Addiction in the Black Community: Quitting Instagram and Sugar

[00:00:07]Yeah, man. Hope you guys having a blessed day. Everything is going well.

[00:00:11]I'm not sure how good the signal is out here. I'm I'm over here at my stepdaughter's elementary school.

[00:00:20]The elements be on my ass, man, when I'm trying to do these these lives. But today, I want to talk about, man, addiction in the black community.

[00:00:30]It'd be hard knowing when your lives the sound quality and the video quality is good, man. It's like it seem like your signal get weak as hell soon as you pull up the video out here. I'm over here in Orange County and damn. So anyway, addiction in the black community. What inspired this video? Today I decided to deactivate my Instagram. And funny story about my Instagram account. What led me to even activating the Instagram account in the first place was through one of my homies, one of my homeboys from St. Louis. He was real big on just, you know, showing people how good life is, whether it's if you out eating, if you bought a fresh fit, really big on social media. And I think at the time I did have an Instagram. I probably had all of like four or five pictures on there. my 13-year-old. I think I put a picture of her when she was up, like up to two years old, three years old, something like that, maybe a little bit older. But I anything with the Instagram page pictures cuz I think at the time [clears throat] at the time I was really struggling financially when I created that Instagram page. And I can remember telling myself like, "What the [ __ ] am I going to show people?"

[00:01:53]And I'm [ __ ] up right now.

[00:01:58]I didn't feel like I had anything to really be proud of to really flex on Instagram. I thought at the time Instagram was like for folks who was like flexing, you know, for like people who got it for the most part. So I kind of strayed away from IG.

[00:02:15]Um, I wasn't really active, you know, like that when I first first activated the account. But my point is mentally I already had the narrative in my mind like if I open up an Instagram account, you know, I'mma do it because, you know, I got something to show off.

[00:02:37]That was my sort of interpretation of Instagram. People who got Instagrams are people who got some [ __ ] going on. I didn't have really nothing going on. I was struggling. I was just working towards my therapy license. The jobs were paying [ __ ] So, when I first started my Instagram account years ago, it was just really for I didn't really have any purpose behind starting a [ __ ] Instagram account, honestly. But I knew if I was to post more on Instagram, I had to have some [ __ ] going on. I didn't have [ __ ] going on.

[00:03:04][snorts] So, I deactivated my Instagram account today. Again, what inspired me to start the Instagram account in the first place was one of my friends who likes to show off his lifestyle, show off the [ __ ] he's eating. Everything is about Instagram and posting on He was like, "Yeah, man. I need your likes. I need your likes." Mind you, this [ __ ] like in his 30, mid30s. He's like, "Yeah, man. I need your likes. I need your support. I need you to come and support me, man. Come start an Instagram, man. Show your life." I'm like, "What the [ __ ] I'm going to show these people? I ain't got [ __ ] going on.

[00:03:31]I'm struggling. I got all these damn child support I'm paying." So, I started the Instagram account, was liking his page, and then from there the addiction began. I started finding myself getting comfortable and receiving those dopamine fixes of, you know, posting [ __ ] people liking it, and I'm looking at other people pages cuz before I didn't really give a [ __ ] about Instagram, Facebook. I was like the guy that was just, you know, that one that got away. I didn't really give a damn. But over time, the more I started using Instagram, I find myself being like consumed by Instagram.

[00:04:01]So, um, [clears throat] the more I started to get consumed to Instagram, I started finding myself looking at people comments and people lifestyles and stuff I wouldn't even care about cuz I'm kind of one of those type of people where I'm so focused doing my own thing. I don't really have time to worry about a lot of what other people are doing. But when my friend suggested it to me, I was like, well, maybe I need to slow down and connect a little bit. Um, cuz when you get out the military, you feel so disconnected. You're like in your head and [ __ ] so you're not really caring about what civilians are doing. But I started to find myself like just every day on Instagram and um [clears throat] looking at people lifestyles, looking at women, looking at material things and you know just kind of like convetting essentially and sometimes you get so immersed in the Instagram world cuz when Instagram first came out it wasn't really popping like that. I mean, you had MySpace when that first came out that was getting all the attention and you had all these different download your music, Kazah, all the it was so much other stuff going on beside Instagram where it was like even when Instagram came on the scene, it wasn't as big as it is right now when it first came out. Actually, Instagram was like weak [ __ ] when it first came out, but it kind of picked up steam. But I found myself, man, I I just turned 40, like being too consumed by like what are people doing? And I found myself getting pissed off by people commenting in on certain racial incidents and racial things that were going on. And you know, I just found myself being really sort of like emotionally responsive to what other people got going on. And people got a right to their opinion on Instagram. People got a right to and the reason why I'm starting with Instagram is I'm talking about addiction in the black community cuz I do believe that social media has become an addiction for black people. And an addiction in my psychological research is any activity or a behavior that becomes compulsive because of sort of like this linkage between a behavior and a reward or a felt sense of a reward. A lot of times people feel rewarded when they get a like. People feel rewarded when they get attention, they get acknowledged. And the more you really sit with Instagram, I started to really realize like, man, all of this [ __ ] is just like a showboat culture, like look at me, look at what I'm doing, you know? And even if you started just by posting a little bit of pictures here and there, but the more you get consumed by it, it's like you really see it for what it is. And I think in the black community for I can only speak for myself like I did find myself getting too emotionally identified with Instagram. And I deactivated the account today and this is day one. So I'm going to see how well I do with just kind of putting it down.

[00:06:40]And I'm not going to even lie to you. I found myself involuntarily just like looking for the [ __ ] Instagram app and I was just like damn. Like it's such a seamless transition between the apps where you when you take something out of your routine, you even find yourself like looking for it. Like I found myself like looking for the Instagram icon and I'm like [ __ ] you 40. Like come on Randy. And I'm not beating myself up or shaming myself cuz I'm not perfect. I'm not no better. you guys just sharing with you my experience of you know the I had that addiction to social media and um as a therapist I was offered a position to do coaching and a lot of these coaching platforms they resource a lot of their clients from Instagram. So, I had people reaching out to me like, you know, you could I think, you know, they have like a down payment like eight, nine grand and you could turn this into a coaching platform. And I thought about doing that, but then I was just like, no. Because I just don't want to stay consumed and and addicted to the Instagram world. So, um, the addiction to Instagram is a real thing. And that addiction, even if it's you don't even really realize it's an addiction, it becomes an a compulsion where you just naturally involuntarily find yourself going on there seeing what's going on. I mean, it became something where I was looking at Instagram the first thing in the morning. Like before I prayed, I'm looking at Instagram. Before I talk to the Lord, before I talk to God, before I even talk to myself, I found myself going to Instagram. And they say in the psychological research when you go to social media platforms or you go to look at your text messages first thing in the morning, it really goes back to your early childhood where you have these peopleleasing tendencies kind of implanted in you because maybe you were the oldest or maybe you were the caregiver of the family, maybe you had to take on some of the responsibilities of your parents, of your household. So addiction is a real thing um in our community and if you really pay attention to just the infrastructure of America. Um you know a lot of salute to you um Jameson. I appreciate you tuning in. I appreciate all the likes, all the subscriptions. Um I'm start doing more lives cuz I just got back from vacation so I got more time. So you know um addiction is a real thing in the black community and really in the community in general. And if you pay attention to like the psychological infrastructure of the American economy, a lot of the activities, the, you know, businesses, companies, a lot of the really multi-billion dollar industries are is essentially designed off of, you know, keeping that addiction pathway activated. Most of our behavior in American society is driven by some form of addiction one way or or the other.

[00:09:18]Whether it's eating at McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Denny's, you know, Chili's, you know, uh Texas Roll House, you know, whether it's going shopping, spending money on clothes, on fashion, sometimes you can even be addicted to work, you know. Um, a lot of American culture is born out of an addiction system. A lot of the big business in America is, you know, fueled by our addictions, our addictive behaviors. And in large part, the reason why that is is because I think the more disconnected we became as a community, it's more easily to kind of insulate yourself and or easy to insulate yourself and kind of slip into your own thing. So, cut out Instagram, deactivated Instagram, put it to the side. Now, sugar. I have been cutting down on sugar for about two months now. I used to eat a lot of Skittles. I was eating a lot of, you know, gummy worms. I was eating a lot of candy. Not all the time, but, you know, as a counselor, you barely have enough time to eat a meal cuz you're booked seeing seven to eight people a day. So, sometimes getting like a little bit of a sugar rush kind of helps fuel me, keeps my energy up. So, I was eating a lot of little candies and stuff. And I cut that out. It's been about two months. And let me tell you, sugar addiction is a real thing. When I cut that sugar out, I cut out the simply lemonades. It's so much sugar in American diets, it's ridiculous. Like, if you go to a store, I challenge a lot of my viewers and supporters, like go to a grocery store and just pay attention to everything that has a significant amount of sugar in it. You'll be surprised, like damn near 70, 80% of the store is sugar essentially. And when I cut the sugar out in the early phases of phasing a lot of the candy out and the lemonades out and all the sweet teas and all that stuff out, I found myself like physiologically going through like withdrawals. So be careful with the sugar, you know, in our country, man. And it's really anywhere you go, but black people specifically be careful with the sugar intake because that sugar addiction and that sort of compulsion to just eat something sweet and even when you don't eat something sweet for a significant amount of time, you'll find yourself like fantasizing about something sweet. So be careful like with the sugar addictions and things of that nature because that's what leads to your diabetes. That that's what time what leads to a lot of significant health issues. So, I've been clean now from weed and alcohol. It'll be two years in November.

[00:11:58]Um, I was smoking joints. I was smoking blunts. I did the Swisser suits. I did the White Als. I done did the vape pins.

[00:12:04]I did the indica. I did the sativa. Um, I was buying weed from the, you know, the [ __ ] dope man. I went to the dispensaries. I basically did it all.

[00:12:13]And weed addiction was probably a lot more harder for me to quit than the alcohol addiction. To be honest, when you're addicted to weed, that [ __ ] is so hard to quit and to get off of, you almost better off not even smoking weed. [cough] [clears throat] Excuse me. You almost better not off not even smoking weed.

[00:12:37]Weed is a really hard drug to get off of. I'm telling you because the part of us feel like the weed produces benefits.

[00:12:47]It heals my anxiety. The weed helps me focus. You know, the weed helps calm me and relax me. As soon as you discover a benefit from the addiction, you're hooked.

[00:13:02]You're hooked. As soon as you're able to identify a benefit to what you're addicted to, you're hooked.

[00:13:11]>> [clears throat] >> And weed, I want to say, is a big deal in the black community.

[00:13:18]And the reason why I'm talking about addictions because I'm I'm really trying to push this narrative of the unification of the black men in our communities and drug use, substance use.

[00:13:29]Um, salute to you, Gamer 123. Hope you have a blessed day. Thank you for liking um and tuning in. Um, addiction in our communities is one of the pillars and the barriers for us uniting as black men. Once you're high and you're under the influence, or if you don't get the weed when you really need it, you're irritable, you're moody, you're paranoid as hell, it really makes you look at your brother differently when weed is on the table.

[00:14:00]Now, everything is all good when you're actually high and you're thinking, you know, everybody's getting along, everything is cool. But it really does impact your judgment because a lot of times the people who you be around when you're high and you're smoking weed don't be the same people you going to be around when you're sober and you're clean and you're done smoking. It's really hard to keep the crowd you got high with around when you stop smoking.

[00:14:21]So, it's better if we unite as black men to put the weed down. Because if we unite off of weed, then when [ __ ] decide to get sober and get clean, they gonna be looking at you different. And if all you doing is smoking and getting high, and that interrupts the the the the rapport, you know what I'm saying? In the community, it gets in the way. You know, we got to all be on one accord. We all got to be in one mind. And addictions a lot of times it's a self soothing mechanism where there's a lot of pain that people have in their heart from a lot of just challenges in their relationships, difficulties navigating just the human complexities and the everyday realities of human nature. And a lot of times we we get frustrated over what we can't control. So let me go light one up. Let me go get this weed.

[00:15:13]But the thing about it is as soon as that high is gone, as soon as that weed run out, you chasing the weed man down or you got to scrape for some more money to go buy some more. And I'm not knocking people who smoke, like you said, to help you sleep better.

[00:15:25]Everybody, you got to go through it to kind of get out of it. So, I get that.

[00:15:30]Um, but as soon as you discover a benefit to smoking weed, it's going to be much harder for you to get off of it.

[00:15:38]I'm telling you what I know. Hey, what's up, Bethany May? Salute to you guys.

[00:15:41]appreciate the likes and the subscription. So, addiction is addiction is a really big deal in the black community, man. And I I was an addict, you know. I was addicted to weed. I was addicted to alcohol. I had every mixed drink. And it became an issue in my marriage because, you know, after I got off of work from seeing clients, I'm listening to so much pain and suffering as a therapist every day when I get off.

[00:16:04]Sometimes it's hard to turn my mind off because I'm hearing people who only got five years to live. I'm working with clients who after the second session, their wife is telling me they don't know how long they're going to live. And I'm dealing with young people who are struggling with addictions. I'm hearing so much as a therapist that when I got off work, I was I was smoking, I was drinking. Therapists, you know, as as talented and as gifted as we are in the mind, like sometimes I feel like our mind is our superpower. We struggle too.

[00:16:30]Can you imagine listening to seven to eight people today about their depression, their anxiety, their trauma, their family issues, some of the secrets they can't tell their mom, their brothers, their sisters, their brothers?

[00:16:40]Can you imagine listening into suicidal thoughts, ideiations? People want to harm themselves, kill themselves, and you got to hang up. You know what I'm saying? You got to drop that call. And how do you think the therapist feels?

[00:16:51]Sometimes, man, I was smoking, man, right after I got off work, you know?

[00:16:55]And then I would go work at a [ __ ] addiction clinic. And I'm in there, I'm work, I'm smoking weed and [ __ ] you get what I'm saying? Because it was hard for me when I started as a therapist to hold all that pain, you know? And I got a little bit better years later. But I'm just being honest with you. Like I was the [ __ ] smoking therapist, man. So, you know, you feel like a hypocrite cuz you're working with clients who struggling and fighting and they look at weed as not like as a severe drug compared to being on meth or being on heroin or being on crack. But still, as a counselor, you need to show up sober.

[00:17:27]if you working with people that are struggling with drug addiction. So, I had all kind of guilt and I'm beating myself up after work like, "Damn, man.

[00:17:33]Why is you smoking this weed, Randy? You got to figure out how to regulate your stress better, man. So, that way you can be an example for them." So, I've been clean for 2 years um this November 6.

[00:17:42]So, I'm proud of that. But, it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy, man. And I know how it feels to be on the side of the addiction where a lot of times when you smoking weed and you drinking, you don't even really look at yourself like an addict. I remember one of my pastor was like, "Yeah, Randy, when you and your wife have some of your most, you know, hardest arguments. You you guys are kind of under the influence." And I'm like, "What do you mean under the influence? I'm drinking [ __ ] SRA with pineapple juice like out of a little small glass." Like, how is that, you know, under the influence? But I I had to listen to him like, you know, damn, maybe he got a point. So, cut the alcohol out. I haven't touched and my last name is wine glass, right? So, picture that. So I um yeah man if you can avoid smoking weed and drinking and find alternative remedies do next 20 30 years when you see how tight a dollar is like life is constantly evolving you know and the price and the cost of living is is is maxing as time progress and you got to think man are you going to be able to maintain that habit when you're paying four or five grand a month for a onebedroom 10 years from now. And it's just, you know, it's just things to think about and what other areas could that money be going that could increase your quality of life because a lot of times addictions is a quality of life issue. A lot of times as black brothers, man, we just have to find other interests and activities and our realities that can help boost our value and our self-esteem and our quality of life that's not smoking.

[00:19:17]Sometimes it may be just going for runs.

[00:19:20]Sometimes it might be joining a book club or joining a run club or joining, you know, a chess club or creating your own club. You know, there's so many different things that you can do to improve your quality of life. Um, essentially, and when I quit smoking weed, man, I save so much money. I mean, just like even if you got a couple hundred in your bank account saved over, you know, all my weed smokers out there, you know, we good for burning through $100 on some weed. Um, yeah, working out helps. That was I'm so glad you said that. That's what I was going to say.

[00:19:52]That's been like the biggest that was the biggest factor for me getting off of weed is going to the gym. Like that's and it sounds really cliche like man just go work out, burn your stress out, go but that gym is like the best medicine. Um, when you're trying to when you're going through those withdrawal symptoms, just pushing weight, but you got to stay consistent in it. Um, so yeah, there needs to be more talked about with the with addiction. And it isn't just limited to substance use.

[00:20:19]It's the Instagram, you know, it's the Facebook, it's the Twitch, it's the social media. I just found myself being too consumed by other people's life. And the more I started looking at how good other people got it on Instagram, I'm like, man, these guys are living their life is so much better than mine. You know, I'm looking at all these famous content creators and streamers and not even people who content creators are streamers. I'm looking at people who just doing better than me. And I was low-key jealous. I'm like, damn, man. My life is [ __ ] up. And the thing is, my life isn't [ __ ] up. I'm so blessed, you know, but when you look on Instagram and social media too much, you lose the value of what you have. You lo It It makes you lose the value of what you have, man. And I'm just like, damn. Just this little time being off of Instagram, he says, "And the sun is is better than we." Yeah, man. Getting out in the sun, going out in nature.

[00:21:14]Absolutely. Um but yeah that social media addiction is a real thing man because you're constantly comparing yourself. They say comparison is a thief of joy. In psychology we have this term called compare and despair where most people when they compare with other people's they do upward comparison.

[00:21:31]Other people they upward compare. They look at people who are doing better than them. And that's what makes the most anxiety and depression essentially. We never want to look at people who got it worse than us. You know, it's like when we compare ourselves with other people on social media, it's always the person that's doing better. But if you really want to be humbled, look at people who got it worse than you. That's what I had to tell myself. I'm just like, damn, there's people out here, man, that would die to have a beautiful wife that's loyal, faithful, a beautiful, healthy family, kids are healthy. Son just graduated high school. You know, my kids are doing the right thing. Everybody's in their right mind. You know, people be grateful to have that. It's not even about the material things sometimes.

[00:22:10]It's just your health. Yeah, Florida is dope, man. I was just out there last month uh for about a month. And I loved it, man. I love the hot weather. Um I feel like the humid humidity I can live with because I'll just go sit at the beach all day and just get in the water or sit in somebody pool. So, um, the humidity don't really bother me that that that much cuz, you know, I could just organize my schedule where I'm out at the beach. I'll go in and just come back out like around 7, you know, 6:30, 7 when the sun start cuz when the sun starts going down a little bit.

[00:22:44]Florida's popping.

[00:22:46]It's popping, man. I loved it out there.

[00:22:48]Me and my wife are thinking about moving out there. Um, I love the community out there. I love the culture out there. I love the energy um of Florida. I just love how it feels to be in Florida. It just feels good being there. Um the food is good. Everything is for the most part it's affordable. Um I loved it. I I love Florida. Right now it's 100° hotter than yesterday. Yeah, it was about 100 when I was out there. Yeah, be safe, man. Make sure you drink water. You hydrate. Drink just tons of water, man. But that vitamin D um that sunlight is good for your immune system. Um, so you know, it's not totally a bad thing, but make sure you got your sunscreen on. I got sunburned out there thinking black people don't get sun sun sunburns like an idiot. But yeah, man. Just wanted to get on here and talk about, you know, I deactivated the Instagram. I'm going to keep you guys on my my no Instagram journey, just what differences I noticed in my psychology and my emotional health. You know, share my story with you guys. You know, I cut out sugar.

[00:23:49]It's been two months. I cut out porn.

[00:23:52]You know, I've been porn free for like almost four weeks. You know what I'm saying? So, I'm cutting that [ __ ] out and just really trying at 40, man. Just get right with God, man. I feel like as you get older as a black man, and I'm noticing this war between like the elders in the black community and the young people, it's such a disconnect.

[00:24:12]You've been noticing that. Like, what the [ __ ] is going on between like the older generation and the the younger generation in the black community, man?

[00:24:19]It's like it's just it's just a battle.

[00:24:22]And it's not all black folks, but I'm noticing like it's a big divide, man.

[00:24:26]And as I'm getting older, I'm recognizing I got the fear of the Lord.

[00:24:29]So, I be as I'm getting older, I'm just like, man, I'm getting closer to death.

[00:24:33]I need to get my [ __ ] together. You know, I'm whatever I need to do to be righteous, I'm not going to ever be perfect, but whatever I got to do to do the right thing, even if it's closing Instagram, because I found myself getting tempted to look at porn. I found myself getting tempted because, you know, Instagram is is a lot of times it's ass and titties. All these girls want attention or either some dude with a with [laughter] a chick with her ass out and then everything else is just clothes and food for the most part. So, I found myself even thinking about relapsing on porn just being on [ __ ] Instagram. So, I was like, I got to get I got to get off of this, man. You know, it keeps your that spirit of lust on you on social media, man. Um, I'm 47 years old now, so I know it. I know it's the new world is coming.

[00:25:20]Yeah, man. Once you get to your 40s, it really make you think about life and take life seriously because you know your time is up. I don't got no midlife crisis or nothing like that because I lived a good life. But at 40, you really start taking your life seriously and getting your [ __ ] together. Let me tell you, cuz God can take you out of this thing any time. And sometimes I'd be wondering like, man, like what's going on with our community, man? Like, as we get older, we need to be more loving to our younger people. We need to be more patient with our younger people cuz what are we expecting when we die? You know, God ain't going to just, you know, um, overlook all the, you know, ways that we treated people on our way there. You know, we, as we get older, we should be better. It's like as I'm getting closer to the Lord, I'm thinking like, God, give me the grace and the wisdom to be who you need me to be for your children, for your church, for this for the black community, the whatever community you put me in front of. Lord, help transform whatever needs to be changed and renewed for me to reach your people. Lord God, I'm not aging and I'm like, "Oh, [ __ ] these people. I don't like you. You damn kids." Or I'm getting older and I'm like, "I need to get my [ __ ] together.

[00:26:28]I'm afraid of God." I think sometimes we lose that that fear of the Lord. I'm terrified. I look at this world. I look at the universe. I'm looking at all these aliens and [ __ ] I'm just like [ __ ] Like who God? Like he tries the fear in me. You ever had that thought about God and it just put like the fear in you? You ever just thought about death? You ever thought about that [ __ ] Dying? Sometimes I be thinking like, damn, do human beings forget we [ __ ] die, man. That [ __ ] put the fear in me.

[00:26:58]I'm just like, God, like we going to die. You know what I'm saying? Like I that [ __ ] that's just that thought by itself be scaring me and I'm just like man like that fear of the Lord getting me and I'm just like it just sends like chills down your spine like you drunk some cold water and you feel that water run through your stomach and your intestines and them chills. That's how I feel when I think about God. Sometimes it be it be it be blowing my mind when I see like my elders and older people and it just seem like they don't give a damn. I'm like damn dude you like 60, you 50 and you don't care. You don't care about what God think. You don't care about judgment. You don't I be believing that man. Every religion, every culture in this world believe in the higher power. So even if you don't agree with the Bible, everybody agrees to for the most part as a collective something exists that's stronger and higher than us. That should put fear in you. Even though you can get lost in the details all you want, there's going to be something happening when we die, you know? So I just I don't know, man. Man, I just feel like sometimes in the black community, man, we need to I don't like to see how we be killing each other and [ __ ] like it's like that [ __ ] ain't nothing. You know, black people ain't no, you know, we we we got some righteous people and that are doing the right thing that are awesome. But we also got that part of our community, man, where [ __ ] is killing each other, man, and putting a gun up to I got robbed at gunpoint after my [ __ ] first deployment to Iraq, [ __ ] I didn't even have a gun put to me in Iraq that first deployment. The gun came from my brother, [ __ ] How [ __ ] up is that? And I'm just thinking like and I and I still love my black community, but I just be thinking like, man, we got to get out of this killing each other [ __ ] and making it look so easy. Death is a serious [ __ ] thing. Once [ __ ] are gone, that's it.

[00:28:45]People be talking about, oh, you going to come back as a butterfly, man. [ __ ] that. When you're gone, you're gone. You know, that's why a lot of times some people don't like [ __ ] with [ __ ] man, because they like, I don't want to risk losing my damn life. Some people value life [ __ ] you know, and I love black people, man. I'm from Detroit where that [ __ ] goes down. And I just be thinking like, damn. Like, how can I love my community, but I don't want to take a [ __ ] bullet at the same time.

[00:29:11]So, it's just sometimes it's just so much complexities and [ __ ] in the black community, but I still love my people because I only have so much time and I'm not gonna save people and influence and support my community hating people. So sometime I just feel like it just it be it be hard to to bridge these different realities together sometimes when I'm dealing with black folks, man. It be hard, man. But you know, we got to lead with love and not everything is for us to understand. So yeah, man. I'm not going to talk you guys to death. I appreciate all the likes and subscriptions, man. You know, um I'm from Ohio, but I stay in St. Petersburg, Florida. Yeah. Salute to Florida, man. I appreciate you being active, man, and engaging and respectful and kind and God bless you, man. Pray for you and your family. um your safety. You know, I pray that God blesses you and grows you and restores you and helps you overcome that, you know, that that weed addiction, man. Because, you know, I care about my my followers, my subscribers, my I'm no different than you guys, man. I'm a follower of somebody. I'm a subscriber of somebody, you know, and every day I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with this channel. Every day I'm trying to figure out where am I even going with this channel. So, I appreciate you guys just joining me in the process, man. I hope you guys have a blessed evening.

[00:30:23]God keeps you safe, protects you, and keeps you. And yeah, man, just think about just the power of addictions and try to keep yourself off that weed, that alcohol. Think about just how short our life is. And the seriousness of when we're gone, we're gone. And trying to make the most out of being the most useful tool that you can for the Lord cuz he's going to bless you. You know, he's going to bless you. And God bless you guys, man. You have a good night.