Name: Theo Von and Tony Mandarich on Getting Help With Addiction
Uploaded: 2020-12-09T19:11:36.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Theo Von and Tony Mandarich on Getting Help With Addiction' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-09. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Theo Von and Tony Mandarich on Getting Help With Addiction' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-09. Transcript available.

so my four years in green bay were a train wreck and i was there wasn't you
know a single day in
green bay where i was like stone cold sober it was either some kind of a pill
in me there was
anything that would alter me from the chin up right um in my brain where i was
drinking or i
was doing something now that doesn't mean i was sloppy down falling down drunk
drinking but i would
need a drink to stop shakes and then go to practice wow what's kind of hard to
pass block
in the nfl period let alone when you're half in the bag yeah so you know
looking back at a lot of
those things and being going through all that pain like i got into so much
emotional pain i was sick
and tired of my own bullshit oh man that's today that's right it's exactly
where i'm at right now
i'm just tired of myself that's when we change sick of yourself right like
literally people like what
are you on and you're like i'm on myself right and it's fucking killing me like
it people don't
understand sometimes and that's a lot of what i think addiction is for me i don't
even know
sometimes if i've ever had a lot of chemical dependency as much as i the way i'm
feeling
affects me so heavily right like it's a drug like to the point where it's like
and then i become
addicted to it and at the same time suffering from it yeah and i think people
sometimes can't
understand some of that like what it's like to feel that way right and it's and
they're like you're a
wimp or you're this man it's like you think i don't want you think i want to
feel this way every day when
i wake up you think i want to be angry or be miserable or you know like i know
this is something
is happening to me and it's hard to handle right yeah and and you know i mean
and listen you it's
like again are you following me around because you're telling me my story right
it's exactly how i feel
and i don't feel as i still get definitely times like that but less and less
yeah and and it'll
change and i've been you know over 25 years now almost 26 years sober and wow
but you know what
like the first three years were like just like you could have cut me off you
could have done
robbed me i would have been like all right here you go cool have a good day i
was so happy not to be
miserable yeah right oh the beginning of sobriety when you're like when you see
when something
happens is a perspective switch in the way you see in the world in the way that
it really is
god bro yeah it literally like you talked about the four or five days or two
weeks before you took
steroids you never thought you'd take steroids four days before i got sober i
never thought i'd be in
a treatment center four days later wow and that was a decision i made right and
because of the
emotional pain and i was just looking in the mirror disgusted at what i saw and
all the i was like
what a bunch of bullshit and lies and deceit and just and it just gets so hard
you stack up so much
stuff it's just too heavy and it's so interesting you had so much weight on
your body like so much and
it was like but then you get this relief of all of this fucking weight crazy
isn't it which is just
almost so ironic in your life it's crazy in your space and today but in today
like like you talk
about like today's circumstance when i do feel the way like you know if i feel
i have a shitty day or
it's like like i'm sabotaging myself or whatever i know why it's because i'm
not connected i'm not
either talking to people or i'm not or i haven't like for me i haven't hit my
knees in the morning
and asked for help well when you're i think that this is a powerful thing when
you're six five like
now six five two sixty five whatever when you hit your knees and you are
praying to the god of your
belief and asking for help through the day and asking about what you can add to
the stream of life
instead of sucking out of the stream of life for a change that's a pretty humbling
experience when
you're that big a stature so you know i was doing that when i was six six you
know playing for the
colts at six six three fifteen three twenty strong as an ox and it's it's a
very humbling experience
knowing you're knowing how powerful you are right and i could make stuff happen
like i can make things
happen by the old phrase just grab the bull by the horns just make it happen if
you got to step on
people's toes do it just make it happen it's like i don't care how you got to
block this guy
just don't get a penalty and block him i don't care if you got to take his
knees up whatever right
it's like go to any lengths to protect your quarterback so it's it's kind of
like that but
it's like you know it's when you have that stature that size that power and you're
in the weight room
slinging weight around and all this but in the morning you know when you get on
your knees and ask
for help that's a humbling it's a humbling act yeah and yeah and you know it's
like it's basically
saying you know i can't do this by myself i tried and almost killed myself yeah
almost killed myself
trying yeah because i'll never forget when i'm in the treatment center in detroit
and was no fancy
treatment center and this was the first time you ever went into treatment first
time you went in and
got it yeah i'm not gonna do it again right yeah um and uh okay take us there
no the girl the girl
the lady counselor was her first like small like 10 people session with a
counselor and it was all our
first time with this meeting and she goes um so before we start and she's like
this isn't pointing
anybody out she's like this applies to everybody she's like just before we
start i just want you all to
know that all of your best plans of building your empires and building
everything got you here in this
treatment center in detroit michigan and i can see like i ate you know i 90 or
whatever it is going
by in the interstate i'm going she's right and i was like talking about a louisville
slugger coming
across your forehead going holy shit that reality yeah yeah i mean funny now
wasn't funny then
yeah but i'm trying to think of some of those first moments that you know
whenever i went into
the rooms because mostly i learned about recovery through my family my i have
siblings that are you
know in and out or been in the program and um and probably my father i mean i
think so many people
struggle with addiction to different things but i remember getting i remember i
drove through the
parking lot one night of a of a room that's not far from where i live and i was
talking to my brother
something the next day and he said well you know who's not thinking about
getting treatment and i said
he i said who he goes people that people that aren't driving through that
parking you know i'm
saying like not everybody's driving through the parking lot of an aa center
last night you know
i'm saying like there's something inside of you that's curious that's thinking
like and i think
sometimes it is there's a magnet that's created by that program um you know
last night i went to a
meeting and i went over to a buddy's house and uh and i got there and i hadn't
been in probably like
three months to his meeting and um it's just like six or seven guys sitting
outside by a fire right
and i get there and suddenly like i walked around the group and just hugged
like every guy there i
know them all right and it was funny because i just had the worst day and i get
there and uh
and i was like man i didn't know that i was gonna hug all these guys when i got
here i forgot
that and they were all so excited to see me like each individually we have our
own little relationship
and like sure i just i forgot that all these guys cared about me and i forgot
that i cared about
them like it's just like camaraderie yeah and unless i like the half-life or
the residual effect of like
care it doesn't the shelf life isn't long inside of me for some long it's you
know it's really it's
almost like the shelves are like at an angle and when somebody puts care on
them they just slide
it just and i don't know why i think it was just the way the shelves were built
or something you know
but it was just crazy because next thing you know it was like the best moment
of my day and all these
guys was like man i always feel like nobody cares but these guys care they all
care and i care about
them and i just freak it just it doesn't stick to my ribs like i wish it would
a lot of times so
that's why i think some people are like man you chase your tail a lot it's like
because i forget that
that that the tail is there i forget that it how it grew sometimes the tail's
wagging the dog right
oh yeah it's like um i don't know it's just it's it's all fascinating man the
program is pretty
fascinating you know recovery uh it works so so take us a little bit more so so
you you have that
experience with your brother kind of and then you get into it and then you're
playing at michigan
state then good evening good afternoon and other times thanks for watching that
video you just saw
i mean it was okay but the next video you could watch could be way better what
if you watch a video
right now that changes your life well you could watch this one or watch this
one watch this one watch
this one watch this one watch this one ah