Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome to Life Rewritten. I'm your host, Vanessa Lagoa. Today's guest is Kevin Rosario. Kevin is a huge impactful asset to the recovery community, and he's going to tell us today a little bit about what he does, especially with our community youth. So welcome, Kevin. Thank you for being here with us.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Pleasure. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: Thank you. So, Kevin, tell me and our guests a little bit about your early life before you got into recovery. How'd you get there?
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Yeah, so I took the long road, you know, much to the dismay of my. My family. I was definitely a troubled youth.
To. To tighten it up, I would say family dynamic, stuff people don't want to talk about. I got two great parents, loving parents. But there was some turmoil in the home at a young age that had an impact on me.
I was super hyperactive as a young person. Could not channel energy. I was just bouncing off the walls. And really my challenges started, like, in elementary school. And I say this to say, because everybody labels me as, like, the addiction guy. The addiction guy. But the truth is, most of my education comes from the fact that I believe that drugs and alcohol are not the problem. Drugs and alcohol are a secondary thing. Drugs and alcohol, much like eating, gambling, sex, hoarding, and all the other obsessive compulsive kind of things that give us a little shot of dopamine are just a secondary distraction to the real problem. So when people ask me about, you know, my past, I think they think I'm going to go down this dark road of arrest and this and that which we will talk about. But I often go to the root know, after being in recovery for a while and doing therapy and 12 step work and inner child work, and now I'm doing IFS, internal family systems work, and, like, just trying to, you know, dig deep and do that work. I realized, like, the problems really started when I was a kid. I was hyperactive. I had two parents that would fight at times. It was financial issues. I was a little hyperactive kid. I was shorter than all my friends. I got moved to a different elementary school outside of my district, and I was, like, a minority there. All my friends were, like, in the projects. And then I got bullied once.
And there was this girl that I liked in sixth grade, and I was too scared to say anything, and she kissed another boy. And, like, boom. As corny as that sounds, when I left elementary school, I made a decision to, like, never be hurt again. And, like, that meant detaching from my family, hanging around with older kids, you know, Doing the whole I'm a playboy, class clown stuff and like, oh, and then I smoked weed, you know, So I always feel like I like to spend more time on the feelings, the insecurities, the anxieties, the, the brokenness that I experienced way before drugs and alcohol, because that's the real problem, you know. And then, you know, I started really young, 12 years old, I started smoking weed. By the end of seventh grade, I was selling joints for the older kids. And that just progressed, you know, eighth grade was mescaline. Selling mescaline. Get to high school, then it's other drugs and know. But then I also went to drive his ed and I got the job. And at 16 and a half, I was one of my first friends with a, with a car.
So I'm living this double life where I'm barely scraping by at school. I'm definitely a class clown, getting in trouble. But I got a job and I'm selling a little weed and I got a car and I, I, I playing the role that I'm cool and that I got it together.
And then fast forward, it was Xanax and Kalana pin and then Vicodin and Peretz. And I'm part of that OxyContin generation. You know, around 20 years old, I started using OxyContin. Within months, I was fully addicted. Within the first year, I was sniffing heroin. Within six months of that, I was shooting heroin. And like, all bets are off after that. The cool kid, the clubs, the cars just go out the window. And, you know, as a result of all of those poor decisions and having that underdeveloped prefrontal cortex that had no impulse control and just running amok all the time, know, I started getting arrested at 16 years old.
Got arrested every single year from 16 to 24, eight years in a row, at least once a year, until finally, like, I got a second DUI. DUI and an ammunition charge. And at 25 years old, I actually got incarcerated. So, you know, incarcerated, methadone, suboxone, arrested over 12 times. Three DUIs in total.
I've been shot at, I've been jumped multiple times. I've been stabbed in the back, punctured lung, hospitalized, almost died, and just really struggled. And like that 21 to 31, when I finally got into recovery, was a rough road for anyone that loved me.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: That's, it's really, it's really impactful that you say that. It, you know, the drugs and the alcohol weren't really the problem. I always say the drugs and the alcohol were the Solution. They were not a good solution, but they were a solution to something greater than. And, you know, you talking about.
I like how you talk about. You didn't have this horrific upbringing. You had a good upbringing. You had parents who loved you, you had access to good schools, you had, you know, a life that just there just something was missing.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: And what did you turn to? You turned to all the things that made you feel alive or. Or escape at the time.
So that's quite a. That's quite a.
That's quite a list of accomplishments you had there before by the age of 31.
So as you're going through all these struggles, right, Are you losing friends, are you losing family? Or are you just staying afloat for a While?
[00:05:51] Speaker B: So from 16 to 21, it was all a joke. If anything, it was a badge of honor. I got arrested, I got away with it. I got put on probation. I was hanging around with older kids. I had become myself more violent because I'm selling drugs, and you can't let people rob you or owe you money. So I'm slapping people around, getting in fights all the time. And, like, I bought into this life so deeply of the drug dealer, playboy, womanizer, tough guy, like, literally down to the clothes I wear. I was driving Cadillacs with pinky rings and fur hats and all the. That you can imagine. Like, I was all in. And so I still had a friend group. I was still very social. I mean, they probably weren't the healthiest of people because of the world I was living in.
But once I got addicted to heroin, that's when I started to withdraw, because even the OCS and the perks at the time, they were pretty much socially acceptable. People were doing them and not hiding it. But heroin was still nasty and dirty and frowned upon. And so that's when I started sneaking and hiding and. And as things got worse, I went through bouts of, you know, coke and crack and all these different things, and I started to withdraw from all my friends. Like, some of my friends that to this day still drink beer on the weekends, watch football, maybe smoke a little weed. But they're like normal, healthy, productive people. They have kids, they show up for practice, they pay their bills, they got credit. Like, those people I started to hide from because I was embarrassed and my physical was starting to deteriorate. And you start to be attracted to people that use like you, that live that dirty life of committing crimes and selling drugs. And, like, at the end. At the end, like, the last five years or so was really so bad, and I got so broken because now I'm not the drug dealer. Now I'm unemployed. Now I'm collecting unemployment.
I'm shoplifting from Walmart. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm running. I used to be the guy with the Cadillacs and the jewelry and that, and now I'm like, riding a mountain bike in the rain with $38, going to beg some drug dealer to give me a 40 bag. Like. Like such a fall from grace. And people often ask, like, you know, what was the thing that happened? And they think it's going to be something dramatic, like traumatic. But it wasn't. It was the brokenness, the despair, the repetitiveness of every single day. It's not, if I'm getting high, I'm getting high today. If I don't get high, I'm violently.
The question is, can I earn money? Can I rob from a store or a retailer? Do I have to rob someone outside on the street, or do I steal from my family? And that was kind of like the order of operations, because at the end of the day, I am going to get it, you know, And I just. I'm. You can't tell because I'm on zoom, but, like, I'm 6, 1 2, 25, sure, I'm probably 25 pounds of dad bod. The belly could go, but, like, 200 pounds is a healthy weight for me. And I was like, 167 when I checked into detox, and, you know, £31 off of me. Like, I was, like, dying, you know, and that wasn't the first time. You know, in 2004, before I went to jail, I try to go to detox and rehab, and they'll say things like, you know, pray and do step work and do therapy and go to further treatment and change the. They say all the things.
And in the eight previous detoxes, it was just like, yeah, whatever. I'm good. I know what I got to do. I know I got to do. And within days or weeks, I was using again.
And so this. This time, I was just really broke, and I really, like, hated myself. Mind you, in 04, I cleaned myself up to go to jail. I did go to jail, and I didn't want to go to jail strung out. And so I was. I was in recovery. I had a job. My mom was proud of me. Like, I was, like, doing all the things. I got out of jail, I got a job. I was, like, doing good. And then, like, slowly started drinking, then slowly started doing coke, and then slowly started doing pills. And it took a full year, but next thing you know, like, I was shooting heroin and it was just heartbreaking. Then it's a clearance sale. Everything goes, you know, the, the car, the job thing. And it was like, again. So, like, when I went to treatment this time and I had to get honest with parents who I was living with now. Right. They got a two family home. I'm living on second floor, not paying bills. I was just so crushed, you know, And I know there's other segments, so I don't want to keep rattling on, but that was like the place I was in when I kind of surrendered for the. For real. For real. Like, I went to treatment many times, but always bucked and kicked and chose what I wanted to do. This last time, I was just broken, broken, broken. And I did all the things and I got a positive result. So that's like, what led me to where I am today and what I'm doing. And, and we can talk about all that in whatever pace you want to talk about it. But I had such a profound experience with treatment and recovery this time it just lit a fire under me. And now I've dedicated my life to trying to share that message and, and offer that hope to other people.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's definitely the focus that we're going to go into when we come back. But I think that when people talk about rock bottom, sometimes they're, they're looking for, like you said, this story of, oh, I, you know, I hit and killed somebody drunk driving or I was arrested. And sometimes I think that rock bottom can just be when you've just had enough of your own.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
Physical, necessarily.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Yep. That rat race gets really old and that chasing that literally the high becomes so exhausting that it, you just, you know, you can't keep up with it anymore. So we're going to go to commercial break. When we come back, you can give us a little bit more of an understanding about, you know, what came next and then how you ended up getting into the realm that you're in now. So stay tuned. We'll be right back.
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Welcome back. Thank you Kevin for being here with us and sharing some of your story with us. So you gave us a little bit of an understanding about how you got to the point that you were at where no longer could you continue your drinking, your drugging, your lifestyle. I kind of refer to that as like your rap video lifestyle. The way you described the way that you were living, chasing that kind of that life.
So you finally find yourself for the last time in a detox program. And the first several times you went, you did what you had to do, you listened, you kind of shook your head. Yep, got it. And you got out and you went right back to what you were doing before. So this last time, what was different? What changed?
[00:12:53] Speaker B: They say in some literature, right, like I'm a member of a 12 step community, I'm an anonymous member. I don't represent them. I could easily crash out and destroy my life. And so whatever I do in my personal life is not a reflection of the treatment center I went to or the 12 step program that has helped me. But I say all that to say like it's. They say, they talk about this gift of desperation in the literature and it really is a gift because if you still got a little bit of fight in you, if you still think you know what you need to do, you're already in trouble. Soon as I say, I just got to to wrap, I'm already running the show. I think I know what I got to do. I'm going to detox with a reservation. I'm not doing 30 days, I'll do nine days. I'm not going to PHP, I'll do IOP. And so that, that right there. And I'm fairly intelligent even before all the degrees. Like I'm a witty, somewhat intelligent person and I can convince myself that these things are rational and they might be, but I didn't know how broke my brain was, which we'll probably get into. And so to answer your question, the difference is I was just so broken. And there's another line that says we threw up our hands in doubt and said we don't know. Crushed by a self imposed crisis, we couldn't postpone or evade, right? I was just so broken. And all I knew is like all the things that didn't work. Methadone didn't work. Suboxone didn't work. Psych meds didn't work. Moving to Tennessee didn't work. Rapping probation didn't work. Getting my license back, driving a nice car, having a good job, having a hot girl, none of those things worked. So by process of self will elimination, I came into treatment like, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do and I'm just done. And I remembered and I remembered like all the other times going to treatment, just playing the game. That's why I work with a lot of ambivalent resistant treatment defiant. All these people, they don't want to be there. I'm like, it's all right, bro. I'm going to keep saying the same things. And hopefully the day you become willing, maybe you'll remember some of these gems and you can apply them. Because that's what happened to me. I told you, I was just getting my slip signed. I was playing the game for court. I was very rarely engaged. But this time, for whatever reason, like literally the first day on the way to treatment, I remember people saying, if you want any chance of staying in recovery, you got to pray in the morning and pray at night. And it doesn't have to be religion, it's the universe of power, whatever. But if you want any chance, you got to pray in the morning, pray at night. And like, the fact that that gem came to me all strung out on heroin and Xanax on the way to treatment is miraculous. It's divine. It's from the universe, it's from God, whatever you want to call it. And so day one in detox, I got on my knees and I prayed to my best friend, Nick Winchinbach, who passed away May 2, 2010. I went to treatment July 2, 2010, and I just started talking to him like, yo, Nick, please help me, Help me not leave this detox. Please take away the obsession of drinking, get high. And I just started talking to Nick. Like I could close my eyes, I could picture him. I could. I even felt like he was even teasing me and talking. Because I'm in detox, on my knees, you know, Know. And that was okay. It was real. It was a power greater than me. His spirit. Spirit don't die. People die. The body dies. Energy just transforms and moves. It doesn't die. And so that was my beginning. And so from there they're like, yo, you got to go to css. So then I'm trying to get that bed. Then you Got to go to TSS and I'm trying to get that bed. And like, for people don't know, it's just different levels of care. And ultimately I was, I was in a holding facility for six weeks waiting for my halfway house. Now you got to understand, I'm almost three months in before I get to this place. Praying every morning, praying every day, every night. Not using drugs or alcohol. I was given a psychiatrist because I was so manic. I was on Prozac, lithium, Cerequil, then Buspa, then Visceral, then colonidine. And they were just doing anything they could do to keep me from like jumping off a roof because I was so manic. Like, I'm 46 now. This is my baseline. I drank, I don't know, a cup of coffee at 7am I run hot. Never mind after years of heroin and benzo abuse, right? So I was so manic. And I'm grateful those providers helped me get through those first three months.
I'm not on any meds today. I've learned now.
Take a breath, bro. You know, I just heard deep breathing, breath work is huge.
Like, I now can like literally breathe myself.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: You can coach your way through any situation that you're in. And you, I think when you get to the point that your mind is clear, but you have never had a clear mind, it's. That's scary.
A scarier place to be than, you know, to be under the influence of something. So now you're, you're able to be able to, you know, to coach yourself through, to talk yourself down, to breathe, to be like, I've got this, I.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Know what to do, but impossible to do on my own.
And I think people take for granted emotional, psychological and physical the process of post acute withdrawal, that it's just hard. So, like, these people kept me safe and medicated me for long enough to get to this men's halfway house program that I was at for seven months where I went to a meeting every day. I went to the gym three days a week. I got a sponsor. I went through the 12 steps. I started to heal and process all the things that have pissed me off, all the fears, all the questionable conduct that I had.
It was a life changing experience. Like when I tell you going through the steps and doing a fifth step and airing out all my dirty laundry that I thought I would die with. And then coming home at, I was 10 months in recovery, 10 months in recovery. I came home and I started making amends to people not saying I'm sorry, making appointments Owning my bad behavior and making an attempt to live differently, to mend those relationships, I just got lit on fire. Like, I. I went from I don't believe in God and I hate church, to like, I'm so broken, I'll pray to my best friend to like, bro, that's weird. That's strange. That's a coincidence. Then on my intellectual minds, like, bro, it's statistically improbable that that just happened. That is God. And I was like, boom. And so through the process of being in recovery, through the process of internal work and praying every day and praying every night and going to meetings and listening to other people who inspired me and supported me and loved me when I was cr, I came to believe that there is a power in this universe that I don't understand, that I can't explain, but that can be tapped into. And it's. It's universal and it's non.
It doesn't have to be religious. If you end up being religious, that's great, but it doesn't have to be. And, man, I was just like, literally the. I hate to keep quoting the book, but the book says we were rocketed into the fourth dimension of existence. Like, I didn't just stop shooting heroin and like, oh, that's cool. I don't get high anymore. I work and pay taxes. I was, like, on fire. I was high. It was euphoric. It was spiritual. Like, my eyes and my mind were open. I was being sappy over, like, sunsets and like, the foliage right now. You kidding me? I'd be looking at the veins and the leaves and like, bro, can you see the. They're alive and it's beautiful and it's God. And I was just like, oh. And like, so that's. That was my experience. That's not everybody's experience. My first six months were hard. When I hit about month 8, 9, 10, and then, you know, month 10 to like 18 months that once I hit that year and I was praying, doing step work, I was back at home. I was helping other people. I was doing commitments. I got a little get well job. I got a little car on the road. Like, I was just, like, so fired up.
And I've. I've had my ups and downs. Life has not been perfect, but I've maintained a pretty consistent excitement for recovery, despite when I blow up a relationship or have financial challenges or I change jobs or like, my vava died and my aunt died and my grandfather died and my uncle died, all in the last, you know, 10, 15 years. Of my recovery. Life has not been perfect. Covid separation, like all, all the things right.
I keep showing up, I keep trying to help other people. I keep having hope that like even through my challenges, I've never had a serious thought about drinking and getting high since that first year, since doing that work, since having that experience that I told you about.
And as a result of that, been all over the world. I've been to Cancun, Mexico twice. It's like the drunkest place on the planet. They're offended if you don't drink. And I'm not tempted, I'm not hiding from it. I'm on all inclusives. I'm enjoying the beach, the sunset, the food. I've been to Dr. Twice. I've been to the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel. I've been to Portugal seven times. I mean I've been, I've spoken conferences in, in California and Florida, Hampshire and like I've done so much dope stuff that drugs and alcohol are just so far removed and I don't have to hide from it and I'm not afraid of it. I'm just totally free of it now. It's more about emotional well being and mental health and spiritual growth and, and being a better dad and trying to learn how to, you know, be a better, you know, boyfriend, husband, like, things like that, be a better employee.
Those are the things that I work on today. That sometimes I'm doing great, sometimes I'm not, but when I'm not, as a result of being in recovery and being around really good people like yourself and other people that are excited and inspirational and try to help others whatever path they chose to get. Well, when I mess up, I'm like, yo, my bad. I messed up. I was something I could never do. Matter of fact, some exes may say I'm a narcissist and I'm like, no, I'm not. I love attention, I love to make people laugh. I have an ego. However, I also got major issues. I'm selfish, I'm self centered, I swear too much. I can be bad with money and. But when I mess up, I'm able to say, yeah, I don't like that about me or I don't like that I hurt someone and I want to be better. I genuinely want to be better. And that's something I never had, you know.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: So I think you are exemplifying that the pink cloud that people describe early in recovery doesn't have to be temporary. That if you learn to live your life authentically and you learn to take accountability when you're wrong. And you, you know, for you, you go through the 12 steps and you repeatedly live that lifestyle, that, that becomes your character and that becomes your moral compass. And you're able to feel today like you did 18 months into recovery because you've created that life for yourself.
And like you said, why would you want to go back? Why would you want to pick up a drink or a drug? You can be in amazing places and I totally understand that. I remember my first sober vacation all inclusive resort in Jamaica. And I was nervous because I thought, I don't know how to vacation sober. What do people do? And I just remember coming back after that trip thinking, man, I missed out on a lot before because I was so present. And like, you described the foliage. I remember just looking at the water. And I love the water, I love the ocean, but I just remember staring for like 15 minutes, just staring at the spot in the water thinking, this is the most unbelievable. This is like magic. And I missed all this because I was thinking I had to be the life of the party. And, and yeah, when you, when you, once you discover that it's hard to consider life any differently, you know, you wouldn't want to go back.
[00:24:27] Speaker B: That's why I settle for just being abstinent. Like, I've had periods of time where, like, I'm fearful, I'm resentful, I'm gambling, I'm having shitty sex conduct, like, I'm arguing with people. I'm just going through a patch where, like, I'm just rough and I'm like, dude, this sucks. This is not what I want to be. What I want to be is like, life is on fire, the world is crashing, everybody's tweaking out, and I'm like, like, it's all good. Yeah, there's a plan.
Okay? Like, because I can be in the middle of chaos, completely peaceful and happy, or I can have all the material things around me that people say should make you happy and be completely unhappy. So, like, I'm not okay ever with just being sober anymore. I want to be my best self. I want to be on fire. I want to be loving, I want to be helpful. I don't want to be living dirty. And that's the thing. My spirit is in direct correlation to how I'm living. If I'm treating people poorly, if I'm swearing, if I'm being dishonest on my taxes, if I'm spending money I shouldn't spend, if I'm taking advantage of women, if if anything that I'm doing in my spirit knows that the universe would not want me to behave this way. It blocks me, and it affects me. And then it almost snowballs to where, because I got this guilt that I'm living dirty, and I got this, you know, almost, like, false. What's the thing called?
Imposter syndrome, right? Everybody on social media is like, oh, my God, you're great. Meanwhile, I'm living like a scumbag. You know, it doesn't sit right. So then, boom, you got to cut the stuff, get honest with people, write the ship, make amends if necessary. And then, boom, next thing you know, you're back on fire. So, like, I've had my ups and downs. I haven't had a perfect run, but, like, because I had such a profound experience with recovery and that separation and not, like, fighting for the rest of your life, but, like, on file. Oh, my God, this is amazing. The goal is amazing now, you know, and it's easy when you have no job, no kids, no real responsibilities. The challenge has been as I've been blessed. And I went back to school and I got my associates and my bachelor's. And last year, I finished up a master's degree. I got an mba, you know, with a focus in healthcare management. Healthcare management, Excuse me, you know, got engaged, bought a house, had a couple kids, broke up during COVID She got the house, child support, family call. All the things that a lot of people go through. Like, I've. I've had these ups and downs, and I'm like, no, dude, I need. I need to be better. I need to be happy. I need to be peaceful, regardless of. Of my circumstances. And often these things, these challenges that happen in my life are a direct, like, fault of mine because of how I'm acting, because of how I'm talking. You can speak a bunch of BS into your life if you are living in a fearful way or a negative way. So it's like, yeah, man. Like, I, I, I.
I'm always honest, and I think the people around me will. Will maybe judge me or maybe admire that. If I'm not right and I'm not on all cylinders, I'll let you know. Hey, I'm, like, a little off the rails right now. I'm enjoying it. I'm gonna go to the casino five more times, and then I'll turn it around, you know? And then when I'm on fire, I'm like, bro, you can't hurt me. You can't hurt my feelings. I don't care. I know everything's gonna be okay, you know, and that's the goal. That's where I want to be. I want to be living righteously and in alignment with my spirit in the universe and helping others because it's dope. It really is dope.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Well, listen, when we come back, we're going to talk about exactly how you're doing that, what you're doing and how you're helping to inspire and lead, especially our youth. So stay tuned. We'll be right back.
We'll be right back with more stories of resilience and renewal. This is Life Rewritten on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Vanessa Lagoa, and you're watching Life Rewritten on NOW Media Television.
Welcome back to Life Rewritten. I'm your host, Vanessa Lagoa. Today we're here talking with Kevin Rosario from Aces Consulting. So, Kevin, we've heard all about your background and your early recovery.
Tell me and our guests about what you're doing now and how you're helping shape the youth of our community, really around the country.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: Thank you.
So funny thing is, is like, I kind of, no surprise to anyone that hears me talk for two seconds, like, I'm a sales guy. I've been in sales my whole life. I sold drugs, I sold guns, I sold pit bulls, I sold cars. I've just been always kind of been had the mouthpiece and I always typically use it for self gain and to kind of make myself money or take advantage of others. And so as you can see in the last clip, how excited I got about recovery, I feel like, God, just because it's easier to say, like, the universe was like, all right, buddy, you like running your mouth. Here you go. Put a battery in my back and was like, go, go tell the world recovery is possible. There's a spirit of the universe. Stop living dirty. We can, you know, we can recover from this. And so that's what happened. Like, I had no desire to be where I am today. Like, if you had asked me, you know, 15 years ago was like, all right, I'm an ex con. I got a criminal record. I have a scattered work history because of addiction. Like, I told myself, I'm going to go back to school and get a business degree so I can get into big business. Like, I'm thinking Fortune 500, some kind of banking, investing something. I'm going to make money. I know if I just don't shoot heroin and I get a good job, I'm going to crush. And so that's what happened? Like, I went to. Went back to community college and started working on my associate's degree, and I got a job working with my father painting, which I don't love, but God bless him for always hiring me. And then, you know, about two years into recovery, one of my buddies. I'll give him a shout out. Corey Pina, good friend of mine, a childhood friend who's also in recovery, was like, hey, we. We're looking for someone at, you know, this place High Point in Brockton, Mass. And they're looking for someone kind of like, fired up in recovery with a reliable car and blah, blah, blah.
So I was making. And this is crazy because it was, you know, 13 years ago now, but I was making like, 17 an hour painting with my father. And I took a job for $12 an hour because I hated painting. And I was fired up about recovery. But it was just a temporary job while I was in school to get a degree, to go back to big business and make $200,000 a year. Right? That's the goal.
And the industry just got me, you know, I. I stayed at that company for two years. I was working with individuals post discharge from treatment pick, bringing them to the doctor, the dentist, the counselor, helping them clear warrants, get a license, introduce them to the food bank. So, you know, just basic, you know, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Like, all right, they detoxed, but they need basic things to be okay. And I did that for two years. And, you know, they'd be driving them to methadone clinics, and I'd be hitting them with 12 steps, and they'd be driving to default warrants, and I'd be like, 12 steps higher power. And, like, I had a captive audience and all hostages.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: However, I was gonna say hostage, hostage situation, but whatever works. It works.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: So then this. This is how the universe works. This dude Billabadi. I'm a lot of shout outs. I don't know if anybody will see this, but whatever. These are people that helped me on my way. Bill Abate was a counselor at New Bedford tss, where I was at a holding for six weeks.
Two years later, I am now a CSP worker at Brockton High Point, and Bill Abate is a counselor there. Bill gets recruited to go work for Gosnald on Cape Cod. Within six months, he calls me and he's like, dude, this. Starting this new thing, it's exciting. It's called recovery coaching. Nobody's doing it. It wasn't insurance driven. It was. This was 2014. It was self pay $1500 a month. You call the client five days a week. You meet them twice a week, face to face, in person. You do monthly family and all this stuff. So I go for the interview, I get hired on the spot. And I ended up over there doing coaching. And then I got certified as a family coach. Then I got certified as a NCIP nationally certified intervention professional. And I started doing that.
And around the same time, like a local school, a high school, was like, hey, can you have one of the recovery coaches come speak here? And it was like informal. Speak to a health class. Share your story. And I did that with my friend Melissa Lonergan.
And it was like, whatever. And they call us back to do it. And then like this next thing you know, like, it just got a little momentum. And then I was like, look, I have a full time job. I got a caseload. Like, can you at least give me the freshman class? Like, you have me going to talk to 25 kids. It messes up my whole day. Like, I'd love to give back, but give me a bigger audience. And they're like, oh, you can't handle, you know, 100 kids. And I'm like, just let me try, right? Have the support staff. If someone comes out of pocket, I'm going to let them know in a nice way I'm not the one, right?
So that happened. And so at the same time in my career, I'm getting sick of the coaching because I'm going to meetings, I'm sponsoring guys, I'm dealing with family. It was like 24, seven, all day, every day, crisis management. And I was like, I gotta use now. I got an associates. I'm working on my bachelor's and I make a play with the CEO to get into outreach and marketing and business development. And so I pivoted from direct patient care to really doing the outside stuff, outside sales almost, right? You're dealing with unions and hospitals and. And anybody that you think might be able to drive business to your organization, the organization I work for.
And what I ended up finding out was, you know, and while I'm in school, I took Public Speaking 101. Even though I naturally, I think am a decent speaker. Public Speaking 101 said something very basic, but really changed everything for me. It said, Public speaking 101 is what is your message?
Who is your audience?
And how do you tailor your message to best land on that audience?
And I was like, all right, let me think about that. I know my message is hope, recovery, don't do drugs. There's A better way build self esteem. But like going into a freshman class or a senior class, I had to put myself in my shoes, in their shoes. 15 year old Kevin Rosario done been smoking weed for three years now. I got belief systems. I think I'm cool, I think I'm tough. The DARE guy comes in, the, the, the detective comes in, whoever bring in an ex con, scared straight. It's like bro, shut up, I'll slap you and smoke weed after this. Immediately, you know, like I am shut down, I am dismissive. So then I thought if I someone was coming to talk to me, what would be the best chance of them landing any information on me? At the same time again, I'm in school, wrapping up a bachelor's degree, I'm going to conferences for my marketing job. And I'm sitting in neuroscience, brain development, psychology, genetics, biology. Like I'm learning more about the brain, specifically how the prefrontal cortex is responsible for decision making, impulse control, risk assessment. It's not fully developed until the mid-20s. So if you start using substances before the mid-20s, it stunts that part of the brain which, what does that do? More bad decisions, more poor decision, you know, rational impulse control. I'm like holy crap, that's exactly what happened to me. I'm 12, I'm ADHD, I got underdeveloped brain, I start introducing weed on the weekends and then it becomes more frequent. And what do I do? I crash out more bad decisions, more bad decisions over and over again. And so I ended up developing a one hour PowerPoint with learning objectives. And, and what I do is when I, when I speak to the students now, I say, look, I'm not trying to be cool, I'm not trying to be funny, I'm not trying to scare you, I know I can't convince you.
I'm just going to give you information and do whatever you want with it. That is how I get them to drop their gun. And I say, you know, if this doesn't apply to you, maybe it'll apply to someone you know. And then the PowerPoint is just brain science. Dopamine, limbic system, genetic predisposition, risk factors, self esteem. And then most importantly at the end, like resilience and building refusal skills. And so I know we're running out of time for this segment so we can take it into the next one. But ultimately what happened was money started coming in, the school started offering me money and I just gave it to the place I worked for because we're a nonprofit. And then I'll tell you where it goes from there because it totally took off and exploded from there.
[00:36:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, and that's, I think going in with the attitude that you have with the kids is like, hey, listen, I'm not going to ram this down your throat. It's here.
They're going to hear you more. Their, their guard isn't up. And so we will come back and we'll talk about how exactly you kind of get through to these kids and what that's doing for you as you're living a life of service. So stay tuned. We'll be right back.
We'll be right back with more stories of resilience and renewal. This is Life Rewritten on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Vanessa Lagoa and you're watching Life Rewritten on NOW Media Television.
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We are here with Kevin Rosario who is going to continue telling us about his mission and how he lives a life of service, giving back to the community. So welcome back, Kevin. Thank you for being here and bringing all of your excitement to Life Rewritten. So tell us a little bit more about what it looks like when you go into the schools and you're speaking to the youth.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: Yeah. So how it happened just to tie it all in was basically I was working for a non profit. Schools have budgets and grants and they were basically like, we have to pay you as a subject matter expert. Now I'm doing a full hour PowerPoint with learning objectives. I'm not telling my story anymore. My New Bedford rah rah story doesn't land on everybody, but I can tie in some of my story or the anxiety or the low self esteem and the other things that are identifiable. But I make it more about learning objectives. And so people are cutting checks and I'll just giving it to the non profit I worked for. And then, you know, I have two beautiful kids. Their mom is a great mom, but we didn't work out. And financially things changed a lot for me. And one day he was like, hey, look, we Love what you're doing, but the next time you get a check, just keep the money. And I was like, what? He's like, you can definitely use it. More than a 33 million dollar non profit. I'm like, say less. Within 30 days I had an LLC, a Facebook page, I ordered business cards. And that's when it turned into more than just like, like a random thing I was doing into a concentrated effort, passion driven, like side business. And you know, so since then I've, I've spoke to over 12, 000 students. At this point I'm typically doing auditoriums with 200 to 600 kids at a time. Sometimes I'll do two talks in one day and I change the PowerPoint all the time. Like one thing I know is I don't know everything. And so I go in and I do this PowerPoint. But it's an engaging PowerPoint. I'm not talking at them. The power, it's usually an hour to an hour and 15. And I come in.
The first thing I say is like, hey, look, I'm not a teacher, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a therapist. I'm just a guy that was a rowdy teen. Things didn't end well for me. I've learned some things since then and I just want to share them with you. And you can do whatever you want with them, right? And I do everything I can do to kind of drop their God. But I also say this is very serious to me. So I'm not going to treat you like little kids. I'm going to treat you like young adults. When I was 14 and 15, I thought I was a grown ass man. So I'm going to give you that respect. But I'm going to demand the same respect. So if you're being rowdy or whispering to your friends like I get it, it's hard to sit still. I wouldn't have been able to. But I'm just going to give you the look. I'm going to give you the look that's a free pass. Like, please bro, you're distracting me with my adhd. I'm going to give you the look to chill out. And if you can't keep it together, I'm going to ask you to leave because there's 300 kids here and like someone might need to hear something. So I set the ground rules and demand some respect right from the beginning. And then I walk around and I'll sell my slides. Is like, what is addiction? What is dopamine? And I'LL go to the students and have them talk. And no matter if the answer is right or wrong, I say, everybody give this person around. Everybody claps. They get all crazy. They let out some of that nervous energy, like, and then, boom, I talk for another 10 or 12 minutes. And I, I, you know, like, you know, strategically put in these little question opportunities to let them pop off and scream and yell and clap so I can keep them generally entertained and, or respectful for an hour and change. And, you know, it's just been great. Last time I, I did one, well, I just did Walpole High, like, two weeks ago, and I got great feedback from that. And I appreciate your comments on, on my social media, but the one I did at the end of last year, which was like, March, April, or something like that, and I tell the students, I said, hey, look, I know I'm old. I don't think I'm cool, bro. I don't know what's going on. Like, like, if I had to do this tomorrow for your little brother, a little cousin, what would you add or subtract? Where did I go too long? What didn't seem relevant? What am I missing? Like, help me. You guys know, I don't know. I'm going. And the kids always give you feedback. And so I have alcohol, marijuana, opiates, and all the, all the major things on there. And one of the students was like, this was great. And the vaping, there's a whole, like, four slide thing on vaping because it's the biggest thing. She's like, this is great, but up. You never discussed caffeine. And I was like, caffeine? She's like, oh, yeah, everybody's addicted to caffeine. I was like, oh, okay, thank you. And so I go back to the lab, I researched caffeine, and I don't go left or right. Radical people. I go to center for Disease Control, American Heart Health Institute. Like, I look for legitimate work cited places right? Got a master's degree. I learned how to do proper research. So if I'm challenged, I'll give you the links, bro. I'm not, like, just being extra and dramatic because my thing is, like, my mom was like, don't do it because I said so. My father, you know, because you're not old enough, because it's illegal. None of those are good reasons. The real reasons are, how about consider not doing it yet, at least because your prefrontal cortex is not fully developed, you'll become addicted to large bursts of dopamine, and you're going to build a dependency. And then even worse, you're going to build a resilience. You're going to get a tolerance to weed or alcohol. And then what happens when that doesn't work anymore? You're more likely to try something more serious. And that's what happened to me. I didn't want to be a drug addict. I just wanted to feel okay. And a little weed did that at first, until it didn't. Then it was weed and alcohol. And I did it for a while. Then it was weed, alcohol, pills. Every line I crossed into a harder substance was never an attempt to destroy my life or to get more high. It was always to just be okay. But by the nature of biology and building tolerance, the things that used to make me feel good enough stuff no longer worked. And I kept crossing the line. And so I talk about the risks associated with alcohol and vaping, and I talk about marijuana, how strong it is causing psychosis. And then I kind of have a segment at the end is like, well, how do we practice real refusal skills? Just, you know, God bless the Reagan's, but like, just say no and run the other way. Blow the rape whistle, bro. That's not real life. Like, we are pack animals. I care about what people think about me. I know we only got a few minutes.
We, we. That's important. So what else could I do? And so I, I do role playing with them. What are you gonna. If you haven't been approached yet, someone is gonna approach you. What are you gonna do? If you're prepared and you've practiced, you're less likely to freeze up like I did and just grab the joint, right? No, I'm good. I can't do that. Like, I'm into sports and I don't want to take the risk. Or no, I'm good. Addiction runs in my family. I don't want to take the risk. Or like, I tried it before and it made me sick. Like, be prepared with an out before it happens, right? Also, you could be like, no, I'm good. Instead of running the other way. But if you want to go play basketball or do homework or go fishing, like, I can be the positive influence. But if this person's toxic and persistent, then you might have to love them from a distance, right? And the last gem I give them, I say, you know, and I do parents too. This isn't just kids. I do parents, first responders, professionals, law enforcement. I've done all, done different types of talks for all types of people. But what I tell them is like, when I tell your parents is to buy breathalyzers and drug tests. Yes, you can get them cheap on Amazon. And, like, if you're awkward and you're afraid you're gonna get caught off guard, just blame me. I got stuff all over YouTube. I got multiple recordings. Like, next time someone comes up to you and is like, yo, you want to try this? Like, dude, I would, but my mom cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, all right? She heard this dude Kevin Rosario speak. She thinks I'm gonna shoot heroin. She's got drug tests and quick cups and breathalyzes all over the house. I can't take the risk if I get caught. Wi Fi, iPhone, car, whatever you have, she's gonna take it.
Keep a picture of a quick cup in your medicine cabinet in your phone. Someone challenges you, like, look, bro, I'm not playing. Mom's crazy, like, legit. Got drug tests everywhere. And that might help you get out of that peer pressure, that tough spot. Because WI fi is like air to these kids. The car, the Roblox, the video games, you know? So, like, again, the Message ends with 1. Improve your self esteem. Do esteemable things. Look for opportunities to do volunteer work. Go to therapy. Find sports and passions. Like, do things that make you feel good and strong because you'll be less likely to be impulsed and impacted by peer pressure. But also be prepared on how to get out and how to navigate in those tough spots and make better decisions. You know, so it's been a.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: When they're doing that, they're learning to be more confident in saying those things. And it becomes a practice, and then it becomes second nature to be like, no, like, I. I don't need to explain myself. I just. Just, you know, with that practice, it becomes just part of their lifestyle.
So if somebody wants to book you to come speak at their school, how can we find you?
[00:46:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, my email is kevin.addiction-education.com. my website is addiction-education.com. i tried to make it as easy as possible. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook. My cell Phone number is 774-406-6765. You can put all this on the final slide or on your website.
I'm totally accessible. I've done Connecticut and all over Massachusetts and some in Rhode Island. I'm willing to travel to other states if someone is interested in doing this thing. But I love doing it, and I'll work with people. One last thing I'll say is I've worked with people. I don't forget my roots. I did it for years for free, and people had to pressure me into taking money. And now I know people get 5, 10, $20,000 for, like, talks like this. So I did come up with a price plan, but the primary objective and the passion for me is to make an impact and to create change and to be a resource to young people. So if someone's interested, let's talk. We can figure out the money. I have a price point. I won't say it here because I want you to go look at my website and do a little research, but it's way less than the average subject matter expert I know because I've been comparing myself to others because really, again, the primary objective and the primary thing is, is I just want to be helpful. If one kid in one family can be diverted from the life that I lived and the pain that I put my family into, then it's a complete success and. And a happy life on my end. So, again, I thank you for the opportunity to have a platform and to. And to share a little bit of my story.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: Well, and thank you for taking your rock bottom and creating a life of service and truly giving back to this world. I really do think that.
I know that you are making an impact, and I hope that we continue to see more of you because that is definitely what we need more of. So thank you for spending your time with us and we appreciate having you. Thank you for watching life rewritten and we'll see you next time.
