May 13, 2025 • 40 mins
According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics roughly over 96K people die every year due to a drug overdose. With that, opioids are a factor in 7 out of every 10 overdose deaths. Drug trafficking and drug addiction has been a constant battle in nearly every corner of the U.S. What is being done to crack down on drug trafficking and help drug afflicted citizens on the road of recovery? Are we doing enough? Adam Vibe Gunton is a recovered drug addict, overdose survivor, TED Talk speaker, and founder of Recovered On Purpose and Behavioral Health Partners who joined us to talk about how America can “recover” from the opioid epidemic!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's a nice side with Dan Ray. I'm Wbzy Costin's Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
In addition, a big injury to Jason Tatum. Looks as
if he has heard badly hurt his right ankle. Just
saw some video of him being in a wheelchair being
taken from the from the arena. That is not a
good look, that is for sure. Well, that is not
(00:27):
what we're here to talk about. It's been a tough
night for the Red Sox and it looks like also
a tough night for the Celtics in New York. They
go down three to one. But we'll we'll move on
to our next guest tonight, which is much more important
on my agenda, and we're talking about the road to
recovery in America. Last Thursday night, we had a very
interesting guest during the eight o'clock hour. He's back with us.
(00:49):
His name is Adam Vibe Gunton. He's a recovered drug
addict attic, an overdose survivor, TED talk speaker, and founder
of Recovered on Purpose and Behavioral Health Partners. Adam, welcome
back to Night's that. I really enjoyed our conversation last
week on Thursday, and I'm looking forward to giving folks
an opportunity to share some of their experiences and ask
(01:12):
questions of you tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Welcome back, Thanks so much for having me, Dan, and
I just have this sense that there's someone out there
that is going to hear something that is going to
change their life tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I'm convinced of it, to be really honest with you,
and it happens. Happens in radio quite a bit. So look,
I want to recreate your story for those who missed
your story last Thursday night. We were one of our
eight o'clock guests. So I was surprised and it was ironic.
(01:49):
You went to Columbine High School. And the other night
I asked you that Columbine High School and you said, yeah,
the shooting at Columbine High School I heard in nineteen
ninety nine. You were not there at the time. You
you went to Columbine after this horrific shooting. Correct.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Correct, I was at Colmine Hills Elementary. I was the
first class that came in when the freshmen that were
there had graduated.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Okay, so you graduated from Columbine High School and I
know you told me you played football. You was it
twenty ten that you graduated I'm trying to remember from
just our conversation.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Thousand and six, two seven, two thousand six is my
senior year football.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Okay, two thousand and seven, Okay, so you therefore, I'm
assuming we're born sometime in the late eighties. So you
got out of there as most kids as a senior.
You probably were eighteen years old when you graduated from Colln.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
High School, and I round up. I round up to
the nineties, even though it was the late eighties.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Okay, fair enough, Okay, that's good enough. Yeah, you don't
remember much of the of the eighties. I get that.
I totally get that, all right, So what did you
do after high school? Did you go off to college?
Did you continue your education? What? What? What? What? What? Where?
Did life take you beginning in about the spring of
two thousand and seven.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, I went up to college. I don't know if
I really had a path in mind, except it was
what everybody told me I was supposed to do. I
wrote a really, really good paper for my English class
about legalizing marijuana and got to got an A in
that class and didn't have to do any more assignments.
But I was mostly partying and didn't really have a
(03:36):
career path in mind, and had a traumatic event happened
my freshman year that kind of took me out.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Okay, So you're having a good time as a senior
in high school and you went off to college in Colorado,
I assume, or somewhere.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Else University of Northern Colorado.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
University of Northern Colorado, and it's party time. And at
that point, I assume, even though you're, you know, eighteen
going on nineteen years old, the hardest stuff you have
a dealt with was marijuana or some beer an alcohol.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I assume, Well, I was actually introduced to cocaine at
twelve years old, and that's why I try to pass
the message out that have the conversation with your kids early. Wow,
and earlier than you think.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
How will you introduce to cocaine at twelve? I mean,
will you hanging with a fast crowd? Do you have
an older sibling who said, hey, try this stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
An older influence.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I'll say that, you know, by the way, we don't
have to name names or anything like that. You know,
I'm I'm just trying to understand, and I understand that.
I respect that, So I understand the story. Okay, So
you go off as a college freshman. There were a
lot of college freshmen in that era who would have
been familiar with cocaine or marijuana whatever, it's okay. When
(04:57):
did the slide you said that there was an int
or an accident? When did the slide towards even tougher
drugs hearted drugs start to occur? And was there an
incident that that puts you on that path?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah? Actually, my freshman year, I had now drinking and
partying all night like I did most nights, and I
woke up to my phone ringing and vibrating down by
my leg, and I swam through the sheets to find
my hard phone with the bright screen that read four
forty seven AM. And my best friend Chucker was calling me. Now,
I remember having the choice that I could either answer
the phone like I always do it, Hey, what's up Chuck?
(05:36):
Or I could answer the way I was feeling was hello,
and am I still drunk and state? I chose the latter.
Twitch A soft voice replied, Hey, what's up? Why are
you calling you this late? I was just calling to
say Hi, don't call me this late again. And I
hung up on him, and he shot himself and within
a week of that happening. I was introduced to oxycont
(06:01):
so and that was the thing that you.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Felt responsible for your friend's suicide.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Absolutely and for ten years.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Why did you feel responsible? I you know, again, I'm
not trying to pry, but why would you not say
this guy, you know, it wasn't like he said to
if you don't talk to me, I'm going to kill myself.
He just he apparently needed to talk to you. You
were not in a condition where you could really have
a conversation. Why did you take that burden on yourself?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You know, because I was young and I'd never been
taught about it. And the thing is that if you
don't know about tough communication, you know, I've done a
bunch of communication courses at this point, so to learn
how to have those hard conversations and learn how to,
you know, take responsibility for your own actions, your own words,
and then also let people take responsibility for theirs. But
(06:54):
at the time, I'm eighteen nineteen years old, I didn't understand.
All I can do is take everything personally, okay, yeah,
And I had to bottle it down and I couldn't
tell anybody about it.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So then you slid right to OxyContin to basically suppress
the pain that you felt, the guilt that you felt.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I guess everything was partying until that moment, and after
that moment, I was consciously using drugs and alcohol to
mask the way that I felt.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Okay, how long did you stay in school or were
you doomed to drop out?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Pretty quickly, very quickly, very quickly.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Okay, So then you're in a kind of a spiral here.
This is still twenty or so years ago, but you're
in a downward spiral. And you told me last week
that at one point you were living in an unheated
house with six other addicts in Billings, Montana, in the
(07:50):
winter time. When we get back, I want to know
how you ended up there, and then I want to
start talking about your recovery, how you were able to
somehow get the monkey off you're back, and what you've
done and what you're trying to do with other people.
And I hope you don't feel on being tough on you,
(08:13):
but I just wanted to get the story out a
little bit more slowly than we got it out the
other night, so that everybody could understand that this is
not something that happened you overnight. Obviously, there's a sequence
of events, one leading to the other, and then ultimately
now you find yourself in buildings Montana, living in an
unheeded home with six other addicts. That must have been
(08:35):
an experience. And we'll talk about that, and then we'll
talk about your own personal recovery, and we'll talk about
what you're trying to do for other people. My guest
is an amazing young guy, Adam Vibe Gunton. I can't
tell you how much I respect people who overcome this.
I've had friends, close friends who have overcome heroin. H
(09:01):
There's there's that. The paths are there. People find the
path finds them or they find the path and they're
they're good people. And sometimes people don't don't find the
help that they need.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And that's what hopefully we can do Tonight. We'll be
back on night Side. If you like to join the
conversation at any point, you know the numbers. We'll be
back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Night Side with Dan Ray Boston's News Radio. You're on
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
My guest is Adam by Gunton. The organization that he
has founded Recovered on Purpose and also behavioral health partners.
So Adam, we're talking about a you know, high school
kid who maybe drabbled a little bit in this and
that goes off to call en parties hardy and then
(10:01):
is adversely impacted by a friend who calls him at
four forty seven in the morning, and not much of
a conversation. Your friend hangs up and kills himself, and
that puts you on a downward spiral. So I'm guessing
this is sometime now in two thousand and six. If
(10:22):
you're a freshman at the University of Northern Colorado, how
long did it take you to hit rock bottom from
two thousand and six?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
You know, rock bottom is such an interesting concept because
I can tell you about different rock bottoms throughout my addiction. Okay,
by twenty thirteen, I was in an apartment alone trying
to write my own suicide letter. But it got worse
from there, and I thought it was rock bottom when
(10:59):
I was, you know, right in that suicide letter. And
then I thought it was rock bottom three and a
half years later, when I was in a homeless shelter
looking around at the other men on cots and trying
to say a prayer, and then they got kicked out
of the homeless shelter, So my rock bottom it didn't
exist until you can't.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It sounds like to me, you're finding new rock bottoms
as you're going, as you're bouncing along here. So now
you're in buildings Montana in the middle of winter, which
is a cold part of the world. Uh, and you're
living in an unheated home. How did you find this
group of fellow drug addicts? Is this the sort of
thing that people who find themselves out in horrific circumstances
(11:44):
can kind of almost sense that there are other people
around them who they can affiliate with or.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
How does that work? Yeah, I mean when you're looking
for drugs, you find the people with them, and then
you don't want to be alone. You hang out with
them and use drugs. And that house had no electricity,
no running water, and during the winter we actually had
a metal trash can in the middle of the living
room that we had a fire.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
In inside the house to save the house. This is
what year now, we're talking roughly two thousand and one.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Two and sixteen seventeen.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Okay, so you spent ten years on this downward spiral.
Did you lose contact with your family members.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
When I was homeless. Yes, I actually remembered throwing my
phone out the window of a car because I didn't
want them to be able to contact me, because I
didn't want them to watch me die. Because at this time,
I didn't think I was going to be able to stop.
I'd been trying basically this entire time for eight years,
going to meetings or church or all kinds of different places,
(12:52):
trying to stop, and I just couldn't. So I felt
so powerless. I didn't want them to watch it anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
So you periodically been in touch with them? Did you
get a chance during that period of time to see
them or were you always away?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Well during my addiction, I mean they wasn't. I was
high functioning. I was making six figures as a salesperson.
It was just all going into my arm. I was
able to have corporate housing all over the country. Yeah,
it was. It was only the last about year, year
and a half of my addiction where I had nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
You had nothing, Okay, So what happened in that house
in Montana or in Billings, Montana that somehow allowed you
to separate from this lifestyle?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Well, after trying for months going to twelve Step meetings
every day, church every Saturday and Sunday, Bible study every Tuesday.
I even went to the local mmagent thinking they might
be able to beat recovery into me, but nothing was working.
And one night before Bible study, I was sitting in
this car that this girl let me borrow. It wasn't stolen,
(14:08):
but I did have to start it with a screwdriver
for some reason. But I was sitting in this car
before Bible study, and I had a realization that I
had literally tried everything on the planet within my power
to stop, and I still couldn't. And I sat back
in that seat and I audibly said to God, I'm done.
I'm not going to church, I'm not going to Bible studies,
(14:29):
I'm not going to meetings or probation officer anymore. Please
just let me die. And for the first time I
said that was such conviction and honesty that I feel
like He knew that it was time that I was
ready to give my life fully up to him. And
at the time I didn't realize that, but I heard
(14:50):
this whisper in my heart that you know that whisper
when you hear it, and it said it's time go.
And at that point, you know, you would think you
get super excited, like, oh my gosh, I'm going to recover.
But I got angry at first, because what's different about
this time than all the times that I've dumped my
dope in the toilet at night saying I'm never going
to use again? And then I wake up in the
(15:11):
morning and I pawn my TV to go pick up
What's different about this time? And I'm screaming and I'm
crying in this car and I'm hitting the steering wheel
and the roof, and what's different about this time? God,
please just let me die? And I'm crying. And then
after a couple of minutes, I'm calming down and I'm
breathing heavy, and then that whisper in my heart just
repeats himself, and he said, it's time go. I don't
(15:32):
know how to explain it, but I got this sense
of willingness that I had never had before, because up
to that point, my entire plan had been so tightly
in my grasp. I was scheduling my meetings. I was
scheduling church and Bible studies and NMA jims and probation
officers and mentors and all this stuff. My recovery was
(15:55):
so tightly in my grasp that I could never actually
attain it. And this oment, what I was doing was
giving it all up, like God, whatever you say I
need to do, I'm willing to do. And I go
to the Bible study I bust in. I'm twelve fifteen
minutes late, and there's there's there in the middle of
prayer and I interrupt him and I dropped down with
(16:15):
my hands in the air and I'm I'm like, guys,
I can't stop. I used again, please help me, Please
help me. And I'm this one hundred and forty eight
pound mess crying that hasn't showered. And those guys loved
me as if I was Jesus, as if they were
(16:35):
supposed to, and they walked me through it. They prayed
for me at the end, and you know that was
that was what it took.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
So in effect, yeah, in effect, I'm going to use
the phrase here that that probably you're gonna reject, but
in effect, your spirit broke and you basically kind of
surrendered and said, okay, you know, I'm I can't do
(17:06):
it alone. It's up to you. I think that's what
you're what I'm hearing you say.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I have never heard somebody say that, Dan, and that
is exactly what it was. My human spirit had completely broke, okay,
and the only one that was going to be able
to help me was God's spirit.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Okay, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but
I could hear it in your voice. Yeah, I really could.
I've had friends who have reached that point, and so
I've heard that. I've heard that plea before. So you start,
how do you start? What's the first step? And we
(17:45):
got a couple of minutes here before the break, and
I want to continue the story on the other side
of the newscast. But so now, okay, they're going to
help you. Was the first step just to take a
shower and get yourself physically clean? What was the first
step you did? I'm serious when I get that. I
mean you didn't go to sleep that night.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I'm sure, Yeah, I mean it was. It was such
a process. And the person who was leading that Bible study, Brendan,
he's my best friend still and he you know, even
up to that point, he was picking me up and
taking me to coffee or breakfast or church or Bible
study because I wouldn't have a ride, and you know
he he would just continue to do that. Five days later,
(18:24):
you know, I'm still out there trying to stay clean.
But five days later, he picks me up and takes
me to I Hop for breakfast, and I haven't used
so I'm super excited to have five days. And I'm
sitting there across from him and talking to him, excited,
and I get this text message on my phone and
it's from my dope dealer, and he was like, Hey,
I just got some new stuff. It's fire. I'll give
you a free twenty to try out. And right when
(18:44):
I read it, I feel something going through the top
of my head all the way through my body. My
toes were tingling, my fingers were tingling. I lost my
peripheral vision. All I could see was the phone, and
then my thumbs just started texting back and it was
in like King James. It was like, ye shall not
text me again, texted me for the last time.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And then when I finished the text, I feel that
thing leave me go through my legs all the way
up out of my head. And then I read it
because I couldn't even read it. As I was writing it,
I was like, what the heck? And I showed it
to Brendan. I was like, dude, that wasn't me. I
don't know what that was. I don't know who that was.
He's like, okay, I pushed send, I close it. I'm
(19:22):
putting it in my pocket, looking down in my pocket,
and then I look back up and Jesus is sitting
across from me. The entire restaurant completely disappeared. It was
like I was in a trance. There was a glow
coming from behind him. He was smiling at me. I
immediately knew who it was. Immediately knew it was happening.
Felt my face to the table, my hand up, I said,
thank you God, Thank you God, thank you. Gus came
back up and he was gone, and I'm I'm of
(19:45):
the faith. I believe in instant healing. I believe in
instant cheering, and he could take away all my cravings,
on my withdrawals, everything in an instant. That didn't happen
for me, And thank god it didn't, because for the
the next three weeks, I'm shaking, I'm craving every day,
I'm withdrawing. I'm sick. I'm sick. And the only time
(20:07):
I would get relief. Was when I was sitting down
with somebody that was sponsoring me through a twelve step program,
or when I was sitting down and I was writing
out my inventory and I finished my fourth step and
I did my fifth step on day twenty five, was
my first ever one, and the same sponsor was picking
me up from the Sober living house every morning at
six thirty am. Then on day twenty six, after my
(20:30):
fifth step, he came and picked me up in his
nineteen eighty three mailman jeep, and we were driving to
this movie theater that he managed where we did the
work in the basement, and I was looking over at
this beautiful sunrise and for the first time since I
was twelve years old, I had no desire to drink
or use. And as I'm telling you this, I have
chills all over my arms because I remember that moment
(20:53):
when everything changed, as if my life had no hope
to own my gosh, I don't want to use, and
anyone out there struggling, it's real. I didn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I'll tell you it's inspirational story, Adam, and you lived
it and you're able to tell it. And I had
the same sense listening to you that I think you're
you have a sense. So we're going to take a break.
We got to do a newscast here. If we had
scripted this, we couldn't have timed it out better. Uh
So take a break, tape it, take a deep breath.
(21:31):
I want to talk about your recovery and what you
do for other people, and if anyone would like to
join the conversation. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine three ten thirty. You've just
heard an amazing story. But I'm a pretty good judge
of credibility. That's what I've done for a living. And
(21:52):
this is the real This guy is the real deal.
Uh And I was impressed with him the other night.
I'm now overly impressed with him. Now. I've never been
where he was, but we all in our lives had
those moments. And that was a moment that this man
just described for us, pretty raw, but pretty real. Adam
(22:16):
Vibe Gunton recovered on purpose Behavioral Health Partners. We'll be
back right after the these the newscast. I feel the
same thing he feels right now. I'm telling you, right now,
there's something I hope some of you understand that this
this is something that is to me amazing, but it's
(22:39):
amazing and it's amazingly real and it can happen. Back
after this on Night.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Side, It's Night Side.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Boston's News Radio. It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Back with my guest, Adam Vibe Gunton. He's recovered. He's
told his story of sliding into deep deep addiction, his
organizations that he's recovered, Recovered on Purpose, and Behavioral Health Partners. Adam,
I don't know anything else that we need to tell
(23:18):
in your story, but I think I want to go
to phone callers and let them comment and ask questions,
and then at the end, I want to make sure
that we give people contact information as to how they
can reach out to Recovered on Purpose or Behavioral Health Partners.
Where are you physically located these days? Do you have
(23:39):
a a place that you call home at this point?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah? And it's even heat too.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
That's good, Okay. I like that you know where where's
Where's where's your organization headquartered.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Or in Denver, Colorado? Recovered on Purpose? Both of them
are national, although.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Right, yeah, that's fine, yeah, okay, So you serve and
can help people anywhere they can be in contact. I
assume yes, and you have resources, we'll talk about those,
but I want to get to some callers, okay, So
let's do that first, and then we'll talk about the
resources that are available on how people can contact. They
(24:21):
go to Will in Long Island, New York. Will you
are next on Nice that with Adam Vibe going to
GARRETA and.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Will Hey, Dan, Hey, Adam. Listener's great to hear your story.
And you know, I never shy away really from talking
about my story. I mean I might have mentioned it
to Dan over the years, but you know that's not
me talk about on the radio really, but you know
you do maybe, but in July, I'll be sober seventeen
(24:47):
years right, and and for the people that are out
there that are listening, which is why I don't shy
I own a business in my community, I'm not afraid
to talk about I don't just advertise it. You know.
Obviously I wouldn't break anyone else's annybody, But as far
as my own, I'm not ashamed to talk about it
(25:09):
because you never know who needs to hear it. I'm
not running around telling everybody I ever met, obviously, but
when it does come across. It needs to be mentioned.
You know, I won't be afraid to say something.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Will was your drug of choice alcohol.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
I am what they call a garbage head. I remember
when I called, when I called the when I called,
like I tried many times to get sober for many years.
I'm a very dan. I know you talk to me
now and I sound somewhat like a normal human being.
And I paid, well, let's not go that.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Far, Will, Let's come on. I know you too well.
I'm only kid. Go ahead, you're one of my best callers,
you know that. Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
But I was.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
I was a pretty low bottom person and i've and
I used a lot of heavy drugs also, right, So
I remember when I called the hotline the last time
when I got sober, and I said, you know, I said, uh,
you know, I I'm I'm smoking drugs and doing this.
And he goes, well, how much do you drink? I said,
who cares how much I drink? I just told you
I'm doing all these hard, you know drugs, you know
(26:14):
what I mean. And he goes, well, how much do
you drink? I goes much as the next guy. He goes, well,
how much is that? I go I don't know, like
a quarter or a leader of about the day. He goes,
you're an alcoholic, I said, Alcoholics push shopping carts full
of cans. Okay, I have a job and this, and
you know, if I show up and then I just
never really equated that the alcohol right and in my mind,
(26:35):
I'm Irish. I would have to turn in my Irish
card if I couldn't drink. And I said, just stop
me from doing the heavy drugs, you know, the dope,
the coke, the crack that. So just stop me with that.
Don't worry about how much I drink.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
So you were sort of the You were what I
call a five tool attic, mean, you could do it all.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
It's like, yeah, when you watch Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas, I was like that guy, you know what
I mean, Like I liked everything. But I'll say this,
he mentioned something really important in my mind, like the
spiritual aspect, the God thing. I never really got sober
till I realized that I needed to rely on God.
No matter how many times I tried, there was something
(27:10):
always missing. And I know a lot of people in recovery,
thousands over the years, and the ones that eventually, you know,
wind up becoming old timers, meaning don't drink and don't die.
They always have some spiritual foundation that's something greater than themselves,
their religion, their God, whatever it is. There's a purpose, right,
(27:32):
there's a reason. I remember when I prayed, I didn't
even I finally was so beaten that I didn't even pray,
Like I didn't want to pray for anything. I said.
I would just say every day the same friend, God,
just don't let me drink today. God just don't let
me drink today. They said, I just want one thing
I don't want. Don't worry about the business.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Let me get in here. I want to get Adam
to react to well, pretty much everything you said. Adam,
let's get your analysis here of someone who walked a
similar path.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, it sounds like him and I have the same
kind of thing. And I learned that it's not about
the substance. It's not about the alcohol or the drugs.
It's about what happens to me and when I don't
have those things in my system. And the only solution
for someone like me is that spiritual solution. Because my
mental state, in my emotional state, when I'm not on
(28:23):
drugs and alcohol, is restless, is irritable. I'm feeling just
not okay. And what I didn't realize that whole time
is that drugs and alcohol were my solution, and then
when they stopped working, I had to find something that
worked a way to live, that solved my problems, and
that was a reliance upon God. But a reliance upon
(28:45):
God has a responsibility attached to it, and that's to
serve God's people. That's what I learned, and I've been
able to do say incredible things in my recovery, publish
a book and do ted talks and travel and all
this kind of stuff. I would give it all back
if it meant I couldn't help addicts.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You know, I just want to go back to your
your your experience where everybody in McDonald's disappeared and you're
looking at the face of Jesus. You're convinced that was Jesus.
You're convinced that this wasn't a hallucination, right, but no doubt.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
And the reason the reason I know that is because
my entire life changed.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Well can you will? Can you You maybe never had
that experience, will, But as somebody who was in a
similarly situated. Can you identify with that experience?
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I know for a fact that I can. My I
didn't have the face of Jesus, but I will never
forget the moment, almost like an exorcism happened right and
I didn't know that that was the moment I was
going to get sober. I just knew that that was
the moment that I was broken enough. And it was
literally like God whispered into my ear. And I'll never
(30:03):
forget how my box. It was a spiritual awakening. And
trust me, the last time I got over, the one
that lasted the whole time in seventeen years. All the
other times before that, I never, I guess, really got over,
but all the time that I had put together between that,
there was something different about this one. Because I was
so sick for so long, I didn't get better right away.
(30:24):
There were other times in the past where I quit,
where the shakes and the detox and everything was so
much easier, and somehow yet I still picked up. This
was so awful, and the mental addiction was so strong.
For so long, I would gag, I would shake weeks
after I got so months, I would take a shower
like I was getting ready to go out to the
bar to go to a meeting, and I would start
(30:47):
calling like ooh and almost vomit because of the anxiety
of wanting to use And even though I was going
to the meetings and doing the program and calling my
sponsor and doing all these things, and it was literally
like God tied my hands behind my back and wouldn't
let me drink even if I wanted to. It was
(31:09):
because I finally had praised so much for one thing
and one thing only that it was like I was
spiritually bound and I'll just never forget the moment. And
it wound up looking back now in retrospect seventeen years
that that epiphany moment was. You know, today I look
at it like I'm part of the no matter what club,
you know, no matter how my life goes, no matter
(31:30):
what I don't drink, no matter what, and all right,
well within that, but.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Just that real thank you for your call. You reinforced
I think exactly what.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Was a great caller and a good show tonight.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Thanks Will. I appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Thank you, Will. You're off, Thank you man.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
You well, we'll talk soon. Will is one of my
best callers. We fight, we agree we disagreed.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
He's a fun caller.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
We are going to be back with Adam Vibe Gunton.
I'm going to try to move everybody a little bit
more quickly. I want to get a bunch of calls
in here if you want to try, six one, seven,
two thirty, six, seven thirty. Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
It's night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
My guest is Adam Vibe Clinton. He's recovering alcoholic and
drug user, heavy duty drug user. An amazing story his
the groups he's he's founded were covered on Purpose and
behavioral health Partners. We'll get all that information for you,
(32:43):
but I want to give the folks who have called
in real quickly an opportunity. Tom had found with Tom
down on the Cape. You're next on Nightside, Say had
to Adam Vibe Gunton. What's your question or comment? Tom?
Speaker 5 (32:53):
He Adam, I want to congratulate you in your sobriety.
It's very hard for people to do it on their own.
I know you had some support, but I wanted to
call up Dan for to tell you about the program.
We're not sure if you'll ware in Massachusetts. It's one
of the only US and four are the only states
that provided is Section thirty five. And that's for the
(33:15):
family members out there listening that may have children, our
spouses or parents that have alcohol or drug problems that
they can go to the courts file a petition. It's
called a Section thirty five and the police. The judge
will have the police go out pick them up, get
them a drug test to make sure they have an issue,
(33:39):
and then they will section them forty five to ninety days.
They get them sober mental health and they have to
take two hundred hours of classes on sobriety.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yeah, Tom, I appreciate that, I really do. And if
you want to send me some information and I'd be
more than happy to do something some night on that.
But I I don't want to detract from what Adam
is talking about tonight.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
I get it. I just thought that maybe some family
members are listening because I know there's nothing that can
This is great for the person that ads out.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, do be a favorite. Just hang on, hang on,
and Noel will give you my direct phone number and
also my email address, and you can just fold that
I'm unfamiliar with what you're talking about. So I'm not
I know what you're talking about exists, but it's it's
it's a little more complicated than that because you got
to get a court order and all of that. So
(34:36):
but but hang on and feel free. You reach out
to me during the during the day, any day, and
I'll see what I'll get back to that promise. Okay,
all right, all right, no, give him my contact info.
Let me go next to No, you got to take
him down there and go okay, let's go to Jason
and Walfam. Jason, you were next on nice at with
Adam Vibe Goods and go right ahead.
Speaker 6 (34:56):
Then then thank you for having me and Adam. We
say in the AA, thank you for sharing and thank
you for hosting. Audition is very serious. I'm a I'm
a recovery addict too, but my drag was chosen was alcohol.
And then, like I was talking to the sheriffs, I'm
going to start working with enough folk Sheriff's department trying
(35:17):
to offer some help to those inmates.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
I'm glad that that is. I'm glad that that has
worked out for you. Jason was on the phone with
one of the sheriffs here in Massachusetts last week and
we put them in contact and Jason, I think had
spent a little time, a little bit of time and
stirre at some point you told me, correct, Jason.
Speaker 6 (35:35):
Yes, but I didn't know. I didn't know how to
ask for help. Yeah, it was just a culture thing.
So I've been going to AA so so. But at
last my last drunk in the AA, they said the
last something called the last drunk, the last episode you had.
Mine was when I went to Ohio to buy a
Chess Bank building. I didn't get in touch with the rics.
(35:56):
I ended up for a strip club. I drunk so
much I don't know how the road. I ended up
in a Chick fil a black that I went to
jail and I drove back to my sischusters the following
they that was my last drunk.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
That's what.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
That's when it clicked, like, you know what, I need
to get this stuff together because I got a family,
so like soberness is between life and death. So ever,
since I been in AA, there's a saying a forever
saying like whatever you put before your sobriety is going
to fall apart. And I'm pretty sure, Adam, until you
started pulling your sobriety.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
First, you didn't find.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
The sex siss the sex sss that you have right now, right,
and also another saying that saying, Hey, when I was
when I was drinking, I wasn't a growing up. I
was just I just I just got taller.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I was still a kid. I was I was still
a boy.
Speaker 6 (36:40):
I just got I just got taller. And you know
what I mean.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
So I didn't. I was still a kid until I
got so bad.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
That's when I became a man because everything else was
about drinking. So I don't want to take out too
much time, but I just wanted to share that and Adam,
thank you for sharing.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Thank you Jason as well. Appreciate it and keep me
posted on your work with the so Okay, I'm delighted
to have been able to get you in touch with him.
Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Thank you. Yeah, And if I can touch on that
day Jason said, is so true. You know, I have
a a program that I work and constantly in contact
with God. And the interesting thing is that now whenever
I'm having quote unquote a bad mental health day, right,
I actually have have a solution for that because my program,
(37:28):
my relationship with God comes first, and if it didn't,
then during the hard times I wouldn't know what to
do and I wouldn't be able to make it to
the good times. So one hundred percent what Jason said
is true.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Absolutely, let me get one more call in before we
got to end our hour, which has been a great hour.
Nathan from Quincy. Nathan, you are next on nice Ie
with Adam Vibe going to Grit ahead. Nathan.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Hello, So.
Speaker 7 (37:55):
This kind of hits home for me. My mom at
you dealt with love, alcohol and like weed addictions over
the years, like I've found her like passed out twice
and unfortunately didn't end well because on March twenty fifth,
she committed suicide.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
She was dealing with mental.
Speaker 7 (38:15):
Health issues and everything and self medicating with both weed
and alcohol and went off all medications. So like I
as I've gone through like first hand with somebody that's
dealt with these issues.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Sorry for what you went through, Nathan, And uh, there's
nothing that anyone can say to to you know to
deal with that pain. Any suggestions. We only have got
a benny left for Nathan that you could give him. Adam,
is there anything that your groups could could help him with?
If you wanted to get in touch with him.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Yeah, I mean, he's welcome to reach out. Adam at
Recovered on Purpose dot org. And man, I lost my
dad on Christmas Day of twenty twenty two, and there's
you know, when I'm thinking about him, I make sure
to think about it in a positive light. Remember the
good time and you know, remember the good times with her.
(39:16):
She loved you very much, and this disease doesn't take
away our heart further. People that we love.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Nathan, I hope that hopes. Thank you so much for
calling and I wish I'd gotten to you earlier, could
have given you more time. Thank you call anytime. Okay,
thanks Nathan again. The way, folks, you can, you can
check out Recovered on purpose dot org. You can go
there directly if you want to email Adam Adam at
Recovered on purpose dot org. Adam, your presentations and I
(39:48):
exceeded my expectations. I had pretty high expectations. But we will.
We will play this hour again on Best of Night's side.
My intention would be to play at this Sunday night
at eleven o'clock on WBZ as well, so people who
missed it tonight I will have a chance to hear
it then. Thank you so much. I'd love to keep
in touch with you man, because other people you can
(40:10):
help and have you back periodically. Thank you so much
for what you went through. Would you have overcome? Okay?
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Yeah, thank you Dan.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
What did you say about email? I'm sorry you wanted to.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Oh yeah, saying you have my email? Also, would love
to hear from you too. I think this is this
is awesome. You have callers that love you, community that
you know is out to help people. Also, I think
it's awesome that the people that called in were calling
into help, not not necessarily just for help, because there's
people listening right now that can't reach out yet, and
your callers wanted to call in and reach them too.
(40:44):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Absolutely, just great, Adam Vibe Gunton, Thank you so much. Adam.
The group is recovered on purpose dot org. Thank you
so much. We'll talk again. Thank you, Adam.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Absolutely, thank you
He's a nice side with Dan Ray. I'm Wbzy Costin's Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
In addition, a big injury to Jason Tatum. Looks as
if he has heard badly hurt his right ankle. Just
saw some video of him being in a wheelchair being
taken from the from the arena. That is not a
good look, that is for sure. Well, that is not
(00:27):
what we're here to talk about. It's been a tough
night for the Red Sox and it looks like also
a tough night for the Celtics in New York. They
go down three to one. But we'll we'll move on
to our next guest tonight, which is much more important
on my agenda, and we're talking about the road to
recovery in America. Last Thursday night, we had a very
interesting guest during the eight o'clock hour. He's back with us.
(00:49):
His name is Adam Vibe Gunton. He's a recovered drug
addict attic, an overdose survivor, TED talk speaker, and founder
of Recovered on Purpose and Behavioral Health Partners. Adam, welcome
back to Night's that. I really enjoyed our conversation last
week on Thursday, and I'm looking forward to giving folks
an opportunity to share some of their experiences and ask
(01:12):
questions of you tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Welcome back, Thanks so much for having me, Dan, and
I just have this sense that there's someone out there
that is going to hear something that is going to
change their life tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I'm convinced of it, to be really honest with you,
and it happens. Happens in radio quite a bit. So look,
I want to recreate your story for those who missed
your story last Thursday night. We were one of our
eight o'clock guests. So I was surprised and it was ironic.
(01:49):
You went to Columbine High School. And the other night
I asked you that Columbine High School and you said, yeah,
the shooting at Columbine High School I heard in nineteen
ninety nine. You were not there at the time. You
you went to Columbine after this horrific shooting. Correct.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Correct, I was at Colmine Hills Elementary. I was the
first class that came in when the freshmen that were
there had graduated.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Okay, so you graduated from Columbine High School and I
know you told me you played football. You was it
twenty ten that you graduated I'm trying to remember from
just our conversation.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Thousand and six, two seven, two thousand six is my
senior year football.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Okay, two thousand and seven, Okay, so you therefore, I'm
assuming we're born sometime in the late eighties. So you
got out of there as most kids as a senior.
You probably were eighteen years old when you graduated from Colln.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
High School, and I round up. I round up to
the nineties, even though it was the late eighties.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Okay, fair enough, Okay, that's good enough. Yeah, you don't
remember much of the of the eighties. I get that.
I totally get that, all right, So what did you
do after high school? Did you go off to college?
Did you continue your education? What? What? What? What? What? Where?
Did life take you beginning in about the spring of
two thousand and seven.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, I went up to college. I don't know if
I really had a path in mind, except it was
what everybody told me I was supposed to do. I
wrote a really, really good paper for my English class
about legalizing marijuana and got to got an A in
that class and didn't have to do any more assignments.
But I was mostly partying and didn't really have a
(03:36):
career path in mind, and had a traumatic event happened
my freshman year that kind of took me out.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Okay, So you're having a good time as a senior
in high school and you went off to college in Colorado,
I assume, or somewhere.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Else University of Northern Colorado.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
University of Northern Colorado, and it's party time. And at
that point, I assume, even though you're, you know, eighteen
going on nineteen years old, the hardest stuff you have
a dealt with was marijuana or some beer an alcohol.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I assume, Well, I was actually introduced to cocaine at
twelve years old, and that's why I try to pass
the message out that have the conversation with your kids early. Wow,
and earlier than you think.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
How will you introduce to cocaine at twelve? I mean,
will you hanging with a fast crowd? Do you have
an older sibling who said, hey, try this stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
An older influence.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I'll say that, you know, by the way, we don't
have to name names or anything like that. You know,
I'm I'm just trying to understand, and I understand that.
I respect that, So I understand the story. Okay, So
you go off as a college freshman. There were a
lot of college freshmen in that era who would have
been familiar with cocaine or marijuana whatever, it's okay. When
(04:57):
did the slide you said that there was an int
or an accident? When did the slide towards even tougher
drugs hearted drugs start to occur? And was there an
incident that that puts you on that path?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah? Actually, my freshman year, I had now drinking and
partying all night like I did most nights, and I
woke up to my phone ringing and vibrating down by
my leg, and I swam through the sheets to find
my hard phone with the bright screen that read four
forty seven AM. And my best friend Chucker was calling me. Now,
I remember having the choice that I could either answer
the phone like I always do it, Hey, what's up Chuck?
(05:36):
Or I could answer the way I was feeling was hello,
and am I still drunk and state? I chose the latter.
Twitch A soft voice replied, Hey, what's up? Why are
you calling you this late? I was just calling to
say Hi, don't call me this late again. And I
hung up on him, and he shot himself and within
a week of that happening. I was introduced to oxycont
(06:01):
so and that was the thing that you.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Felt responsible for your friend's suicide.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Absolutely and for ten years.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Why did you feel responsible? I you know, again, I'm
not trying to pry, but why would you not say
this guy, you know, it wasn't like he said to
if you don't talk to me, I'm going to kill myself.
He just he apparently needed to talk to you. You
were not in a condition where you could really have
a conversation. Why did you take that burden on yourself?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You know, because I was young and I'd never been
taught about it. And the thing is that if you
don't know about tough communication, you know, I've done a
bunch of communication courses at this point, so to learn
how to have those hard conversations and learn how to,
you know, take responsibility for your own actions, your own words,
and then also let people take responsibility for theirs. But
(06:54):
at the time, I'm eighteen nineteen years old, I didn't understand.
All I can do is take everything personally, okay, yeah,
And I had to bottle it down and I couldn't
tell anybody about it.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So then you slid right to OxyContin to basically suppress
the pain that you felt, the guilt that you felt.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I guess everything was partying until that moment, and after
that moment, I was consciously using drugs and alcohol to
mask the way that I felt.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Okay, how long did you stay in school or were
you doomed to drop out?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Pretty quickly, very quickly, very quickly.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Okay, So then you're in a kind of a spiral here.
This is still twenty or so years ago, but you're
in a downward spiral. And you told me last week
that at one point you were living in an unheated
house with six other addicts in Billings, Montana, in the
(07:50):
winter time. When we get back, I want to know
how you ended up there, and then I want to
start talking about your recovery, how you were able to
somehow get the monkey off you're back, and what you've
done and what you're trying to do with other people.
And I hope you don't feel on being tough on you,
(08:13):
but I just wanted to get the story out a
little bit more slowly than we got it out the
other night, so that everybody could understand that this is
not something that happened you overnight. Obviously, there's a sequence
of events, one leading to the other, and then ultimately
now you find yourself in buildings Montana, living in an
unheeded home with six other addicts. That must have been
(08:35):
an experience. And we'll talk about that, and then we'll
talk about your own personal recovery, and we'll talk about
what you're trying to do for other people. My guest
is an amazing young guy, Adam Vibe Gunton. I can't
tell you how much I respect people who overcome this.
I've had friends, close friends who have overcome heroin. H
(09:01):
There's there's that. The paths are there. People find the
path finds them or they find the path and they're
they're good people. And sometimes people don't don't find the
help that they need.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And that's what hopefully we can do Tonight. We'll be
back on night Side. If you like to join the
conversation at any point, you know the numbers. We'll be
back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Night Side with Dan Ray Boston's News Radio. You're on
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
My guest is Adam by Gunton. The organization that he
has founded Recovered on Purpose and also behavioral health partners.
So Adam, we're talking about a you know, high school
kid who maybe drabbled a little bit in this and
that goes off to call en parties hardy and then
(10:01):
is adversely impacted by a friend who calls him at
four forty seven in the morning, and not much of
a conversation. Your friend hangs up and kills himself, and
that puts you on a downward spiral. So I'm guessing
this is sometime now in two thousand and six. If
(10:22):
you're a freshman at the University of Northern Colorado, how
long did it take you to hit rock bottom from
two thousand and six?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
You know, rock bottom is such an interesting concept because
I can tell you about different rock bottoms throughout my addiction. Okay,
by twenty thirteen, I was in an apartment alone trying
to write my own suicide letter. But it got worse
from there, and I thought it was rock bottom when
(10:59):
I was, you know, right in that suicide letter. And
then I thought it was rock bottom three and a
half years later, when I was in a homeless shelter
looking around at the other men on cots and trying
to say a prayer, and then they got kicked out
of the homeless shelter, So my rock bottom it didn't
exist until you can't.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
It sounds like to me, you're finding new rock bottoms
as you're going, as you're bouncing along here. So now
you're in buildings Montana in the middle of winter, which
is a cold part of the world. Uh, and you're
living in an unheated home. How did you find this
group of fellow drug addicts? Is this the sort of
thing that people who find themselves out in horrific circumstances
(11:44):
can kind of almost sense that there are other people
around them who they can affiliate with or.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
How does that work? Yeah, I mean when you're looking
for drugs, you find the people with them, and then
you don't want to be alone. You hang out with
them and use drugs. And that house had no electricity,
no running water, and during the winter we actually had
a metal trash can in the middle of the living
room that we had a fire.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
In inside the house to save the house. This is
what year now, we're talking roughly two thousand and one.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Two and sixteen seventeen.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Okay, so you spent ten years on this downward spiral.
Did you lose contact with your family members.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
When I was homeless. Yes, I actually remembered throwing my
phone out the window of a car because I didn't
want them to be able to contact me, because I
didn't want them to watch me die. Because at this time,
I didn't think I was going to be able to stop.
I'd been trying basically this entire time for eight years,
going to meetings or church or all kinds of different places,
(12:52):
trying to stop, and I just couldn't. So I felt
so powerless. I didn't want them to watch it anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
So you periodically been in touch with them? Did you
get a chance during that period of time to see
them or were you always away?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Well during my addiction, I mean they wasn't. I was
high functioning. I was making six figures as a salesperson.
It was just all going into my arm. I was
able to have corporate housing all over the country. Yeah,
it was. It was only the last about year, year
and a half of my addiction where I had nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
You had nothing, Okay, So what happened in that house
in Montana or in Billings, Montana that somehow allowed you
to separate from this lifestyle?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Well, after trying for months going to twelve Step meetings
every day, church every Saturday and Sunday, Bible study every Tuesday.
I even went to the local mmagent thinking they might
be able to beat recovery into me, but nothing was working.
And one night before Bible study, I was sitting in
this car that this girl let me borrow. It wasn't stolen,
(14:08):
but I did have to start it with a screwdriver
for some reason. But I was sitting in this car
before Bible study, and I had a realization that I
had literally tried everything on the planet within my power
to stop, and I still couldn't. And I sat back
in that seat and I audibly said to God, I'm done.
I'm not going to church, I'm not going to Bible studies,
(14:29):
I'm not going to meetings or probation officer anymore. Please
just let me die. And for the first time I
said that was such conviction and honesty that I feel
like He knew that it was time that I was
ready to give my life fully up to him. And
at the time I didn't realize that, but I heard
(14:50):
this whisper in my heart that you know that whisper
when you hear it, and it said it's time go.
And at that point, you know, you would think you
get super excited, like, oh my gosh, I'm going to recover.
But I got angry at first, because what's different about
this time than all the times that I've dumped my
dope in the toilet at night saying I'm never going
to use again? And then I wake up in the
(15:11):
morning and I pawn my TV to go pick up
What's different about this time? And I'm screaming and I'm
crying in this car and I'm hitting the steering wheel
and the roof, and what's different about this time? God,
please just let me die? And I'm crying. And then
after a couple of minutes, I'm calming down and I'm
breathing heavy, and then that whisper in my heart just
repeats himself, and he said, it's time go. I don't
(15:32):
know how to explain it, but I got this sense
of willingness that I had never had before, because up
to that point, my entire plan had been so tightly
in my grasp. I was scheduling my meetings. I was
scheduling church and Bible studies and NMA jims and probation
officers and mentors and all this stuff. My recovery was
(15:55):
so tightly in my grasp that I could never actually
attain it. And this oment, what I was doing was
giving it all up, like God, whatever you say I
need to do, I'm willing to do. And I go
to the Bible study I bust in. I'm twelve fifteen
minutes late, and there's there's there in the middle of
prayer and I interrupt him and I dropped down with
(16:15):
my hands in the air and I'm I'm like, guys,
I can't stop. I used again, please help me, Please
help me. And I'm this one hundred and forty eight
pound mess crying that hasn't showered. And those guys loved
me as if I was Jesus, as if they were
(16:35):
supposed to, and they walked me through it. They prayed
for me at the end, and you know that was
that was what it took.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
So in effect, yeah, in effect, I'm going to use
the phrase here that that probably you're gonna reject, but
in effect, your spirit broke and you basically kind of
surrendered and said, okay, you know, I'm I can't do
(17:06):
it alone. It's up to you. I think that's what
you're what I'm hearing you say.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I have never heard somebody say that, Dan, and that
is exactly what it was. My human spirit had completely broke, okay,
and the only one that was going to be able
to help me was God's spirit.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Okay, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but
I could hear it in your voice. Yeah, I really could.
I've had friends who have reached that point, and so
I've heard that. I've heard that plea before. So you start,
how do you start? What's the first step? And we
(17:45):
got a couple of minutes here before the break, and
I want to continue the story on the other side
of the newscast. But so now, okay, they're going to
help you. Was the first step just to take a
shower and get yourself physically clean? What was the first
step you did? I'm serious when I get that. I
mean you didn't go to sleep that night.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I'm sure, Yeah, I mean it was. It was such
a process. And the person who was leading that Bible study, Brendan,
he's my best friend still and he you know, even
up to that point, he was picking me up and
taking me to coffee or breakfast or church or Bible
study because I wouldn't have a ride, and you know
he he would just continue to do that. Five days later,
(18:24):
you know, I'm still out there trying to stay clean.
But five days later, he picks me up and takes
me to I Hop for breakfast, and I haven't used
so I'm super excited to have five days. And I'm
sitting there across from him and talking to him, excited,
and I get this text message on my phone and
it's from my dope dealer, and he was like, Hey,
I just got some new stuff. It's fire. I'll give
you a free twenty to try out. And right when
(18:44):
I read it, I feel something going through the top
of my head all the way through my body. My
toes were tingling, my fingers were tingling. I lost my
peripheral vision. All I could see was the phone, and
then my thumbs just started texting back and it was
in like King James. It was like, ye shall not
text me again, texted me for the last time.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And then when I finished the text, I feel that
thing leave me go through my legs all the way
up out of my head. And then I read it
because I couldn't even read it. As I was writing it,
I was like, what the heck? And I showed it
to Brendan. I was like, dude, that wasn't me. I
don't know what that was. I don't know who that was.
He's like, okay, I pushed send, I close it. I'm
(19:22):
putting it in my pocket, looking down in my pocket,
and then I look back up and Jesus is sitting
across from me. The entire restaurant completely disappeared. It was
like I was in a trance. There was a glow
coming from behind him. He was smiling at me. I
immediately knew who it was. Immediately knew it was happening.
Felt my face to the table, my hand up, I said,
thank you God, Thank you God, thank you. Gus came
back up and he was gone, and I'm I'm of
(19:45):
the faith. I believe in instant healing. I believe in
instant cheering, and he could take away all my cravings,
on my withdrawals, everything in an instant. That didn't happen
for me, And thank god it didn't, because for the
the next three weeks, I'm shaking, I'm craving every day,
I'm withdrawing. I'm sick. I'm sick. And the only time
(20:07):
I would get relief. Was when I was sitting down
with somebody that was sponsoring me through a twelve step program,
or when I was sitting down and I was writing
out my inventory and I finished my fourth step and
I did my fifth step on day twenty five, was
my first ever one, and the same sponsor was picking
me up from the Sober living house every morning at
six thirty am. Then on day twenty six, after my
(20:30):
fifth step, he came and picked me up in his
nineteen eighty three mailman jeep, and we were driving to
this movie theater that he managed where we did the
work in the basement, and I was looking over at
this beautiful sunrise and for the first time since I
was twelve years old, I had no desire to drink
or use. And as I'm telling you this, I have
chills all over my arms because I remember that moment
(20:53):
when everything changed, as if my life had no hope
to own my gosh, I don't want to use, and
anyone out there struggling, it's real. I didn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I'll tell you it's inspirational story, Adam, and you lived
it and you're able to tell it. And I had
the same sense listening to you that I think you're
you have a sense. So we're going to take a break.
We got to do a newscast here. If we had
scripted this, we couldn't have timed it out better. Uh
So take a break, tape it, take a deep breath.
(21:31):
I want to talk about your recovery and what you
do for other people, and if anyone would like to
join the conversation. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine three ten thirty. You've just
heard an amazing story. But I'm a pretty good judge
of credibility. That's what I've done for a living. And
(21:52):
this is the real This guy is the real deal.
Uh And I was impressed with him the other night.
I'm now overly impressed with him. Now. I've never been
where he was, but we all in our lives had
those moments. And that was a moment that this man
just described for us, pretty raw, but pretty real. Adam
(22:16):
Vibe Gunton recovered on purpose Behavioral Health Partners. We'll be
back right after the these the newscast. I feel the
same thing he feels right now. I'm telling you, right now,
there's something I hope some of you understand that this
this is something that is to me amazing, but it's
(22:39):
amazing and it's amazingly real and it can happen. Back
after this on Night.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Side, It's Night Side.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Boston's News Radio. It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Back with my guest, Adam Vibe Gunton. He's recovered. He's
told his story of sliding into deep deep addiction, his
organizations that he's recovered, Recovered on Purpose, and Behavioral Health Partners. Adam,
I don't know anything else that we need to tell
(23:18):
in your story, but I think I want to go
to phone callers and let them comment and ask questions,
and then at the end, I want to make sure
that we give people contact information as to how they
can reach out to Recovered on Purpose or Behavioral Health Partners.
Where are you physically located these days? Do you have
(23:39):
a a place that you call home at this point?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah? And it's even heat too.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
That's good, Okay. I like that you know where where's
Where's where's your organization headquartered.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Or in Denver, Colorado? Recovered on Purpose? Both of them
are national, although.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Right, yeah, that's fine, yeah, okay, So you serve and
can help people anywhere they can be in contact. I
assume yes, and you have resources, we'll talk about those,
but I want to get to some callers, okay, So
let's do that first, and then we'll talk about the
resources that are available on how people can contact. They
(24:21):
go to Will in Long Island, New York. Will you
are next on Nice that with Adam Vibe going to
GARRETA and.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Will Hey, Dan, Hey, Adam. Listener's great to hear your story.
And you know, I never shy away really from talking
about my story. I mean I might have mentioned it
to Dan over the years, but you know that's not
me talk about on the radio really, but you know
you do maybe, but in July, I'll be sober seventeen
(24:47):
years right, and and for the people that are out
there that are listening, which is why I don't shy
I own a business in my community, I'm not afraid
to talk about I don't just advertise it. You know.
Obviously I wouldn't break anyone else's annybody, But as far
as my own, I'm not ashamed to talk about it
(25:09):
because you never know who needs to hear it. I'm
not running around telling everybody I ever met, obviously, but
when it does come across. It needs to be mentioned.
You know, I won't be afraid to say something.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Will was your drug of choice alcohol.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
I am what they call a garbage head. I remember
when I called, when I called the when I called,
like I tried many times to get sober for many years.
I'm a very dan. I know you talk to me
now and I sound somewhat like a normal human being.
And I paid, well, let's not go that.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Far, Will, Let's come on. I know you too well.
I'm only kid. Go ahead, you're one of my best callers,
you know that. Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
But I was.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
I was a pretty low bottom person and i've and
I used a lot of heavy drugs also, right, So
I remember when I called the hotline the last time
when I got sober, and I said, you know, I said, uh,
you know, I I'm I'm smoking drugs and doing this.
And he goes, well, how much do you drink? I said,
who cares how much I drink? I just told you
I'm doing all these hard, you know drugs, you know
(26:14):
what I mean. And he goes, well, how much do
you drink? I goes much as the next guy. He goes, well,
how much is that? I go I don't know, like
a quarter or a leader of about the day. He goes,
you're an alcoholic, I said, Alcoholics push shopping carts full
of cans. Okay, I have a job and this, and
you know, if I show up and then I just
never really equated that the alcohol right and in my mind,
(26:35):
I'm Irish. I would have to turn in my Irish
card if I couldn't drink. And I said, just stop
me from doing the heavy drugs, you know, the dope,
the coke, the crack that. So just stop me with that.
Don't worry about how much I drink.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
So you were sort of the You were what I
call a five tool attic, mean, you could do it all.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
It's like, yeah, when you watch Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas, I was like that guy, you know what
I mean, Like I liked everything. But I'll say this,
he mentioned something really important in my mind, like the
spiritual aspect, the God thing. I never really got sober
till I realized that I needed to rely on God.
No matter how many times I tried, there was something
(27:10):
always missing. And I know a lot of people in recovery,
thousands over the years, and the ones that eventually, you know,
wind up becoming old timers, meaning don't drink and don't die.
They always have some spiritual foundation that's something greater than themselves,
their religion, their God, whatever it is. There's a purpose, right,
(27:32):
there's a reason. I remember when I prayed, I didn't
even I finally was so beaten that I didn't even pray,
Like I didn't want to pray for anything. I said.
I would just say every day the same friend, God,
just don't let me drink today. God just don't let
me drink today. They said, I just want one thing
I don't want. Don't worry about the business.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Let me get in here. I want to get Adam
to react to well, pretty much everything you said. Adam,
let's get your analysis here of someone who walked a
similar path.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, it sounds like him and I have the same
kind of thing. And I learned that it's not about
the substance. It's not about the alcohol or the drugs.
It's about what happens to me and when I don't
have those things in my system. And the only solution
for someone like me is that spiritual solution. Because my
mental state, in my emotional state, when I'm not on
(28:23):
drugs and alcohol, is restless, is irritable. I'm feeling just
not okay. And what I didn't realize that whole time
is that drugs and alcohol were my solution, and then
when they stopped working, I had to find something that
worked a way to live, that solved my problems, and
that was a reliance upon God. But a reliance upon
(28:45):
God has a responsibility attached to it, and that's to
serve God's people. That's what I learned, and I've been
able to do say incredible things in my recovery, publish
a book and do ted talks and travel and all
this kind of stuff. I would give it all back
if it meant I couldn't help addicts.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You know, I just want to go back to your
your your experience where everybody in McDonald's disappeared and you're
looking at the face of Jesus. You're convinced that was Jesus.
You're convinced that this wasn't a hallucination, right, but no doubt.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
And the reason the reason I know that is because
my entire life changed.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Well can you will? Can you You maybe never had
that experience, will, But as somebody who was in a
similarly situated. Can you identify with that experience?
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I know for a fact that I can. My I
didn't have the face of Jesus, but I will never
forget the moment, almost like an exorcism happened right and
I didn't know that that was the moment I was
going to get sober. I just knew that that was
the moment that I was broken enough. And it was
literally like God whispered into my ear. And I'll never
(30:03):
forget how my box. It was a spiritual awakening. And
trust me, the last time I got over, the one
that lasted the whole time in seventeen years. All the
other times before that, I never, I guess, really got over,
but all the time that I had put together between that,
there was something different about this one. Because I was
so sick for so long, I didn't get better right away.
(30:24):
There were other times in the past where I quit,
where the shakes and the detox and everything was so
much easier, and somehow yet I still picked up. This
was so awful, and the mental addiction was so strong.
For so long, I would gag, I would shake weeks
after I got so months, I would take a shower
like I was getting ready to go out to the
bar to go to a meeting, and I would start
(30:47):
calling like ooh and almost vomit because of the anxiety
of wanting to use And even though I was going
to the meetings and doing the program and calling my
sponsor and doing all these things, and it was literally
like God tied my hands behind my back and wouldn't
let me drink even if I wanted to. It was
(31:09):
because I finally had praised so much for one thing
and one thing only that it was like I was
spiritually bound and I'll just never forget the moment. And
it wound up looking back now in retrospect seventeen years
that that epiphany moment was. You know, today I look
at it like I'm part of the no matter what club,
you know, no matter how my life goes, no matter
(31:30):
what I don't drink, no matter what, and all right,
well within that, but.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Just that real thank you for your call. You reinforced
I think exactly what.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Was a great caller and a good show tonight.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Thanks Will. I appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Thank you, Will. You're off, Thank you man.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
You well, we'll talk soon. Will is one of my
best callers. We fight, we agree we disagreed.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
He's a fun caller.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
We are going to be back with Adam Vibe Gunton.
I'm going to try to move everybody a little bit
more quickly. I want to get a bunch of calls
in here if you want to try, six one, seven,
two thirty, six, seven thirty. Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
It's night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
My guest is Adam Vibe Clinton. He's recovering alcoholic and
drug user, heavy duty drug user. An amazing story his
the groups he's he's founded were covered on Purpose and
behavioral health Partners. We'll get all that information for you,
(32:43):
but I want to give the folks who have called
in real quickly an opportunity. Tom had found with Tom
down on the Cape. You're next on Nightside, Say had
to Adam Vibe Gunton. What's your question or comment? Tom?
Speaker 5 (32:53):
He Adam, I want to congratulate you in your sobriety.
It's very hard for people to do it on their own.
I know you had some support, but I wanted to
call up Dan for to tell you about the program.
We're not sure if you'll ware in Massachusetts. It's one
of the only US and four are the only states
that provided is Section thirty five. And that's for the
(33:15):
family members out there listening that may have children, our
spouses or parents that have alcohol or drug problems that
they can go to the courts file a petition. It's
called a Section thirty five and the police. The judge
will have the police go out pick them up, get
them a drug test to make sure they have an issue,
(33:39):
and then they will section them forty five to ninety days.
They get them sober mental health and they have to
take two hundred hours of classes on sobriety.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yeah, Tom, I appreciate that, I really do. And if
you want to send me some information and I'd be
more than happy to do something some night on that.
But I I don't want to detract from what Adam
is talking about tonight.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
I get it. I just thought that maybe some family
members are listening because I know there's nothing that can
This is great for the person that ads out.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, do be a favorite. Just hang on, hang on,
and Noel will give you my direct phone number and
also my email address, and you can just fold that
I'm unfamiliar with what you're talking about. So I'm not
I know what you're talking about exists, but it's it's
it's a little more complicated than that because you got
to get a court order and all of that. So
(34:36):
but but hang on and feel free. You reach out
to me during the during the day, any day, and
I'll see what I'll get back to that promise. Okay,
all right, all right, no, give him my contact info.
Let me go next to No, you got to take
him down there and go okay, let's go to Jason
and Walfam. Jason, you were next on nice at with
Adam Vibe Goods and go right ahead.
Speaker 6 (34:56):
Then then thank you for having me and Adam. We
say in the AA, thank you for sharing and thank
you for hosting. Audition is very serious. I'm a I'm
a recovery addict too, but my drag was chosen was alcohol.
And then, like I was talking to the sheriffs, I'm
going to start working with enough folk Sheriff's department trying
(35:17):
to offer some help to those inmates.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
I'm glad that that is. I'm glad that that has
worked out for you. Jason was on the phone with
one of the sheriffs here in Massachusetts last week and
we put them in contact and Jason, I think had
spent a little time, a little bit of time and
stirre at some point you told me, correct, Jason.
Speaker 6 (35:35):
Yes, but I didn't know. I didn't know how to
ask for help. Yeah, it was just a culture thing.
So I've been going to AA so so. But at
last my last drunk in the AA, they said the
last something called the last drunk, the last episode you had.
Mine was when I went to Ohio to buy a
Chess Bank building. I didn't get in touch with the rics.
(35:56):
I ended up for a strip club. I drunk so
much I don't know how the road. I ended up
in a Chick fil a black that I went to
jail and I drove back to my sischusters the following
they that was my last drunk.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
That's what.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
That's when it clicked, like, you know what, I need
to get this stuff together because I got a family,
so like soberness is between life and death. So ever,
since I been in AA, there's a saying a forever
saying like whatever you put before your sobriety is going
to fall apart. And I'm pretty sure, Adam, until you
started pulling your sobriety.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
First, you didn't find.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
The sex siss the sex sss that you have right now, right,
and also another saying that saying, Hey, when I was
when I was drinking, I wasn't a growing up. I
was just I just I just got taller.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
I was still a kid. I was I was still
a boy.
Speaker 6 (36:40):
I just got I just got taller. And you know
what I mean.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
So I didn't. I was still a kid until I
got so bad.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
That's when I became a man because everything else was
about drinking. So I don't want to take out too
much time, but I just wanted to share that and Adam,
thank you for sharing.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Thank you Jason as well. Appreciate it and keep me
posted on your work with the so Okay, I'm delighted
to have been able to get you in touch with him.
Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Thank you. Yeah, And if I can touch on that
day Jason said, is so true. You know, I have
a a program that I work and constantly in contact
with God. And the interesting thing is that now whenever
I'm having quote unquote a bad mental health day, right,
I actually have have a solution for that because my program,
(37:28):
my relationship with God comes first, and if it didn't,
then during the hard times I wouldn't know what to
do and I wouldn't be able to make it to
the good times. So one hundred percent what Jason said
is true.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Absolutely, let me get one more call in before we
got to end our hour, which has been a great hour.
Nathan from Quincy. Nathan, you are next on nice Ie
with Adam Vibe going to Grit ahead. Nathan.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Hello, So.
Speaker 7 (37:55):
This kind of hits home for me. My mom at
you dealt with love, alcohol and like weed addictions over
the years, like I've found her like passed out twice
and unfortunately didn't end well because on March twenty fifth,
she committed suicide.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
She was dealing with mental.
Speaker 7 (38:15):
Health issues and everything and self medicating with both weed
and alcohol and went off all medications. So like I
as I've gone through like first hand with somebody that's
dealt with these issues.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Sorry for what you went through, Nathan, And uh, there's
nothing that anyone can say to to you know to
deal with that pain. Any suggestions. We only have got
a benny left for Nathan that you could give him. Adam,
is there anything that your groups could could help him with?
If you wanted to get in touch with him.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Yeah, I mean, he's welcome to reach out. Adam at
Recovered on Purpose dot org. And man, I lost my
dad on Christmas Day of twenty twenty two, and there's
you know, when I'm thinking about him, I make sure
to think about it in a positive light. Remember the
good time and you know, remember the good times with her.
(39:16):
She loved you very much, and this disease doesn't take
away our heart further. People that we love.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Nathan, I hope that hopes. Thank you so much for
calling and I wish I'd gotten to you earlier, could
have given you more time. Thank you call anytime. Okay,
thanks Nathan again. The way, folks, you can, you can
check out Recovered on purpose dot org. You can go
there directly if you want to email Adam Adam at
Recovered on purpose dot org. Adam, your presentations and I
(39:48):
exceeded my expectations. I had pretty high expectations. But we will.
We will play this hour again on Best of Night's side.
My intention would be to play at this Sunday night
at eleven o'clock on WBZ as well, so people who
missed it tonight I will have a chance to hear
it then. Thank you so much. I'd love to keep
in touch with you man, because other people you can
(40:10):
help and have you back periodically. Thank you so much
for what you went through. Would you have overcome? Okay?
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Yeah, thank you Dan.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
What did you say about email? I'm sorry you wanted to.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Oh yeah, saying you have my email? Also, would love
to hear from you too. I think this is this
is awesome. You have callers that love you, community that
you know is out to help people. Also, I think
it's awesome that the people that called in were calling
into help, not not necessarily just for help, because there's
people listening right now that can't reach out yet, and
your callers wanted to call in and reach them too.
(40:44):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Absolutely, just great, Adam Vibe Gunton, Thank you so much. Adam.
The group is recovered on purpose dot org. Thank you
so much. We'll talk again. Thank you, Adam.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Absolutely, thank you
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