E13: Jim Huntzicker

Becoming Unaddicted - The Unconventional Way to Beat Addiction

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Christian Elliot

All right. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the next episode of deconstructing conventional. My guest today is Jim Huntzicker. He is similar to me, his husband, father, entrepreneur, personal development junkie, a mindset and wellness coach. And he has a specialty for helping people, especially men, overcome addiction. So to his credit, Jim has personally quit many different addictions, including alcohol, cigarettes, prescription painkillers, junk food, soda.

 

marijuana, coffee, Facebook and the smartphone. So not a bad list, my man. Welcome to the show, Jim. Yeah, great. So before we get started, I guess the our typical disclaimer, nothing we're going to say today is personal health advice. So this is for informational purposes only. But Jim, so before I get into the work that you do today and helping people overcome addictions, tell us a little bit of your kind of your family origin story and some of the ways you think you may have developed some of your addictive tendencies.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Thanks for having me. What I've realized is that we have family habits. And so I didn't know that. I just grew up with my family and it was my environment that I was in. And so my environment, it was a lot of drugs and a lot of alcohol. Everybody drank, everybody did drugs. It's what I was used to, it's what I knew. So for me, that was just part of how life was. And so the older I got, the more drugs I did, the more...

 

the addictions I had. And I thought that's just the way it was because that's the way I had a grandmother drink herself to death. I had an uncle drink himself to death. My uncle was in his 40s when he drank himself to death. And so that's just the way that I thought life was. And so it wasn't until I got into my early 30s and I'm like, I got to figure this out. Like this is not, I can't live like this. I was obese. was, 5'7". I was 220 pounds.

 

That's the only time I actually weighed myself that I saw that. know I weighed more at times, but I saw 220 on a scale and I just decided to make a change. what's crazy though, like a quick side note is my wife, she grew up in the exact opposite kind of family, huge family, lots of family parties. Nobody drinks. Nobody has, and still none of the kids, none of her, none of the siblings, none of the cousins, nobody across the board has drinking issues where in my family, everybody has drinking issues. mean, not everybody.

 

across the board. A couple have, you know, still drink here and there. But most of the people, my great family have had drinking or drug issues, you know, where they're still developed. Like I have an uncle who still, don't even know where he is right now. I think he's about 60. Nobody's seen him in like 10 years because he just drinks. He's always at a bar. So he kind of disconnected from family. And so that's just the way my family's always been. what I knew. So in order for me to get away from that, I had to make a fundamental change and do it on my own.

 

Christian Elliot

Wow. Well, okay. So obviously the environment you grow up in has a lot to do with the habits we fall into, which seems obvious, but a lot of people will say drinking just runs in my family or this is a family trade or I have drinking genes or things like that. And what you're saying is it's much more a product of the environments we come from and your story in some ways is evidence of that. Did I hear you correctly?

 

Jim Huntzicker

No, for sure. like, so like, you know, some people have a, you know, they say an alcoholic can't stop drinking once you start. I'm not saying there's not something to that because that's me. When I started drinking, I didn't stop. I was drinking all of it. I had a goal in mind and it wasn't to have one. And so once I just decided to not drink, you're starting to drink and not being able to stop wasn't a problem. Like if you can't drink once you start, just choose not to start. Like that's the choice you're making, right? It's all conscious choices and it's from the habits that we have. That's it.

 

Christian Elliot

Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, so part of your story, gaining 60 pounds, I don't imagine that was unrelated to this addictive tendency you have. So is it fair to say that a lot of people as they work to quit one thing, they give up one bad habit and they kind of just switch to a different one and food becomes the thing or some other substance? Is that a pretty common situation?

 

Jim Huntzicker

For sure. I just say I'm an addict or I have an addicted personality or I get addicted to things easily, like whatever. I'm addicted to healthy stuff now. So it's great. I'm addicted to healthy food, supplements. I mean, I'm actually addicted to the opposite now. For me, not drinking, I'm addicted to the feeling of not. There's a power in not doing that's invigorating. And so you could find a way to be addicted to literally the opposite of anything. It's a choice.

 

And so, yeah, but with me with food, like, so I quit smoking. That was one of the first things I quit and I put on 20 pounds and I quit drinking and I drink so much that I'm like, I cannot wait to lose weight when I quit drinking, except I changed to milkshakes for some reason. I don't know why I myself do that. I did. I put on like another 20 pounds. And before I knew it, I was just, I mean, I was, I was huge. And so, um, it took me about 90 days to lose 60 pounds. Once I

 

I started to lose weight, but I'm sure you deal with this with a lot of people. I put it right that time because I was eating the wrong stuff, or I'd go on a diet that was temporary. And so once I decided the diet wasn't temporary, when I got 60 pounds off and kept it off and spent 12 years now.

 

Christian Elliot

Right. Well, that's a long run to get the weight off. I guess help me get inside the headspace of someone with an addictive personality. So what are some of the logical justifications or the mental gymnastics people go through when they're trying to fight a craving or maybe they just eventually give into it they tell themselves that particular story? Help me walk through that headspace so people can start to relate to like, I do that. And I can see where that tendency I'm not getting at the root issue. I'm just self-medicating with something else.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Well, that's just it. It's a story. You said it. We all tell ourselves stories to allow us to do what we do good or bad, right? Like, I had a rough day. I need to drink. Well, you could say, I had a rough day. I can't drink because I need to be level-headed. I need to be clear-minded because of my rough day. It's all the frame. It's how you frame the story. So we could talk ourselves in. It doesn't matter if it's alcohol. You said food. It doesn't weed. Whatever your sedation drug of choice is. Like I always tell them just because you buy your sedation drug of choice at the grocery store.

 

Doesn't make you any better than the guy that buys at the liquor store, right? Because food is just as bad. Sugar is just as bad. So just because you go home and stuff your face doesn't mean you're any better than the guy that stops at the bar and drinks himself silly, right? They're all sedation tools. You're hiding from something, right? And so there's pain somewhere. There's always a deeper issue. The alcohol, food, the drug is not the issue. There's always a deeper issue that you're sedating and hiding from. And so the only way to get past the pain is to deal with it. Like in order to...

 

to get through your pain is to go straight through it and deal with it. But we're always trying to hide from it. That's just human nature.

 

Christian Elliot

Yeah, well, it sounds like so self medicated. If I'm hungry, I don't go get a book. But if I'm lonely, I might go to food, I use something else in the place of the ⁓ substance or the ache I'm trying to solve isn't satiated this way. But it's the best approximation I can find to help me not feel these feelings. And so do you think in your experience, is that more of a conscious choice or more of a subconscious pattern or tendency people have to

 

attempt to fill an ache or a craving with the thing that they're actually not craving. Does that make sense?

 

Jim Huntzicker

Yeah, well, I think I think it's, you know, trying to remain comfortable, right? And so nothing in life is comfortable. In fact, the only way, you know, to live a comfortable life is eternal expansion, right? And that's just always trying to grow. And that's uncomfortable. And it's actually being it's getting comfortable being uncomfortable. And once you be are comfortable being uncomfortable, it's a lot easier. but I mean, life's a lot easier. But the ⁓ the getting back to the whatever whatever your your

 

your sedation drug of choice is like you said, know, food because you're lonely. Well, you know, that's a story you're telling yourself. I'm lonely. need food. Well, I'm lonely. You know, I'm good by myself. I don't need food. know, you can always tell yourself the opposite story. It's a choice. Like you're choosing the stories. We all choose every story we tell ourselves every time we do it. You know, I the guys I talk to one on one and deal with like I deal with it in my business.

 

are starving to just tell somebody their issues. The biggest problem I deal with men, and the biggest problem I find with men, is they don't have anybody to talk to. They're friends, can't tell their deepest dark secrets to. And so when I get on a call with them, I say, this is not recorded, it's totally confidential, say whatever you want. They just dump. And when they dump it out, you could see that their faces change because they're holding all this.

 

this negative energy from stories. hear about kids, people getting abused. mean, it's crazy how often I hear that about when your kids, ⁓ know, stories of death and families, kids dying, you know, just all kinds of just, you know, terrible stories that they have never talked to anybody about. And so when you're trying to, you know, usually when people are sedating, ⁓ they're, it's, it's, it's their way of dealing with those issues, because they've never let them out once they let them out, and you actually talk about those issues openly.

 

⁓ things get a lot easier to deal with and they get a lot easier to get passed in your life.

 

Christian Elliot

How much do you find though that when people are self medicating that they're even aware they're doing it? Do they know that I'm avoiding these feelings and so I'm just suppressing them? Or is it just a an autopilot habit, a ⁓ brain groove they're stuck in of when I feel this, the thing I go to is this and they're not even aware that that's what they're doing.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Yeah, they're definitely not aware, 100%. mean, most people go on forever not being aware that's what they're doing. That's why like the obesity issue is so crazy in America right now. That's why alcohol, know, alcohol, mean, alcohol sales are like, I think they're like 280 billion a year. It's wild. And the pandemic just raised that up to the roof. And so I don't think most people even acknowledge it. And so like I run ads on Instagram, it's some of the places I get a lot of a lot of my business. And you know, it's do need to quit drinking?

 

And it says alcohol is your issue, it's your current solution. And people like that respond like, what do you mean? You know, like they don't get it. Some people are good at like, yeah, you're right. But a lot of people are like, alcohol is my issue. And I'm like, okay, then we draw it out a little bit. And like, I have to deal with because my girlfriend left me or my got divorced or whatever. And this is the only way get through the pain. I'm like, so the only way to get through the pain is to drink your current solution is to drink the pain away, right? Current solution. And like, my gosh, you know, like they're like, like mind blown almost.

 

Christian Elliot

Yeah. So what's the, what's the process you go through to wake someone up to that though, if they're having a hard time recognizing that I have an avoidance tendency, how do you gently or maybe not so gently make them aware that this is the pattern you're in and to break it, you're going to have to face something harder than the easy solution, which in this case is drinking.

 

Jim Huntzicker

So I deal with men because I'm a brace, right? Like I don't beat around the bush. I'm very direct and I don't think my approach would work as well. I know it wouldn't work as well with women. Cause a lot of times I have to be very direct and use some choice words. that literally all I do to like our initial call, I don't make one statement. I ask all questions. That's it. I go with question after question after question.

 

Unpeel and unpeel and unpeel and unpeel and by the I got guys crying at the end of this is like like I'm talking about bad dudes that are like you know these big muscle guys that are like you know like like tears down their face because they've never talked in the end now that they've been hiding from the feelings for so long they forgot what they were because they've been drinking every day or whatever and just talking just getting it out and literally I make zero statements in our first call that's like like my initial goal

 

I do not make one statement. just keep asking question after question. And I say, if like if they say, you know, whatever the problem is. So if you stop that, would that create more issues in your life or do you think it make it better? Well, it probably make it better. know, so I go like just question after question after question, we dig deeper. And here's what I've realized. It's crazy. If everybody, all of us, we know how to fix our own problems already. We know the solution, right? We, because if I, if I'm just asking questions now,

 

I'm not giving any guidance. I'm not giving any support. I'm just asking questions after question. Now it's specific questions. It's in a series of, it's in a specific order, but they're just questions. And at the end of the conversation, these guys are like, ⁓ my God. And they fixed their own problem, right? Now, of them don't know how to do it ongoing. That's why they work with me because ⁓ they need somebody to hold them accountable to make sure they keep on this road. But they solved their own problem by the end of our first call. Like they did it on their own.

 

So that's the crazy part is we all know, if you're fat, you know how to not be fat, right? Don't eat food that's making you fat. I'm sorry, but it's that easy, right? That's not earth shattering, that's nothing new. If alcohol's causing major problems in your life, don't drink alcohol, right? Choose not to drink. Don't stop at the liquor store and buy liquor. Don't stop at the bar. But it is that easy, but...

 

But the problem is we just don't know how to do it. And what I've realized with alcohol, for example, a lot of people still drink even though they don't want to and know how bad it is for them because of other people. Right. Because they don't know how to handle the situation with other people. They have all their drinking buddies, their friends that they drink with all the time. And I say, look, if they're truly your friends, they don't care if you drink or not. And if they do, they're not truly your friends. Right? And so they're like, well, how do I interact? This is a great tip for everybody, anybody who needs to quit drinking. Like, how do I interact socially? Right?

 

Well, all I tell people is this is the truth. you're if you're worried about how to interact socially when you're not drinking, all you're focused on is yourself and the fact that you're not drinking. So everything's internalized and you're just an absolute disaster. If you focus on other people and just just ask other people questions about them, people love to talk about themselves. So if you focus on talking to other people, asking other people questions, and that's your goal at every social encounter or anywhere you go for business, for whatever, because, you know, people like, well,

 

I can't because I'm in sales, I have to drink. I'm like, look, that's a bunch of BS. Look at like Robert Downey Jr. Or look at like, ⁓ what's the other guy from Wedding Crashers? These guys are in Hollywood where everybody drinks, right? And not only do they not drink, they are like the top of their game. so those are obvious examples. But in any industry, it doesn't matter. When you stop focusing on yourself and you start focusing on other people during these social events that you're so worried about, it's easy.

 

Like you just like that. You just you ask people questions about them. People don't stop talking about themselves. They love when people ask you questions about so much easier and they love you at the end. Like you know, I don't know who was that guy Jim. I don't know why I like my like that dude. You know it's because they got to talk about themselves the whole time.

 

Christian Elliot

Yeah, no, you are nailing it because ⁓ as a fellow coach, I'm shaking my head because that's really all I do all day too, is I've become a professional question asker and I train my clients to do the same things and to seek to understand before you seek to be understood. Take the time to get to know the person in front of you. And to your point, it's so disarming for that negative loop that's in your head when you're self-conscious in a party and everybody has a drink in their hand.

 

And you just get to be yourself. You get to go ask questions. You get to be a fascinated person. And yeah, it's, very easy for me to exist in a room full of people that drink and not feel one bit self-conscious because I do exactly what you just said. just, I get curious about the story of the person that's in front of me, but the gift that you give people of asking questions, asking a follow-up question that says, I heard what you said and shepherding them toward an eventual epiphany with the magic of questions is brilliant, Jim. love it.

 

So ⁓ talk to me a bit about the concept of, this is something I run into, I'd love to see to the extent this is true for you. So do you feel like you wrestle with people who get stuck in an addiction to a negative thought? the it's like they don't know how to be comfortable without thinking negative things or there's the I if I tell myself a bad thing about myself, then it feels like it's a comfort. It's a it's a blanket that helps me cope and gives me the story that

 

tells me my identity, who I am, or what status I should have. And that thought becomes the problem, but it becomes a self-reinforcing pattern. Have you run into that?

 

Jim Huntzicker

for sure. Like that's one of the recent people sedate, right? Like this negative thought pattern they have that they can't get rid of. They wake up every day and they have the same thought pattern over and over and over again. And they're trying to get rid of that. And they're trying to sedate that away. And they're trying to eat that away or drink that away or drug that away or whatever. And the pain never goes away. And they deal with it over and over and over every single day. And like the people are like, well, I don't know how to let the pain go. Or I don't want to let the pain go. Some people because they're addicted to that. Right. Like I'm like, like, wait a minute.

 

You don't want to let that pain go. You want to feel like crap every day. So here's what you're telling me. It's just like eating food that's making you deadly ill, right? And doing it over and over every single day. Even though you know the food's going to make you throw up and make you violently ill, you do it every single day over and over again. That's what you're doing right now with not getting past this emotion and not dealing with the thought. But people, they go so long that they don't know any other way. It's wild, but it's true. And they get addicted to this thought or emotion.

 

and they can't get away from it. And it's because they don't deal with it, right? And so that initial call that I'm talking about with people, that's just what you and the coach, just asking questions, letting them get it out, most people, that negative emotion, they've never talked about in their life.

 

They're letting it affect them to a point it's debilitating for their life. They drink alcohol, they eat food, they do drugs, whatever it is. And they've never talked it out loud to anybody because maybe they're embarrassed by it. don't, you know, they feel like they can't talk to anybody about it. They're friends. They won't understand. Like that's what I always tell everybody. Like, especially when it's like alcohol or food. look, your situation is not unique. You know, people quit drinking and lose weight every single day. Like, you I know you're telling yourself stories to tell you your situation is unique, but it's not.

 

Like, you gotta start telling yourself different stories and you can just lose the weight. And can just quit drinking because your situation is not unique.

 

Christian Elliot

Yeah, when you're giving them the gift of being listened to, like that's such a shocking that it's so rare. But to your point, I love that you take the time to let people tell their stories. And it's not surprising to me because we do similar work. Like, of course, they have an emotional moment because it's like, you actually see me, you don't see the wall or the facade that I put up. You see me in the process. Is that more or less what I'm hearing?

 

Jim Huntzicker

100%. They've never been in an environment where they get to literally let their walls down and be themselves. Like nobody. Like not anywhere, not as an adult because you're always on the guard, right? You're always like, oh, I gotta be this person and this is who they think I am and this is a story. And like so many people like, I'm a big drinker. Their identity is that they're a big drinker, right? Like, okay, you need to change your identity. Like the real kind of identity change.

 

Like just say you're not a drinker. Like right now you're telling yourself, you just said out loud you're a big drinker. So you said that to me out loud just now. This is a call I have all the time. Like, well, I'm a big drinker. So you're giving yourself justification right now for being what you are. Like, why don't you say, I'm not a drinker. Like me, I'm not a drinker. And they have to sit back and think like, huh. Like I just said.

 

Christian Elliot

you're on an identity, right? Like, somebody framed it to me one time, they said, it was around smoking. And the difference between saying, when somebody offers you a cigarette saying, no, thanks, I'm trying to quit is very different than saying, no, thanks, I'm not a smoker. It's the same thing. They both turned down the cigarette. One says, I'm not that person anymore.

 

Jim Huntzicker

It's getting into your subconscious, right? Because we all know our subconscious drives everything we do. And so that identity shift, like you saying, like, I don't smoke, that's exactly what that is. It's changing your identity where I just quit or I'm not smoking right now. don't, you know, like people said, I'm not drinking right now. Like, so one of the best ways I tell people, because they're uncomfortable with this identity shift. And so one of the best ways I, because it's like, well, I need it for work. I have all these people I hang out with, I can't not drink. I'm like, well, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. But

 

Here's, let me help you with that. I'd say use a 90 day break trick, right? So we've all heard taking a 90 day break for clarity, for my health, whatever. So whenever you see people like pick a 90 day period and say, I'm on a 90 day break. Like I'm not done drinking, I'm on a 90 day break. Now you know you're gonna be drunk, you're done forever. But this is just the initial way to get past these uncomfortable situations where you usually would drink it. Like if you drink a lot for work or you drink, know, social events or whatever. Excuse me.

 

And after 90 days, you say, oh, you know what? I like like better without drinking. It me feel better. I'm done. But that's a way to get, I mean, if you're comfortable saying, hey, I don't drink anymore, then do that. Right. But a lot of people, that's what stops them from not drinking when they don't want to drink anymore is they don't know what to do. So if you just say, I'm taking a temporary break for 90 days like that, most people are like, oh, OK, because that's not super uncommon. Right. So people hear that like, oh, OK, good for you. That's great.

 

And then after the 90 days, you say, know what, I like like better without it. I lost weight, I'm healthier, I'm working out every day. Whatever. But that gets you past the initial. So, you know, people that are listening, if you have trouble with that, because you because most people that want to quit drinking, that still drink, it's because of other people that you do. And so that's a that's an easy way to get past is just say you're on a 90 day break. And after the 90 days, you're you know, I like to better without it. But it gets you past that initial 90 when people are like, oh, come on, we've been drinking together for 20 years. You can have a here's a know, have a beer or whatever, you know, like they already whatever you're drinking. No, no, no.

 

I'm taking a 90 day break. know, it just makes it that it's just, it's just a little, a little dialogue that helps you get past the initial three months. And then, you know, then after that you say, you you're done. You don't like the way it makes you feel.

 

Christian Elliot

Well, I love in the way you framed it even earlier. I love it that it's a ⁓ friend filter to figure out who's really your friend. If somebody's going to give you a hard time about not actually quitting or not participating in their bad habit with them, then is that really a friend to be able to go, wait a minute. Maybe these aren't the kind of people I want to associate with. And it can nudge you to shift or sift your friend's circles in a way that actually can lead you to better health and better life. So Bravo on just that nugget alone.

 

I think a lot of people will take away. one thing I want to ask you about is, guys, this, show is called deconstructing conventional. So what are some of the more conventional ways or conventional thinking that the society has, or the kind of the, some of the popular and maybe unproductive paths people tend to go down when they try to break an addiction.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Well, like, you just use alcohol, for example. Like, there's AA, right? Alcoholics Anonymous. before I say anything, let me, I'm for anything that works, right? So if it works for you, fantastic. Do it, stick with it, great. But AA only has a 7 % success rate. Why they've helped millions of people, there's millions more it hasn't. Because you have to go in there and you have to you're helpless, and you're not helpless, right? You could make a conscious choice to change. And you have to say you're diseased, and people don't like saying that. But with this, both of my parents quit,

 

with AA. So AA, if it works for you, fantastic. But also rehab, people go into rehabs, rehab long-term success with alcohol is extremely low. People come out and start drinking almost immediately because just because you're stuck in an environment and they're not fixing the problem. The problem is the root cause, right? the problem that you didn't, you if you're not talking about getting past the initial, the problem, ⁓ then you're still going to come out and you're start drinking again right away. And that's what happens with

 

rehab. And so that's why what I do works. ⁓ Because I, well, first of all, I work with, you know, usually high level people that want to stay private, they don't want anybody to know that they're they have a problem or they're trying to get away, you know, they want to do this all privacy, their own home. And they don't want to talk openly at AA, they don't want to say I'm helpless in front of group of people, they don't want to go to rehab where people are going to find out about what they you know, what problems they have.

 

Like I said, after our initial call, most people are I mean, mind blown that they like how much better they feel. Like it's very rare that people that work with me continue to drink it all past our first call. Like I have a 45 day guarantee. Like it's a 90 day program I have. And if you're not drinking, if you're still drinking after 45 days, you don't have to pay. But it's rare that anybody drinks past their first call with me because they're already in the program because they don't want to drink, right? Like that's already been established, right? We had an initial call.

 

where we had a mind dump, they had an emotion dump. And so we get into the program, like my program, then this mind dump, this emotion dump continues. just having that emotions out, that getting the negative energy out, they already don't wanna drink. So it's getting that, in order to get past the problem, like I said this, but the only way to get through the problem is to go through the problem, right? Like the only way to get past it is to go straight through it. And so going straight through it, you have to talk about it and get it out.

 

We're not saying we have to go, we have to dig deep and like investigate the problem. Like, you know, if it was a child abuse or, know, when you abuse as a child or a death, know, something terrible, you just need to get it out and talk about it and move past it. Right. I said, okay, now we're done. Let's go. And like, do we need to keep dwelling on that? Because it's not making you feel good. That's why you were drinking. Like we don't need to keep dwelling on it. And, and so the, the, the, that's why what, what I do works.

 

⁓ That's because like, like, people don't like AA, people don't like rehab. ⁓ And the AA is free also. That's another thing that's not great about ⁓ AA. You need to have skin in the game, right? Like, like that's, like, because no value in free. They like, they're just, they're just, society with money. And so when it's free, there's literally no value given, right? And so that's why AA gets without rehab.

 

Christian Elliot

Yes.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Like a lot of people go to rehab, their insurance pays for it. so, so that's why these rehab places do so well. Insurance pays for it. They come out and they start drinking again because they didn't pay. There was no value given to the service.

 

Christian Elliot

No, you are totally right. I clicked for me years ago that charge a price that is worth it because people want the outcome, but they need to have some level of skin in the game. If there's no investment on their part, it's so easy to be like, I just only lost 25 bucks. Right. It was free and I didn't lose anything. There's no, it's not painful to not go through the process. And so I can see why your concepts are bearing more fruit than the average conventional ways of doing things. So bravo. ⁓ tell me about

 

You named your business Unaddicted or you have this concept of Unaddicted and you juxtapose that from not addicted. So explain that concept to me a little bit.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Well, it's a book. So Unaddicted is a book I'm it's about being unaddicted, like being addicted to something and then choosing to not be addicted, becoming unaddicted to it. the frustrating part is there's literally no definition. If you go to like Webster dictionary for unaddicted, it says not addicted. And so if you go to the website, unaddicted.me.me, ⁓ that's the book website.

 

you'll see the definition of unaddicted there. And that's, I wrote that because there was no, there was no real definition of unaddicted. It was kind of wild actually. And so the concept is real simple. Like it's just becoming, you become addicted to the opposite of anything. You know, like just like I was saying earlier, being addicted to negative, bad stuff, like alcohol, drugs, weed, whatever food is a choice. You know, like, like I'm still an addict, right? I get addicted to stuff very easily.

 

But now it's it's supplements. It's cognitive. It's not cognitive supplements stuff that you know for focus. It's going to the gym. It's eating right like it's it's I'm addicted to not do it not drinking to not eating bad food to you know, like there's there's like I said, there's a there's a there's a ⁓ power in not doing and so you can become addicted to not doing that stuff too. It's a choice like so I don't like alcohol or any. I don't even think it doesn't even faze me like it's not even something that it's not even like I have to think about it.

 

Because I like not doing it and that's that's an addiction that I have now is to not doing it So you could literally become addicted if you say I'm an addict or I'm addicted personality or whatever That's me by the way, you can become addicted the opposite of anything So any bad thing you're addicted to you could literally turn your addiction. It's all how you frame it, right? It's like it's it's like I everybody deal with all I got a cop I was dealing with and I got shot got divorced like, okay

 

I'm like, that sucks, man. I'm like, but so you drink because you got shot and you drink because you got divorced. I'm like, that's a great story, but we could frame that very differently. ⁓ Because I got shot, I need to be strong and mentally strong so it doesn't happen to me again. And so I can't drink because I got shot. You know, I got divorced and I don't want that ever to happen to me again. And my divorce, his divorce was caused because his alcohol played a role in it. And I don't want that to ever play a role in a relationship again. And the next girl I want to meet, I don't want her to be okay with me drinking.

 

So I'm not going to drink because of my divorce. Like you're telling, you're giving yourself power to drink because you got shot. You're giving yourself power to drink because you got divorced. Dude, I'm looking at that the opposite. Like you should be giving yourself power to not drink because you got shot. You should be giving yourself power to not drink because you got divorced. I'm like, those are choices you are making. Like he was like, started crying, right? Cause he's like, he. ⁓

 

Christian Elliot

You know.

 

Jim Huntzicker

I know, well, he had no, he couldn't argue it, right? Like, and so, it's the truth. Like, it's like, we do what's easy, what we think is easier, what we know. And he had a family history of drinking. always had, alcohol was always in the picture. And so, like I always say, most people, they don't change their drinking habits from when they're a kid, from when they're a teenager, from when they're in their early 20s. Like, if you are always a heavy drinker and you're still drinking heavily in your 30s, you have a wife and kids, you have to take 90 days off.

 

And I'm not saying you have to quit drinking, but take 90 days off and reassess how you currently drink. And if you go back to how you were drinking after the 90 days, you might want to think about quitting forever because you can't control it. But you should at least take 90 days off if you're still drinking the same way in your 30s as you did in your early 20s to see if you know, to see if because most people, if you don't have a drinking problem, you'll go back and you'll be, you know, you'll maybe drink a glass, you know, like my wife, I have a glass of wine here and there. I don't think I've ever seen her have two in my life, you know, and so so her level of drinking.

 

Yeah, it's not a big deal, right? But if you drink, like if I had a glass of wine, I'd have five, you know? I'd be like, well, where's that other bottle of wine? So I could never have one. So for me, taking 90 days off, I was like, oh, that's what happened to me. I never drank again. I took 90 days off, and I never drank again.

 

Christian Elliot

right on. Okay, well, you bring up a good point, though. So help me with this little puzzle, because often people have this idea that moderation is really their savior. And for I've heard a story recently, I can't remember if somebody has a client that told me or where it came from. But there was a person who had been a raging alcoholic somewhere in their past and had finally been sober and had been a number of years. And accidentally, they had like there was an alcohol and a dessert or a kombucha or something just a trace amount of it.

 

and it sent them back into this whirlwind of all these cravings and difficulty. So how do you help somebody tease out the differences? Where's the line between moderation or hard no when it comes to trying to break some of these addictions?

 

Jim Huntzicker

If you could have one, if you could have one and stop, you're fine. If you could have one and you want to have three and four and really that's like with the people I deal with, they're people that have drinking problems, right? Like they can't stop drinking. If they could, they wouldn't need me. so if like, if you go to my Instagram account, I help people all the time, like just in my DMs, I'll help you for free.

 

You know, like if you just have some questions about how to do it, and I give like, I was just telling the guy today, that same 90 day dialogue, I just was helping somebody today with that, because he says he's pretty good, but the social environment, I said, like I told him about how to ask questions, and I told him the 90 day thing, he's like, my God, that's mind blowing to me, I cannot believe it's just gonna change my life. Right, and so if he does it fantastic, if that come back, I can help you, but I'm not free, right? I work one on one and I'm not free. But if you just need a couple of questions answered, go to my DMs on my Instagram, I'll be happy to help you.

 

Christian Elliot

Right on. Okay, I love that. Good. So that's that's an easy, hopeful, simple, practical thing somebody could take away. Like if I can only do if I do one and I'm like, I'm good. Great. Otherwise, your your your line is nope, that that's got to be gone. And and maybe I'll revisit it in the future. Is that a good summary?

 

Jim Huntzicker

You can't stop after one, like one, like one. I'm not saying like two, that's for three. bottle. Like just one drink. If you can go out to dinner and have one drink, well then, fantastic. know, that's, mean, alcohol, but this is crazy too. is what we were talking about. if you go to the, alcohol is considered a group one cancer causing carcinogen.

 

by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Like go Google it, look it up for yourself. I was shocked when I found out. It only a couple of years ago I learned that. Probably about four years ago I was like what? I Googled it no kidding, it's with asbestos, radiation, and tobacco. Group one, that's what's in group one. So alcohol is the same way. So alcohol, so heavy use of alcohol for men is considered 14 or more drinks a week. ⁓ 14 or more drinks a week and for women it's eight or more drinks.

 

And so if you're drinking more than that, you're putting yourself at a level for alcohol to cause cancer. And we know for a fact that it does.

 

Christian Elliot

Yeah. Most people are just not used to or okay with or haven't heard the idea that alcohol is a toxin. There's a reason you lose your motor skills and your inhibitions and it makes it hard for you to focus or function. It's because your body just got poisoned. And sometimes that becomes a nugget. Back to your point with the guy earlier, like, do you know it does this? you, Mr. former police officer, you double down on protecting your body because you need to be sharp to be present for it and not get a divorce again and not go through those things again.

 

Sometimes it's nuggets like, did you know how toxic this is? Do you know what it does to your liver that finally can break the dam for somebody and get them to change? So, ⁓ well said, Jim. Okay. So talk to me then about, give me a story or two of somebody you've helped make it personal or applicable to somebody when they're thinking of their own life, as they're listening to this, what's a story of maybe somebody, maybe it's not alcohol, maybe it's weed or it's internet or it's smartphones, or it's any number of things that are addictive. Give me a story or two of somebody you've helped.

 

overcome something in a way that might inspire the listener.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Well, here, let me let's talk about like, so when it comes to like quitting stuff, when people are addicted to it, let's talk about withdrawal, right? Because people always go and go to like, oh, well, I can't get through the withdrawal. Like, well, that's a story you're telling yourself. Like you realize you got yourself to point where there's going to be an uncomfortable period, right? And so just because there's going to be an uncomfortable period doesn't mean you don't go through the uncomfortable period to get to the other side. Because you realize it's not going to be uncomfortable forever, right? Like, like, oh, like, just being weak, right? And that's when I get a little more abrasive with men because they're being weak.

 

There is going to be, like with alcohol, mean, unless you're drinking like yourself drunk to sleep every single night, ⁓ it could be about five days that could be uncomfortable. If you properly hydrate, it's like, mean, I drink your drink. I'm not talking about crazy amounts of water, because as you know, drinking too much water is bad too. But drinking half your body weight now with water, like just the proper amount of water makes it about 90 % easier to get through anything. Because most people are severely dehydrated, as you also know. ⁓

 

Christian Elliot

Yes, I'm working on a detox guide right now. And it's shocking, because I'm reviewing all these other detox guides. And hardly any of them even mention water, like the most basic one on one thing you do to detox, nothing can get out of you without the medium of water. We're not even talking about it. So it's that it's simple yet profound to hear you say, Yeah, you're to go through a detox phase, you're not going to like it, suck it up, and drink a lot of water. Like your body knows how to do this, but you have to stop poisoning it.

 

Jim Huntzicker

So simple, right? No, totally. But mentally preparing for it, they're like, like, like they're hiding from it. Like, I can't go through that. I'm like, no, you can go through it. You have to. Like, it's going to suck for like, there's gonna be three days. It really sucked probably depending on how much you really drink. And then five days, you're really gonna be past it. And just properly hydrating and pedialyte and protein, you're going to be fine. Like, like it's not like it's going to suck for a few days. And same thing with weed. Like, like, so that's alcohol. But people that get addicted to weed, which is because it's legal to all over the place.

 

And I was one of those by the way, like I started doing weed again like later in life and I was like, oh, it's harmless helps me sleep because obviously as you guys all realize I talk fast and like, oh, it me slow down a little bit. And before I knew it, I'm like, ah, you know what, this is not helping me sleep. And I was kind of eating some bad food like, you know, at night I was snacking more, they were healthy stuff, but like, you know, almond butter, too much almond butter late at night is not good for you. So I was having stuff that wasn't fantastic. So I got my quick week and it wasn't a piece of cake. I'm like,

 

man, like I'm addicted to weed. And it took me like, there was like three nights of night sweats. It sucked. Like I just grinded it out. Cause I'm like, I mean, at this point I know what to do, right? I just just get through it. Cause I knew I was, my body was physically addicted, but you can be addicted to weed too. Like people think it's a natural thing and it's, know, because it's, a, it's medical and it's legal and it's good for you. Well, like there, there is benefits to it. Don't get me wrong, but, over time there's more, there's more problems with marijuana than there is, than there's solutions like.

 

Short term for sleep, maybe, right? But long term, it's not good and you get addicted to it. I was, so properly hydrating and just grinding it out for a couple of days, was three days that were uncomfortable. people that like, don't have to realize that they're going to have an uncomfortable couple of days to get past any of this. But again, going back to try to remain comfortable is why you're in the problem they are in the first place. getting uncomfortable, getting comfortable being uncomfortable is not a bad thing.

 

Christian Elliot

Well, in recognizing that, okay, this is that I'm, I'm about to enter something that's going to be uncomfortable, but that doesn't mean I'm necessarily doing something wrong. So help me. Cause I, it's like coming from what I heard, and you speak to this more because you're more of the expert here than me, but somebody coming off like cocaine or somebody coming off of a life of a lot of alcohol, can, if you go cold Turkey, it can almost be life threatening or there's maybe a period of, of weaning that's appropriate. Has that been your experience or do you typically have people charge hard into?

 

cut it off and just deal with the night sweats or the other things that they're dealing with. Where's the wisdom or nuance in that?

 

Jim Huntzicker

Well, it depends on their level of severity, right? And now like if you're, know, with like, you know, doing heroin or major cocaine, you know, if they're drinking enough alcohol where they're starting to have seizures when they're trying to quit, you have to go under supervision, right? Like there's no other way. ⁓ mean, if you're going to convulsions and seizures, like you can't do it on your own. You have to go to a detox center that can watch you, you know, while you detox. ⁓ And so like at that point weaning off, ⁓ that would also be possible, but that's, you know, like

 

to what end, right? Like how, if you have an alcohol problem, weaning yourself off is going be very difficult. Same thing with like, know, heroin or, or cocaine. ⁓ cocaine I would think is a little, a little easier to just pull the plug, but like heroin or something. I I was addicted to Vicodin, right? Like this is 12, 13 years ago and here's the, here's the worst. This is the worst story ever actually. So I, I got up the courage to, to, realized I had to go cause I tried to quit my own. It was like crawling. was unbelievable. ⁓ I mean, it was

 

it was unbelievable how tough it was to quit on my own. So I went to a drug recovery doctor. I was like, oh, embarrassed. I went far away from my house. I didn't claim it on my insurance because I didn't want anybody to know about it. Super embarrassed. And so I go to the drug recovery doctor and I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, so what do I have to do to be done in 30 days? He's like, oh, no, no, no. He's like, that's not safe. He's like, you could be on this drug, which was called methadone, by the way, they give to heroin addicts, for the rest of your life. I'm like, oh my God.

 

I'd never been on methadone yet, but I'm like, no, don't want to be like, isn't there a way to 30 days and I'm out? He's like, oh, that's very dangerous. And so he says he gives me 90 day prescription for this drug. He says, go schedule on a point for 90 days. I go schedule. I go to the front. I'm like, there's no way I'm like, I have to be done in 90 days or in 30 days. I'm not taking drugs. I'm not taking any. And at this time, I didn't know methadone also got you buzzed. Like I hadn't taken it at this point. So I didn't know what he gave me. Like I had no idea. And so I go to the I go to a pharmacy.

 

up where I went far away from my house. They had this drug there. So he's like, you don't want 90 days. I'm like, no, give me 30. and also when I left the doctor's office, I went to his front desk and he said, schedule an appointment for 90 days. And I went up there and I had a scheduled appointment for 30 days. Cause I'm like, there's no way like mentally I was, so this is, this is about the power of what you can do if you put your mind to it. Cause this doctor was clearly not helping me. So I went and I got the drug. got 30 days of the drug. I took it and I'm like, this is, this, got me just as buzzed as taking Vicodin by the way. Okay. Like, so

 

This guy's telling me I'm going to be honest for the rest of my life. All I'm doing is going from one drug to another. I was so pissed. So I took it for 14 days. I weaned myself off for seven days. For the next seven days, I took nothing. And I went to that appointment 30 days later. And well, I got escorted out by his security because I told him what a hack he was. And I'm like, you're no better than a drug dealer. was getting likened in front of Like you're telling me I'm going be on drugs for rest of my life. I mean, you can imagine what I said. I was so pissed.

 

But I did go there seven days clean and I never touched a vitamin again. So to the point of like, do you need to wean yourself off some stuff? Absolutely. Yes. But like just because a drug recovery doctor tells you to get another drug for the rest of your life doesn't mean you have to bring that stuff. Part of the unconventional that can apply to what you teach is that doctors don't always have the best interest in mind. when the doctor's telling you there's going to be another drug for the rest of your life.

 

I was like, that was the only drug I took at the time. was like, I was ready to be done with everything. I was cleaning up my life. I didn't want to be on any drugs at all. don't like pharmaceuticals. I don't want, I want nothing but natural substances in my body. And this guy's telling me I'm going to have to take a drug for rest of my life that I got off of in three weeks. Like I took it for 14 days, seven days it weaned off, seven more days. I went to the office the day 30 and I was like, ⁓

 

Christian Elliot

No kidding. He said, basically what he told you was, you have this addiction, let me give you a different one. And yeah, it's shocking to me, the doctors, funny as it sounds, don't take any health classes, they take pathophysiology classes, they take disease processes as their curriculum, and then they study how to intervene in it. But building health or helping somebody heal and not need substances like you're talking about is so far out there paradigm, I'm not surprised he didn't appreciate you.

 

coming into his office and telling him what you thought, but wow.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Yeah, crazy. so that goes to the point about withdrawal, you know, so do you need help? Don't need help? mean, so there's there's a point in severity with alcohol where you people have seizures, like you're going to need to go get help there. Could you wean yourself off? You know, you probably could if you could actually taper yourself down. But for somebody that has an alcohol problem, that's gonna be extremely challenging to do right to tape yourself down on a level where you just eventually do none. That's going to be I mean, if you can do that, you are a rock star.

 

I would think that in most cases, if you're drinking severity where you're having seizures when you stop, you're going to have to go to a detox facility to be monitored while you you the alcohol gets out of your system. So I can put IVs in use, you can be properly hydrated. Because I don't know if you can drink enough water to hydrate yourself in that situation. Right. So so that's what people are because I do deal with people that are that severe that they have had seizures and they tried to quit. I'm like, I'm like, you know what? This is not where I can help you. Like you need to go to a detox facility. You're having seizures.

 

I can't like, I'm more of a pull the plug and like, let's just deal with the repercussions afterwards. If seizures are part of your repercussions, you need to go get help.

 

Christian Elliot

So if somebody feels like that may be their situation, what are they searching for? Is there an internet search term they're looking for? How do they find a facility like that?

 

Jim Huntzicker

It's a rehab, alcohol rehab, alcohol detox. There are facilities that are all over, I mean, they're all over the country. everywhere you live, anywhere there's people, there is a detox facility that's close enough for you to go to. And so you have to spend 30 days at those. You might have to spend five days or seven days. Again, it depends on how severe you are. But if you are having seizures, you need to get monitored during that detox process.

 

Christian Elliot

on. Very cool. Well, as we start to wrap up, ⁓ I guess one, the one story I want to make sure we capture here is you recently told me about how you finally got sober from weed. It was finally allowing God into your life. And you even went so far as to get baptized this past April. So tell me that story. What happened? What? What had gave you the epiphany that the last thing you were not doing was allowing God into your life?

 

Jim Huntzicker

You know, it just, wasn't like I sought that out, to be perfectly honest. It just kind of happened. And so I was raised Catholic and I'm not against the Catholic religion. It just wasn't for me. And so for like about 30 years, I was out of religion and I got married. We got married by an Episcopalian priest outside because I didn't want to get married in Catholic church. My wife was raised Catholic also. But we didn't, we both didn't really go to church very much. Then 2020 happened, know, COVID happened.

 

and I pulled my kids out of public school and I found a, there was a Christian school right by my house that didn't require masks. I'm in Illinois and so we were, I mean, was like mask everybody, it was brutal. And so I put them in this Christian school and I got to understand the Christian religion a little more because there was a Bible school. And so my kids are like, what is this? I'm like, look, the Bible is what's protecting you right now. So let's learn more about it. Bring the Bible home. I'll learn it with you. Cause I want to learn more about this too. Like it's not just you alone. And so we started and more got to know the Christian religion. I'm like,

 

like these people. So we started, I started to learn a little more. My wife started to go to church. I wasn't ready to go to church yet. And then at the end of last year when I quit weed, when I realized I have to pull the plug on this, I started meditating. And meditation brought me to God. I was already closer to God than I've ever been in my life. Willing to accept Him in, but I wasn't going to church yet.

 

And so meditation, I feel like meditation is what I was able to see and talk to God through meditation. If you've ever meditated, ⁓ you might know, might not. Everybody has different experiences there. And so then I had started going to church. every time I went to church, I feel like this sermon was written for me every week, week after week after week. And all they were doing was talking about the Bible, explaining the Bible. And it was like, I'm in. I love these people. But how it comes, circle back.

 

So once I accepted God into my life, I've never touched a substance or anything since. And it was only weed at the end. I say only weed because I started to think he was harmless, but it became an addiction, right? And so it wasn't until like I quit alcohol in 2011. I quit Vicodin in 2012. But I started taking Adderall. Since then, Adderall was about a five-year thing that I because again, if I go talk to a doctor that was willing to give you Adderall, I am the poster child for that, as you guys can kind of tell from how fast I talk.

 

And so I quit that and then I found weed. was in Colorado at a marketing conference, which also is harmless. And so before I knew it, I was addicted to that. so allowing God in is what got me sober. So I was sober for three years just with grinding it out, being with willpower. But what finally got me to the end of being just sober and being comfortable and being sober was allowing God in my life. And it's literally changed my life. It's unbelievable.

 

Christian Elliot

Wow. I love it. It's always fun to hear like what was the last penny to drop the last thought or the framing concept that helped you go, ⁓ this is what I've been running from. is because it's see if this resonates with your work because it's become so blindingly obvious to me as a coach over the years that it's literally impossible. It's laughable to attempt to separate the mental, emotional, physical, spiritual. They're so intertwined. And if there's

 

some aspect of your life that's missing. If you're weak in one of those, it's like the thermostat set point. keeps bringing you back down to the maturity level of that aspect of your life. And until you're ready to grow in kind of a multifaceted way, you can't really feel like you're growing. Does that make sense to you? Has that been your experience as a coach as well?

 

Jim Huntzicker

percent. Like so like, like, like the stuff I the questions I ask, they start with their body, right? I like do you work out like, like, you know, how do you eat? Like, that's like, so the questions are all related, like to their body. And the next set of questions is all related to their, their family, their children, their whatever their personal life is, whatever that

 

the next set of questions are related to their being, their spirituality. They're like, where are you with God? Even in the initial questions, like if I'm just DMing people on Instagram, like they reached out, one of the questions, like the qualifying questions, I ask, where are you at with God? Because if they're like, no, I'm not, no God, I'm not gonna even, like look, I'm not gonna be the one that convinces them. And so they're not gonna be a good fit for me to work with because like if they're like, no, there's no God or I'm against it or no, like you know.

 

I'm not gonna be the one that changes their mind, right? And so, and then we get to business, right? And so what I'm getting is those four tiers, body, you know, like their body, their family, their spirituality, and their business. If there is a weak link in one of those, right? Or more than one, and they're gonna bring down the rest of them. And so it's what you're saying too. So all I'm doing is asking questions around those parts of their entire life, and it just unfolds.

 

Right? The problems peruse like, like, like, so where are you out with your body? well, I work out sometimes, you know, like I go to a bike. Okay. Like, like, like, so how much weight you need to lose? Like, because I can tell we're doing a zoom call and see if they need to lose weight or not. And, ⁓ it just that evolves and that brings in some with the family. And if you don't think I did the family issues, because they all in they're all connected, right? And so wherever the low, whatever domain, whatever domains the lowest, like, say it's say it's their body, right? Because they drink and they're overweight, it's dragging down their their relationship with their wife.

 

It's dragging down their business. They're not good at church because they feel like it all falls apart. And so once they get their body, if they need to quit alcohol, they need to get in shape. Part of my program is we get in the gym. have nutrition. There's a nutrition aspect. It's a diet stuff.

 

And that all brings their body up and then all of sudden the relationship with their wife gets better. Because they're not conscious about that, right? And so you work on the low one and the rest of them kind of fall into place. But we work on all those areas because somewhere is the low part and it's bringing the rest down.

 

Christian Elliot

You nailed it. I love it. We named our business true whole human because we realized we have to work on the whole person. If we don't do that, we're not actually moving the needle. We're just another thing they've tried with a 10 % success rate. And what difference do we make? we want this sounds like what you do is it's an inflection point, divine appointment. It's this man. I had this we cross paths and my life's never been the same. It's so fun. It gives me excited to be around other people who think that way and who are really trying to help.

 

the person in front of them, not just check a box and niche so far down, they don't even know how to help people anymore. So.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Also, our initial calls are so, like, it's so gratifying for me because people come out and not knowing what you're doing. I tell them, look, it's not a sales call. I will not mention anything about my program. I have one. If you want to work with me, you can ask me after the fact or the next day. I will not try to sell you for one second. And they're like, so then a guard comes down and we get on the call and they are just like, I mean, it's like they go, mean, I could see their faces shift, right? Cause they're getting, it's incredible. Like I absolutely love it. I love it.

 

Christian Elliot

Yeah, I'm right. That's same work I do. And it's awesome to talk to other people who do it. So Jim, it's been so good having you on the show. I appreciate your time and your wisdom and helping people along their path. So tell people where they can find you if they want to continue to follow your work.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Well, thank you for having me. It's been awesome. I followed you. I mean, I saw you guys had a different approach and I absolutely love your podcast. I love what you do. You guys are fantastic. Thank you. If you want to find me, the best way to get me is Instagram. It's just my name. It's @Jim Huntzicker at J-I-M-H-U-N-T-Z-I-C-K-E-R. You need any help? You have any questions? Feel free to send me a DM. I'm the one that responds to that. My team does not.

 

So if you get a response, people don't believe it's me. I'll send them a picture right there. Like, look, I'm sitting right here in my office, I'm sitting upstairs. Like, it's me, man. Like, you're getting me. I don't farm this out to bots. I don't farm it out to my team. There's stuff team members get to do. But like, when you initially reach out, like you're finally coming for help, you get me.

 

Christian Elliot

Yep, no, same way here. I like being a small high touch personal business. You actually can get a hold of us. How refreshing.

 

Jim Huntzicker

Yeah, no, when I started picture of me, like they they get it. They're in like at first or like they think it's a bot or a team member. And then like I take a picture which would only do when you like type a little thing on there like right from there. It has to be the real picture from your phone. And they're like, ⁓ all right, it's him. Cool. And then they open up, right? And then we get dialogue going and it's fantastic. I absolutely like like you love what you do. I absolutely love this.

 

Christian Elliot

Right on. Okay, well, thanks for being on the show today.

 

Jim Huntzicker

All right, brother, thanks for having me.