other helpful practices like surrendering to your future self (who you would imagine to be not-addicted because that's the very reason why you would want to stop) and having self-compassion (for the stuff ups and the craving thoughts) - are quite powerful to practice in the mind. Addicts are very good at beating themselves up and then drinking on top of those thoughts - so self-compassion is necessary. We can reset the day anytime we need to, even if we need to stop and becoming aware of the moment right now, right before making a wrong decision. "NO". I used to scream in my head this word and squeeze out every bit of air out of my body (and repeat), until the voices/cravings got the message.

Your own thoughts and beliefs are so powerful.. when I was in jail withdrawal was easier.. when I had terrible cravings I couldn't do anything about it.. fact. But on the outside cravings feel inevitable.. like I can't fight this feeling forever! Don't get me wrong, there's a huge physical component.. and I relapsed before I left the courthouse.. so I didn't beat it that time.. it was when I knew I had to go back to jail in 1 week.. I was so terrified of being locked in that cell in withdrawal.. went to an opiate clinic that day, started treatment, that was the last day I shot up... jail was a breeze not dope sick!! It's been almost 3 years.. it's amazing!

Thank you for writing your book. Thank you for helping others. Merci.

Absolutely! Very insighful that the "future self" can't be trusted because it is also an addict. Totally agree that the disease model is not the most accurate model but if it works for someone, then hey, go ahead and use whatever works!

You are an exceptional man. I’m sober 40 years now and have worked with 100s of recovering addicts and alcoholics. Your simple solution just will not work for the masses. Love to chat more with you about this.

Today while I ran I thought about lab rats. There is an article I read about cocaine addiction and a scientist that decided to experiment. He wrote about a well known study where a rat was placed alone in a cage with two bottles of water, well almost. One bottle was just water and the other was laced with cocaine. The rat ALWAYS went to the cocaine water until it died. The scientist questioned the validity of the finding and the assumption by the norm was that the rat was drinking the cocaine water because it was addicted. This scientist thought, “Maybe the rat isn’t addicted. Maybe he is just pissed and unhappy that he is stuck in a cage without any friends.” To test his thesis he built a luxury rat palace. It was a paradise of mazes and colorful engagements to stimulate the rats. This time he put a group of rats together with only two bottles to choose from. One had water, the other had cocaine. This time the rat chose the clean water and so did his friends. Don’t get me wrong, they all enjoyed a dabble of high, but in the end the choice was unanimously sober. Next he removed a rat and replicated the first experiment. He put the rat in an isolated cage, without any friends, and with the same choice: COCAINE or WATER? The rat went to the cocaine and the scientist let him until he assumed the rat had become a strung out addict. He then removed the rat and put him back in the luxury palace with his friends. This is the part that floors me and I will admit I have not stopped thinking about it the weeks its been since reading. We assume that addicts will always choose the drug, almost like an evil spirit is said to posses someone. Just yesterday I spoke with a friend briefly, “How have you been?” I asked, knowing of her circumstance. Her immediate answer, “I am great. I have eleven years of sobriety now. I’m leaving for another support retreat this weekend.” I stood there wondering why the cleanest and most sober person I know is the identification of ADDICT? Then I remember the steps and that she was told that addicts need to come to terms with the fact that they will forever be that way, “Addiction is in my genetics.” These are the things I think about when I run. I think about brain washing. I worry about the concrete finality we are presenting our public with the labels we make them wear. “People that want to do drugs and drink alcohol, but refrain, are addicts.”‘ “People who do drink and enjoy drugs are not addicts, unless a problem has been identified.” Let me get back to the rats, because I left off on a tangent shorty after I announced my amazement. Do you remember that strung out rat I told you about. The rat who was allowed to become an addict by isolation and inactivity. The scientist returned that rat to a luxury palace with friends and more of the drug should he choose it. The same two bottles were there, one with only water, one with cocaine. The rat was already hopped up on drugs and still he returned to clean water when the environment was loving and rich with opportunity for a quality life. He was never addicted. We just believed he was. I’m thinking about that right now. I’m thinking that I prefer to be a rat without a label and if I need to be in a cage I hope it is filled with ideas that make sense.

Thank you so much Sir Mark Lewis, you are an inspiration for me ! Extremely Grateful 🙏

I loved what he said at the last 12 seconds about trusting in yourself and not do drugs ever again. And giving your up your power to the group or god is the wrong way to go.

feel like our mental health in the United States isn't nearly as good as it should be. I was shocked at how confusing it was to seek out rehab facilities and not to mention the costs. No person can really recover in rehab unless they have six figures laying around.

Great talk. I talked about this same issue in my blog although I didn't call it self trust exactly but I was trying to explain how getting clean giving up control to higher power wouldn't of worked for me because I needed to build self confidence and remind myself that I was in control.

This is a magnificent talk. Thank you.

Drug addiction is a serious thing, but difficulties in discerning between drug addiction and severe drug abuse prevent obtaining meaningful data from retrospective/convenience sample analyses regarding long-term outcomes.

Great talk, incredible courage to share your thoughts & I fully agree with you

Interesting ideas, but "Self Trust' is not what finally freed me from Long term Heroin Addiction. Self Control does come however, but in trusting Self. My obsession and Cravings for Dope have been removed. Basically I will stick with Trusting in the Power of God, not Self.. Self Control over impulses came through that not through Self Reliance or Trust, but reliance upon the Power,

Good speaker ... My heart breaks for the addict , my son was an addict my, police killed him for no logical reason, his story is on Justice for christopher Lee Ratliff ...

This is so helpful. ❤

Struggling Porn addict .... watch for 3-4 hrs per day ..... I tried stopping 1,000 times but still hopeful

Interesting n informative. Great impressive amazing soul. Thank you.bless you. All your dreams come true.

Right on Marc!

Thank You for this!

I love this.

very informative video

Future self talking to present self. "It'll be okay" "K coo, c u in a bit"

recovery is an individual journey with many individual factors involved. does it matter if it is 12 steps or any other form? science can teach us all so much and help individuals make informed choices on thier recovery journey. brilliant info!keep up the good work.

On point.

Great talk, thanks Marc. There is definitely help and a Recovery Coach ensures you are working with an expert, who is also in recovery. Someone who will not judge and someone you can trust because they have won over their own cravings. Please get in touch with us and enjoy this video... What a resource!

self-trust is critical for desistance from crime in the same way as for addictions- nice

Oh my this is crazy

wow, self-trust, what a novel idea, really... yeah, i have a hard time trusting people and even things, but sweets always have a known effect on my body.... great video.... thank you p.s. i wish that you would pair up w GaborMate and join forces to persuad people of your teachings

Im struggling with issues myself i don't know if its under abuse self meditating or addicted..either way it sucks. But yet the will to stop again..seeing how i was clean for over two years. Is little to none..its just become a pointless goal to me..i got sober life was good for my family i guess i still didnt enjoy it how people claim they do..then i went back relapsed to the point of having my cloths cut of me from an overdose being in icu and waking up marchmenacted into a detox unit that i signed myself out of the moment the march was up and went and got high..i dont regret it. But youd think its the knock in the head i needed obviously not..i think some of us are just meant to use sadly.

So, he opines that we need to develop a sense of self trust or trust between our current self and future self, but the way in which our brains have evolved makes this almost impossible. Then he states that he got clean by saying NO to himself and saying he was just never going to use drugs again. What a freaking useless talk.

Can anyone explain to me what he is on about? Is it just me or is he not really making any much sense? He first states that an addict needs to have self trust in order to stop. After which points out that it's extremely illusive among addicts to have or find self trust??

He has interesting points but misses the mark a bit on the idea of a higher power. If you turn your will over to a higher power of your understanding (in the language of the Twelve Steps), that can be the same as saying that a part of yourself cannot be trusted and that you need to rely on a higher power to help with that part (a.k.a. present self or addict), but not that you as a whole person cannot be trusted. It's just a different way of allocating trust, and it works for some people.

Visions a powerful theatrical drama that has reached more than 40,000 people underground in prisons, rehabs and shelters

It seems to me that Mr. Lewis argues against the disease model of addiction yet offers physiological explanations for some aspects of the condition. Though I do not see it in the introductory passage here, I believe Marc Lewis wrote "The Biology of Desire" which I have not yet read and am considering buying at the moment though I fully endorse the disease model of addiction and reject the opposite pole of the argument. In most cases, so far as I know, people who have overcome addictions frequently have to fight that battle daily for the rest of their lives. Therefore I believe ignoring the disease model and supporting the disordered thinking model or however one wants to express that, is exceedingly cruel. An addict may be able to think him/herself away from whatever is craved but I believe the brain changes physiologically and drives the body from the point of addiction onward. The answer is heightened funding and research into the physical causes and cures for addiction.

No human power can relieve an addict from the bondage of self. He might not agree, but say that to the world of AA, NA, SA, Faith based recovery and so oooooooon.

6:27 -what is that time counter on the stage ? Anyone??

Self trust

If you are the representative of your higher power isn't that in fact self-trust?

I just whont to say he’s right but

Faith

Addiction is often I the genes, which is the hardest for alcoholics to admit!

Why does he get away from the start and everybody else has to have a multiple ways before there free

How uninspiring

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️⛄

Matthew Mcconaughe in 20 years

Ibogaine

Hes right but he never talked a bout bing Treated for his addiction and the way his addiction was treatedShe just went to teaching about it it doesn’t make sense if you would rather gone through the system of an AA and NA to be credible as an addict

Complete ego deflation and letting go of all need to control coupled with total surrender to “ A Higher Peer” becoming honest, with self and others. Making restitution and helping others. The 12 step process. Works. To stay surrendered daily. Trusting God. Is key. Self knowledge avails us nothing. In fact it’s an ego booster. Ego is the fasted rebuilding virus

Great video in general but how could you deny the 1 that made it all really happen at the end..

Coursed

I am an alcoholic in recovery. I will always be an alcoholic whether I pick up a drink now, or 20 years from now. I strongly disagree with Marc Lewis' statement that he does not think the treatment programs are teaching recovery correctly. I am grateful that I did not see this video while I was new and struggling with early sobriety. Statistic after statistic is evident. For most alcoholic/addicts no human power could relieve us of our difficulty. You stress self-reliance; look where it led so many of us with the gene of addiction.

I disagree, an addict needs to hand over control to a high power whenever it may be.

I believe hes coursed to be a specialist Like he was pland to be a made or forced

So he’s saying los of self trust but what’s Selfie trust got to do with Externalcorsing If you know it’s not your doing

Why duz he get to be a x addict

At least AA has the humility to say they aren't the only path to sobriety/abstinence.

But how did he end corcsing in his life to not be a addicte

He seems like a good man, but it amzes me that such undeveloped arguments are enough to form a TED talk. "I wrote 'NO' on a pice of paper and believed in my future self". I believe he's telling the truth, but that's notbscience, that's not a TED talk. "Dopamine makes you go for the low fruit". That's not accurate. Dopamine has several functions and none of it is connected with 'going for the low fruit'. Marc has taken half understandings and presented them as a complete picture. Trust is the key, but its not as he's describing it at all.

*self medicating

But did he have to do the Rehab ER kick on the street self medicate what validates his whole thing So you’re saying if I would’ve graduated I wood not have be a addict Crazy I thinking his Forced andmade I think he’s a lit in his old school

Had he not dun drug wood you care of his studies or wood he even have vocie

xF8RjZWxz6M DOVE=BLUE SHAPE.

This is the most shady Ted ever...how can u give the most important subject on the planet killing more now than homicide n traffic accidents 10 mins really...wow...so so sad

Take this down