HELP IS NEVER FAR AWAY.

The photo on the left is me being booked into the Franklin County jail for the hundredth time. If you would have caught me a day before that, you would have seen me on the corner of I-71 and Webber Rd., homeless and holding a sign that urged you to give me some money for my meth and heroin habit.

My entire life had been spent in and out of jails and prisons. I've lived inside some of the worst institutions that Ohio has to offer – places like Lucasville maximum security. In that photo, I was as dead on the inside as I looked on the outside. I had no desire to live. I mustered every ounce of self-preservation that I had left and went to treatment for the fourth time. I showed up at that treatment center with one pair of jeans, one pair of shoes, a t-shirt, and a desire to stop getting high.

The photo on the right is me today. I am a full-time student who is majoring in social work. I am a member at a gym called Iron Body Fitness that helped me tremendously early on. And I am employed as a case manager at the same treatment center that saved my life. I get to have the privilege of working with young men that are in the same situation that I was once in.

I have a beautiful fiancé, a child on the way, and we just moved into an even nicer place to call home. I am in the middle of converting it into a loving environment to raise our child and I am so excited. I am very active in a recovery fellowship in my community and I am not afraid to tell you that treatment and 12 step work gave me a life beyond my wildest dreams. If you have a family member who is in the same situation as I was in the left photo, I am here to serve as living proof that a change is possible. There are thousands of guys like me who are here, with open arms.

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Dear Mr. Bellamy.

You probably don't remember me but over a decade ago I was at your place and we ' had words' because you said my behaviour needed some attention and that I was a bit of a ' fuck up.'

After I left your hotel I gave it some long and serious thought as you were not the first one to speak to me about my manner and as arrogant as I was, this was not the first time and I thought I was in need of some work, so it took me a while, and I did as you suggested, I read the book ' CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD' and it really did change my view on things. The book changed my life John and I can see why it was such a smash best seller. Thank you John for your barking at me, it woke me up and got me reading and thanks for the book - brilliant stuff. My life is now one of order and simplicity - having left Brighton and moved to Cornwall where I have a small piece of land, a few tenants paying rent and other than that, life is calm.

Thanks John, you were a large part of why I changed - so thanks

Brian B.

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When an old lady was picked up and thrown into a parks lake by a live streamer ' presumably because he thought he might get lots of hits, what he was not prepared for was the reaction of other youths around him who immediately threw him - and all his camera gear into the lake and while helping the old lady out of the water and calling an ambulance, also called the cops on him and he was held by these kids until the police arrived and then handcuffed and arrested on multiple charges and with luck, he will go to jail and have to pay reparation to the old lady whose life he could well have ended.

She later met and thanked all the kids who helped her.

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A 'Live streamer' named Rylo Huncho recently shocked the world by messing with a gun and ending up accidentally shooting himself in the head, live streaming - dead on the spot.

Total accident BUT if and when you play with guns you MUST be prepared for the consequences.

His Mother is Crowdfunding to help pay for his funeral but in all honesty, I have bucket loads of sympathy for his Mother who has lost her son, but none at all for the pest who annoyed people with his stupid and dumb antics to get viewers and no sympathy for shooting himself dead by accident. Clearly it was an accident but you do NOT put a loaded gun to your head and pretend to pull the trigger on a gun with a hair trigger - as in this case, it went off.

Now :- People say that guns shoot and kill people when a gun does nothing at all but sit there looking menacing. People shoot people, not guns, so stop blaming the guns. This foolish lad shot himself with a gun that was not meant for such an act of self harm. He was showing off. He was being a fool he was trying to show what a big man he was and how massive his audience 'on line' is ( was ) and how many followed him - and now he is dead and the mass of people will be shocked and within minutes will move onto the next live streamer doing equally as dumb things 'on line' and his name will be forgotten within such a short time - and it will be as if his life was lost for nothing at all. No awards after his death. No well written and much loved obituary - no mas of followers at his funeral - nothing - and 'on line' usually means a lot of lonely people who have no real friends in the real world and believe that these people are true friends and they are not, they are complete strangers who only know you 'on line' and once you stop producing- will forget you in an instant. Internet fame can destroy as well as make you, but it is also a means for lonely people to have a fake life in their bedroom and they need to get off line and go out and meet some real live living people who want and fart and breath and who LIVE outside of the camera and the screen adulation they clearly desperately seek real friends on many levels.

This is such a waste of a young life but then, it was at his own hands, so no real sympathy.

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