Rise Above with Kevin Lanning
Join Kevin Lanning, a former Google executive in sobriety, as he shares inspiring stories of resilience. Each episode features individuals who have faced life’s toughest challenges—addiction, trauma, anxiety, and more—and emerged stronger. These conversations aren’t just about survival; they’re about thriving and finding practical solutions to rise above adversity. Kevin’s own journey through addiction and childhood trauma fuels his passion for sharing stories that uplift, educate, and inspire.
Episodes
I Played In The NBA With LeBron...Then Lost It All To Addiction | How Delonte West Found Sobriety
Delonte West lived a dream millions of kids chase — a standout at Saint Joseph's, drafted into the NBA at 21, and years in the league alongside legends like Paul Pierce, Gary Payton, and LeBron James. He was, by his own description, sheltered inside the business of professional sports, growing as a player while the rest of life stayed on pause.
When the game ended, everything he'd built his ident
I Tried Out For The NFL While Secretly Smoking Crack
Jerod Thomas grew up in what he calls a "house of horrors" — two alcoholic parents, a father who drank a fifth of vodka a day and turned violent, and weekends spent walking on eggshells. He was dyslexic in an era when no one caught it until his second year of eighth grade, bullied relentlessly, and told by his own father that if he didn't learn to fight, he couldn't stay in the house. Football bec
I Survived Jeffrey Epstein And Numbed The Pain With Xanax And Alcohol | 6 Years Sober
Marina Lacerda is a survivor, an advocate, and a mother who spent most of her life carrying pain she was told to keep quiet. Now 6.5 years sober and one year into publicly breaking her silence, she sat down with Kevin to talk about all of it.
Marina was born in Brazil and raised largely in New York. From around the age of nine, she was sexually abused by her stepfather — abuse that continued for
I Was A Police Officer Secretly Addicted To Meth On The Job
Bob Zbikowski wanted to be one thing his whole life: a cop, like his dad. He got there — nearly two decades in law enforcement, including years as a K-9 handler. From the outside he was living his dream. Underneath, he was a first responder carrying the weight of thousands of traumatic scenes with no healthy way to put it down, and a brain wired for addiction he didn't yet understand.
Bob is open
I Almost Drank Myself To Death — And My Wife Watched It All Happen
This one is different. Addiction is a family disease — it doesn't just happen to the addict, it happens to everyone who loves them. So in this episode, you'll hear both sides. First from Brandon, who nearly lost his life to it — and then from his wife Katelyn, who lived every moment of it beside him.
Brandon Cheek looked like he had it all — a successful business, a family, a life built with his
This Rehab Will Blow You Away | Inside Caron Treatment Centers In Delray Beach
One of the biggest fears I had before going to treatment — all five times — was the unknown. What is it actually like inside? Will I be comfortable? Will they get to the root of what's really going on? So in this vlog, I'm taking you behind the doors of a rehab to show you exactly what it's like.
I got a full tour of Caron's Keele Center in Delray Beach, Florida — one of their two inpatient facil
The Smoke Shop Told Me 7OH Was Natural — It Was A Legal Opioid
7-OH is one of the most talked-about drugs in the country right now — a concentrated kratom derivative sold legally at smoke shops and gas stations, often pitched as a natural remedy for pain. Isabella "Izzy" Saravi is a 26-year-old who got caught by it, and she's here to warn other young people what it actually does.
Izzy grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a chaotic home — her parents divorced
Dirty Heads Singer Jared Watson Reveals Addiction To Alcohol, Painkillers & Feel Free Kratom
Jared Watson is the frontman of the Dirty Heads — the voice behind songs millions of people have sung along to. He's also, in his own words, an alcoholic who spent more than a decade fighting to stay sober while the disease kept pulling him back.
Jared grew up in Southern California surf and skate culture, born in a beach apartment to "cool parents," raised in a world where everything — surfing,
I Went To Treatment 13 Times Before I Finally Got Sober
Tyler Bowers grew up in Pennsylvania with what looked, from the outside, like everything — a nice house with a pool, travel baseball, a mom who gave him whatever he needed. But underneath was a kid carrying guilt for his parents' divorce, a complicated relationship with a father who battled his own addiction, and an entitlement he now names as the core of his disease.
It started with weed, then a
I Overdosed On A Legal Drug From The Gas Station (7OH) And Woke Up In A Coma
7-OH is one of the most dangerous drugs almost nobody understands yet — a concentrated kratom derivative sold legally at gas stations and smoke shops, often marketed as a harmless supplement. Ian Crawford is here to tell you what it nearly cost him.
A surfer, lacrosse player, and Florida kid whose athletic future was derailed by concussions, Ian had moved through years of experimenting — weed, ps
I Was Shooting Heroin and No One Had Any Idea | 18 Years Sober
Justin Gurland grew up the oldest of four in a close, loving New Jersey family — family dinners every night, a dad who was a doctor and coached his teams, a childhood that looked idyllic from the outside. But Justin always felt a little different, a little black-sheep-ish, and from the very first time he drank at 13, he'd found the feeling he didn't know he was missing.
By college at the Universi
I Was Addicted To Heroin and Crack | My Body Was Shutting Down
Lauryn Boorstein grew up in the Poconos in a home full of chaos — a painful divorce, a father she loved who struggled with his own demons, and an autistic brother she appointed herself the protector of before she was old enough to protect anyone. She fell in love with the lifestyle — the fighting, the adrenaline, the not-caring — long before she understood she was an addict. By her early twenties,
I Was A Pro Boxer With An Eating Disorder That Almost Killed Me
Danny O'Connor was an Olympic-team boxer and professional fighter from Boston who spent ten years chasing a world championship. From the outside, he was elite, disciplined, relentless. What almost no one knew was that the same all-or-nothing drive that made him a champion was also fueling a secret, life-threatening eating disorder.
It started when he was a teenage wrestler, learning to manipulate
Why Getting Off Antidepressants Can Be Harder Than Heroin | Dr. Teralyn Sell
⚠️ The views in this episode are Dr. Teralyn Sell's professional opinions and personal experience. This conversation is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Never start, stop, or change a prescribed medication without consulting your doctor — stopping some medications suddenly can be dangerous.
Dr. Teralyn Sell is a psychotherapist and PhD with a background that spans maximum-
I Was A Harvard Student Secretly Addicted To Oxy And Xanax
On paper, Emma Gray had every advantage — a New York City upbringing, elite schools, a spot at Harvard, and eventually a six-year finance career. Underneath it, she was a person who, in her own words, couldn't sit with an uncomfortable feeling for more than a moment without needing to escape it.
Emma started with alcohol, which never agreed with her, and then found the thing that did: first weed,
I Got Addicted To A Legal Drug Called 7OH I Bought At The Smoke Shop
7-OH is one of the most talked-about drugs in the country right now — a concentrated kratom derivative sold legally at smoke shops and gas stations, marketed as a natural supplement. Bari Leigh is here to tell you what it actually did to her.
Bari's story starts long before 7-OH. A gifted athlete and touring singer-songwriter from a family that looked, for a while, like the American dream, she su
I Had A Degree And A Career While Secretly Addicted To Fentanyl
On paper, Ava Garcia was the kid who had it together — straight-A student, captain of the varsity basketball team, an artist, the responsible firstborn. Underneath it, she was raising herself in the chaos of two parents in active addiction, competing for attention with a younger brother who needed all of it, and by 13 she was already using. She sold Xanax to fund an opioid habit while keeping her
I Was A Drug Counselor Getting High On Fentanyl Between Sessions
From the outside, Laura Bonczek was the picture of success — a well-known family in her Connecticut town, a teacher mother, a father in long-term recovery, good grades, sports, and eventually a master's in social work. She built a career as a therapist and rose to clinical director of a substance abuse treatment facility. And the entire time, she was secretly living the exact disease she was being
I Was A Cornell Student Living In My Car Addicted To Adderall and Doing Sex Work
On paper, Tatum Love was thriving — a bright kid from New Hampshire who lived the all-American athletic life and went on to an Ivy League education at Cornell. Underneath it, she'd been fighting something since childhood: a family history of addiction and disordered eating that, after her parents' divorce, found somewhere to take hold.
Tatum's story is a powerful reminder that addiction doesn't c
How Do You Know If You're Really An Alcoholic? | Addiction Recovery Q&A
Back by popular demand — Karina Miesner (IG @karina.mies) returns for our second Q&A, where Kevin and Karina answer the questions the audience asks most in the comments. Two people with real long-term recovery talking honestly about the stuff people actually want to know.
In this episode they get into: how you know if you're actually an alcoholic or addict versus someone who just drinks too much,
I Was Shooting Meth And Fentanyl Living In My Car
Alexa Cunniff never really had a childhood. Raised like what she calls "a gypsy kid" — living in hotels and trucks, on the run from process servers, never setting foot in a classroom until sixth grade — she learned to read off an atlas and grew up around addiction on every side of her family. She was drinking and using by 12, in the clubs by 15, and chasing the "hard stuff" she'd heard glorified h
I Was Shooting Fentanyl On The Streets Of Kensington
From the outside, Cassidy Matone had it all together — a makeup artist and bikini bodybuilder from Long Island with her own business. Addiction doesn't discriminate. What started as a single Roxy a friend handed her "to help her sleep" turned into a full-blown opioid addiction, then counterfeit fentanyl pills, and eventually a needle.
Her story runs from the corporate office where a boss left a R
How My Recovery Podcast Ended Up On Paramount+ | Behind The Scenes Of Building It From Nothing
Come behind the scenes on one of the biggest weeks yet for Rise Above. We just launched our merch line — hoodies, sweatshirts, and hats — and every dollar from it goes right back into the podcast to keep spreading the message of hope.
I'm also pulling back the curtain on the business. Two years ago I started this thing not knowing if anyone would watch, and it's grown into something I never imagi
I Was Sold For Sex And Had No Say | Overcoming Sexual Trauma, An Eating Disorder & Getting Sober
Kelsey Daniels grew up poor in Connecticut, one of three kids, chasing an athletic scholarship as her whole identity and her only path out. She was molested at eight, sexually assaulted at sixteen, and — in the aftermath — slut-shamed by classmates and even her own family, until she quietly absorbed the belief that the abuse was somehow her fault.
That belief followed her to college, where a prof
I Started Shooting Heroin as a Teen | Robbing a Bank High on PCP, Prison and Getting Sober
Matt Handy was the oldest of ten kids, raised in a strict religious home in San Diego — and living a double life almost from the start. He smoked weed at 13 the night his youngest sibling was born, tried crack within a month, and was shooting heroin by 17. A felony arrest in high school slammed the door on his plan to become a lawyer, and from there his life accelerated into a world most people on
"When I Drank, I Couldn't Stop" | Binge Drinking, Blackouts & How I Finally Got Sober
From the outside, Allie Serea had it all together — good grades, a masters degree, a corporate job at a major company, an easy way with people, and a reputation as the fun party girl. On the inside, she describes crawling out of her skin, hating who she was, and feeling like an empty shell every Monday after another blacked-out weekend.
Allie was never a daily drinker. She was a high-functioning
I Was A Prison Guard Secretly Shooting Heroin | SWAT Raided My Trap House While I Was In Uniform
Andrew Gautreau grew up in a middle-class Louisiana family — a dad who built his own business and a mother who worked in child services, sometimes bringing him along as she pulled kids out of crack houses and placed them in foster care. He saw exactly what drugs did to families before he ever touched them. He went anyway.
It started with weed and ecstasy at high school parties, the first time he
I Was Homeless Shooting Fentanyl in Miami | Overdoses, Coma & How I Finally Got Sober
Jonah Fingerhood had a nearly perfect childhood in New Hampshire — until he was 16 and lost his older brother to substance abuse. A year later, a skateboarding accident and a compound fracture put a bottle of Percocet in his hands, and the pain of that grief, followed by his father's cancer diagnosis, finally had somewhere to go. He describes the first time he crushed and snorted a pill as the mom
Addicted To Roxys At 17 For 15 Years | How Suboxone Kept Me Stuck & How I Finally Got Sober
Chris Broby grew up in Sarasota, Florida, in a good middle-class home — hardworking parents who built a furniture business, no trauma, no abuse. But he always felt a little like the black sheep, a small kid looking for a way to fit in, and when alcohol showed up in his early teens it filled that space instantly. By his senior year of high school, a Roxy at a party made him feel, in his words, the
My Little Brother Is Still In Active Addiction | What Addiction Does To The Whole Family
Michaela DeGier grew up in a close, loving family just outside Cambridge, Ontario — high school sweetheart parents still together after decades, three tight-knit siblings, summers in the forest behind the house. Her little brother was the baby of the family: the uncle who'd sit at a tiny table and have tea parties with his two-year-old niece, present at every birthday and holiday.
Today he's in h
I Was A Cop Taking 55 Pills A Day
Mike Morgan spent 30 years in law enforcement — a decade of it working the most violent part of one of the most violent cities in America. On his very first shift, he saw two homicides in five hours. He describes a career of natural deaths, suicides, fatal car accidents, and children he couldn't save — and the armor he'd started building as a kid, growing up with a hypercritical, verbally abusive
I Grew Up In A Crack Addicted Household | What It Really Does To A Child
Indee Fields was four years old the first time she watched her mother hide from witches that weren't there. Her mom was smoking crack. By ten, Indee was the one running the household — bathing and feeding her younger siblings, breaking up the violence between her mother and stepfather, and calling the police when she was told to, onl
Ketamine Psychosis | My Ketamine Addiction Was Destroying My Organs | How I Got Sober
Sydney Steele was prescribed Ritalin at five years old, just as she was finishing preschool. From there came Concerta, Vyvanse, and Adderall — a stimulant cycle that ran nearly nonstop through her childhood, alongside psychiatric diagnoses she now believes were largely a reaction to the medication itself.
She made it through Syracuse as an illustration major with a real gift and a growing art bus
A Decade Long Addiction to Opioids | How I Broke the Chains and Got Clean & Sober
By June of 2017, Billy Rich had nothing left in his own eyes. A decade into opioid addiction, isolated in a blacked-out bedroom in Rhode Island, cut off from his family, grieving his father, buried under legal fear and a mental state he describes as beyond anything he'd known — he had decided he was done. He didn't see a recovery option. He didn't think there was a way out.
He survived that night
What Leads Someone To Plan a School Shooting?...The Early Warning Signs Everyone Missed
⚠️ This episode is presented for educational and prevention purposes only. In 2018, Brendan Vaughan was arrested for making terroristic threats against his high school. We sat down with him — and previously with the detective who arrested him — not to sensationalize what happened, but to understand the early warning signs that might help someone intervene before a young person reaches that point.
She Sold Her Body For Heroin & Crack, Totaled 7 Cars & Had 5 Arrests In A Month | Now 5 Years Sober
Brittany Logan grew up an only child split between two households — her mother's world of structure and discipline, and her alcoholic father's world of no rules and chaos. By 15 she was drinking before class and never wanted to stop. She got kicked out of art school, was arrested five times in a single month, and moved from blues to Oxys to heroin — a drug she says she first heard glamorized insid
I Drank a Bottle For 700 Straight Days and Lost Everything | How I Finally Got Sober
Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers
My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron.
If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance
I Was Buying Kratom At The Gas Station Every Morning Just To Function....It Destroyed Me
Matt Von Boecklin grew up outside Seattle, raised by a single mother after his father suffered a mental break when Matt was a toddler and had to be cared for in a home. A socially anxious kid always reaching for the edge of the cool crowd, Matt found early that alcohol quieted that feeling — and years later, a motorcycle accident introduced him to opiates and opened a door he says was impossible t
My Heart Stopped From A Fentanyl Overdose & I Woke Up From A Coma Having To Learn To Walk Again
If you caught Brenda Zane's episode a few months ago — the mother who shared the harrowing story of her son's addiction and near-death — this is that son. Enzo is here to tell it from the inside.
Enzo grew up in Seattle with two loving, supportive parents and a natural entrepreneurial streak, running little candy schemes and haircut businesses as a kid. But a fascination with the "forbidden" turn
I Was Spending $300 A Day On 7OH....Legal Gas Station Hero!n
Nick Thornton grew up outside Portland, Maine, raised by his grandparents after his mother's addiction pulled her out of his life. He was warned early that with both parents struggling, he could never drink — a warning he took as a challenge. By 14 he was drinking and smoking weed daily, and from the very first time, he always went harder than everyone around him.
What followed was a decade-plus
I Was Doing Cocaine Every Single Day For 3 Years & Had A Seizure At My Desk....and I Kept Using
From the outside Gregg looked like he had it handled — a family, a career, a wife he'd known since middle school. Underneath it he was doing cocaine every single day, and had been for years. He'll tell you he never fit the picture of what people imagine an addict looks like. He wasn't running around wired; cocaine actually quieted the chaos in his head, turned down the noise, and let him not feel.
He Was Drinking Every Day & Ready To Give Up | The One Thing That Gave Him Hope
Pete Kuc was living a life that looked like the movies. A young real estate hotshot in northeast Florida, he was making a fortune, flying on private jets to the Bahamas, entertaining high-end clients on the waterfront, and running on Adderall and alcohol to keep the whole machine going. He describes it as his own Wolf of Wall Street era — money, parties, and the feeling that as long as he was perf
From Cooking Meth at 19 to Finding Sobriety | Colton's Recovery Story
Colton's addiction began long before adulthood. By 17, he was injecting drugs. Before turning 20, he was cooking meth, living in violent drug houses, escaping juvenile detention, and eventually serving time in prison. He shares stories of psychosis, crime, near-death experiences, and the devastating reality of meth addiction.Today, nearly two years sober, Colton has transformed his life. He helps
He Went From Princeton & Harvard Law To Shooting Heroin On Skid Row
Damon Watson did everything right. Harvard-Westlake prep school. Princeton, where he was a national debate champion. Harvard Law School. A career as an intellectual property litigator at Latham & Watkins, one of the biggest law firms in Los Angeles. On paper, his life was the American dream.
Then five people close to him died in six years — his mom, his dad, his grandmother and more. His marriage
Prescribed Xanax at 14: How Addiction Led to 8 Arrests, Jail & Recovery
Haley Ragsdale grew up outside Nashville in the wealthy town of Franklin, a scared kid with crippling anxiety, insomnia, and a phobia of vomiting so severe it ruled her entire childhood. When her parents' divorce detonated — a five-year court battle that pulled her out of class for abuse checks and had her father legally removed from the home — the chaos swallowed the whole family.
She found her
Addicted To Oxycodone At 15... Heroin On The Streets By 20
Clint Pitre was raised by his grandparents in Deltona, Florida, a Jehovah's Witness household where he always felt like something was off. By middle school he was smoking weed and drinking at the skate park. At 15 he took his first Oxycodone at a house party and knew instantly he wanted to feel that way for the rest of his life. By junior year he was so dependent that his own grandmother had to ha
I Was A Pastor Secretly Addicted To Sex & Affairs While Preaching Every Sunday
Jason Lyles was adopted at 14 days old and raised in a strict Southern Baptist home. He read the Bible cover to cover by age eight and felt called to ministry. He also found pornography at ten or eleven, and from that moment he was chasing something he couldn't name — convinced each time that the next thing would finally fix him. Marriage at 19 would fix it. Giving his life to God would fix it. Bu
The Dark Reality of Alcoholism | My Battle with Alcohol Addiction, Blacking Out & Horrific Detoxes
Laura Tomana appeared to have it all—a successful career, a thriving social life, and a bright future. Behind closed doors, however, alcohol had taken over her life.What began as partying evolved into blackouts, drinking around the clock, and eventually becoming physically dependent on alcohol.
After losing her mother to cancer, Laura made a promise to stay sober—but grief, addiction, and despai
I Went From The MVP Quarterback to Shooting Heroin | How I Found Sobriety and Changed My Life
Tommy Lyons grew up between Brooklyn and Staten Island, a fearful, introverted kid with a nervous disposition who found that drugs made him feel like he could finally talk to anyone. He was smoking weed at ten, doing Xanax by thirteen, and a borderline cocaine addict by fourteen — funding it by stealing and robbing before he was even old enough to drive.
He became the MVP quarterback of his high
A Surgery Led To My Painkiller Addiction | What My Life Looks Like 8.5 Years Sober | Vlog Ep. 3
Rise Above | Vlog Episode 3
A routine shoulder surgery is where my painkiller addiction began. This is what my life looks like 8.5 years sober.
In this vlog I'm taking you through a real day in my life and the things that keep me grounded. We start at Tequesta Biomechanics where I train with Jessica, working on decompressing my lower back, recovering mobility in the shoulder that started it all,
A Heroin Addict's BRUTAL Lifestyle | Losing My Arm, Arrests and How I Found Sobriety
Mike Debany was a fast-talking sales guy living what looked like the good life in South Florida — a fiancée, a baby on the way, money in the bank. Underneath it he was already an addict, having found his way from marijuana to the pill mills of South Florida, where a doctor in a parking lot would hand out 180 Xanax and 90 Roxys to anyone who waited long enough.
Then on October 18, 2010, everything
I Lost My Job, My Wife & My Son To Alcohol & Oxycodone
From the outside Nick Johnsson had it all. Born in Sweden, educated in Australia, and based in Southeast Asia, he spent a decade climbing the corporate ladder until he was the general manager of 72 hospitals and clinics across Indonesia — one of the biggest roles of its kind in the world.
And he was quietly falling apart behind the closed door of his corner office.
Every promotion made him lonel
I Was A High-Functioning Drinker Who Hid It All | Losing My Mom, My Marriage & My Hair
From the outside Christie Green looked like she had it all together. A successful career, a wide circle of friends, the person who sent the thank-you cards and remembered everyone's birthday. Nobody saw the high-functioning drinking underneath, or the grief, divorce and decades of quiet pain she was masking with it.
Christie lost her hair to alopecia as a child and spent years building humor and
I Was Drinking A Handle Of Vodka A Day & Making $50K A Month Online At 18 | Getting Sober At 21
Makenzie Raine had her first panic attack at seven. She never felt comfortable in her own skin....paralyzing anxiety, constant fear, neurodivergence nobody ever addressed. Then at 12 her parents let her have a drink hoping to take the mystery out of alcohol. That same night she snuck out, finished the bottle alone and got obliterated. She describes that first drink as coming up for air for the fir
She Started Smoking Meth At 15 | From 20 Years Homeless & Prostituting Women To 7 Years Sober
Betty Guadagno was born into a long line of addicts — poverty, chaos, eviction notices in red envelopes, and sexual trauma she carried as a small child. By 11 she was mixing drinks behind a stranger's bar. By 15 she was smoking methamphetamine. And for the next 20 years drugs were the only thing that made her feel powerful, beautiful and safe.
By the end she was a homeless meth addict who had los
"I Was Cut In Half On Impact" | Pronounced Dead 3 Times, A 3.5 Week Coma & I Performed Surgery On Myself
Jerry Lucey beat opioid addiction in 2018. Then in 2020 a motorcycle accident cut his body open from his heel to his chest. He was pronounced dead three times. He spent three and a half weeks in a coma and had a near-death experience he still can't fully explain.
In this follow up episode Jerry reveals what wasn't covered the first time — going septic during recovery and nearly dying again, over
I Drank a Liter & a Half Of Vodka Every Night & Still Told Myself I Didn't Have A Problem
Matthew Polimeno was six years old when he climbed into his mother's bed and woke up next to her body. She had gotten sober through AA. Then a car accident led to an OxyContin prescription. And then she was gone.
Growing up without her Matthew watched his father hold everything together while carrying a grief nobody talked about. He went to AA meetings as a kid without understanding why. And then
I Was Drinking So Hard I Couldn't Get Out Of Bed | From $100K A Week Steroid Empire To Prison
Ryan Root was a skinny kid from upstate New York who got picked up by girls at 13 and couldn't grow facial hair at 28. Doctors dismissed him. So he went to the black market for testosterone at 23 — and his life changed overnight.
He put on 32 pounds of muscle in weeks. His confidence exploded. His ambition came back. And then he discovered he had a gift for business.
What started as trying to ma
I Shot Fentanyl Until I Was Completely Unconscious | Jail, Losing My Daughter & How I Finally Got Sober
Brittany Ellis grew up in a small town in South Georgia watching her parents drink & party. It wasn't until her oldest brother poured gasoline on a bonfire at 14 and burned his entire arm that everything changed. The doctors loaded him up with OxyContin. He brought it home. Her parents got hooked. And then Brittany did too.
What followed was 15 years of addiction that took her from pills to heroi
I Shot Heroin With USB Cords Tied To My Arm After 2 Tours In Afghanistan | 7 Years Sober
Johnny Schrey grew up in West Boca watching his two older brothers destroy their lives with drugs. He told himself he would never be like them. By 25 he was splitting Roxy 30s with his best friend because they couldn't scrape together $10 for one pill between them. So they joined the Marine Corps..
He detoxed off opioids in boot camp. Got a DUI his first night back from engineering school. Deploy
I Found Out I Was Adopted At 13, Got My First DUI At 18 & Did 4 Months In Jail | 3.5 Years Sober
Rise Above | Adam Vohra's Story
Adam Vohra grew up in Connecticut ....a kid of color in a Jewish day school who always felt different. At 13 he found out why. He and his sister had been adopted. Nobody had told them. And six months later he had his first drink.
What followed was 15 years of DUIs, gambling debts with drug dealers, dropping out of college, four months in a Connecticut jail, and re
I Blacked Out Every Night While Running The San Francisco Bureau of HuffPost | Highrise Suicide Attempt and How I Got Sober
Carly Schwartz had a career most journalists only dream about. Running the San Francisco Bureau of HuffPost at 26. On the leadership team of one of the biggest news organizations in the world. Blogging for a governor who became California's Governor. Expense accounts, concerts, restaurant openings and a life that looked absolutely electric from the outside.
And she was going to bed every night wi
I Drank A Bottle Of Scotch Every Night | From Alcoholic Depression to 39 Years Sober | Suebelle Robbins
Suebelle Robbins had a life that looked like a movie. Playboy Bunny by night, first grade teacher by day. Travel escort taking groups to Hawaii and Switzerland. Corporate wife living on Gulfstream jets. Beautiful homes, European vacations and everything money could buy.
And she was miserable every single minute of it.
Every morning started with a bong. Every afternoon she switched to Scotch. She
Inside A Chicago Street Junkie's 20-Year Spiral | 3 DUIs, Heroin, Cook County Jail & Finding God
Mike Supak was a Division 1 track athlete. He never touched a drop of alcohol in four years of high school. He was structured, dedicated, trustworthy — the model kid.
Then he discovered alcohol the summer before college and everything changed immediately.
What followed was 20 years of cocaine, heroin, DUIs, overdoses, jail, and a slow death that nobody around him could stop. He got his second an
I Was Taking 10 Xanax Bars A Night At 17, Stabbed A Woman At 37 Weeks Pregnant & Sat On A Sidewalk Ready To Die | 11 Years Sober
Crystal Meliea grew up alone on 183 acres of North Carolina mountain property with a narcissist mother who left her unsupervised with music industry men in Los Angeles at 16. No protection. No parents. Just a bottle of Xanax she found in her mother's purse that made everything quiet for the first time in her life.
By 19 she was running marijuana from Mexico to Texas to North Carolina on a massive
I Made My First Million On Wall Street At 28 & Was Broke & Addicted To Opiates By 30
TJ DelVecchio was a Division 1 baseball player at Providence College who walked onto Wall Street during the dot-com boom and made his first million dollars by 28. By 30 he was broke, $300,000 in debt, unloading boxes at FedEx in the middle of the night just to keep health insurance for his kids — and quietly becoming addicted to opioids.
For years he held it all together on the outside. Wall Stre
Inside A Functioning Mom's Secret Alcoholism | My 30-Year Battle With Alcoholism
Kyle Garges had everything — a loving husband, a beautiful daughter, a career in advertising sales, and a life that looked perfectly put together from the outside.
But behind closed doors she was hiding alcohol in her daughter's Stanley Cup. She was drinking through blackouts, through rehab, through aversion therapy in Seattle where they made her chug vodka until she vomited. She drank through he
7-OH Pills Destroyed My Life | The SHOCKING Truth About 7-Hydroxymitragynine Addiction
You can buy it at a gas station. It's sold next to energy drinks and lottery tickets. And it almost destroyed Matt Dean's life.
Matt Dean had already been through the pill mill era in Florida, cold turkey detoxed off 50-60 Percocet a day, built a career in real estate, and gotten sober from alcohol — twice. Then his little brother died of an overdose. And a well-meaning smoke shop employee handed
I Was Held Hostage By The Cartel In Mexico | Inside A College Addict's Spiral
John Luedke had it all on paper — a scholarship to Michigan State, a successful father, a big house, and every material thing a kid could want. But underneath it all, he was drowning. His parents' affair and messy seven-year divorce left him as the emotional middleman between two broken people. He got cut from the basketball team. He lost his identity. And he spent the next decade eating, drinking
I Was A Teacher With Two DUIs | 30 Years of Alcoholism & Finding Sobriety
Elisa Nicole Saunders was a Palm Beach County schoolteacher, standing in front of classrooms every day — and quietly drinking and drugging her way through 30 years of addiction. Two DUIs. A five-car pile-up. Crashing drunk into a tow truck while two people had to run for their lives. Sitting in a jail cell staring at her wrist, wondering how it got this bad.
She never wanted to get sober. A judge
I Was Ordering Fentanyl Off The Dark Web In College | Gambling, Xanax & How I Got Sober
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