Answer Addiction

Tag: reality TV stars

  • Jersey Shore's Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Breaks Silence On Rehab Stay

    Jersey Shore's Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Breaks Silence On Rehab Stay

    Ortiz-Magro said he decided to get help because to be a “better person, a better father for my daughter.”

    One of the original stars of Jersey Shore, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, revealed his battles with depression and alcohol addiction in an interview with Us Weekly on Tuesday. The 33-year-old reality TV celebrity spoke on his recent decision to enter rehab, motivated by his desire to be a good role model for his daughter.

    “I decided to go to treatment because I wanted to be a better person, a better father for my daughter,” Otiz-Magro said. “Eventually, all the bad decisions I was making were going to lead me to places that I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be led to the place that I am now – that’s happy, healthy and the best role model for my daughter.”

    Ortiz-Magro has a little girl, Ariana Sky Magro, with his on-again-off-again girlfriend Jen Harley. Around the new year entering 2019, the couple had a violent fight that ended in a bloody face for Ortiz-Magro. Us Weekly reported that a source described their relationship as volatile.

    In the interview, the reality star admitted to not being proud of many of the things he’s done over the years, that he was making the wrong decisions, and was “very depressed.” Going into addiction treatment, he described himself as depressed, angry, and “resentful to myself about a lot of things I’ve done over the last year, or even years.”

    Like many individuals involved in the fast-paced life of stardom, Ortiz-Magro developed problems with drinking over a period of years and found himself feeling increasingly out of control.

    “I think it’s a chronic disease. It’s a progressive disease. I’m still struggling,” he explained. “You stop and you start up again, and it’s worse than when you stopped. You’re just like, ‘Wow, I thought I had this under control,’ but at the end of the day, it has full control over you.”

    Ortiz-Magro is not the only person involved in the Jersey Shore franchise to face addiction. Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino spoke in 2018 about the drug use that led to some of his reckless behavior. In season four, Sorrentino landed himself in the hospital after intentionally slamming his head into a concrete wall that he thought was drywall.

    “For a couple of years, from season two on to five, I was really pushing the envelope on my behavior,” Sorrentino told The Asbury Park Press of New Jersey. “I was very wild, very careless, reckless.”

    He checked himself into rehab in 2012 in order to get treatment for his addiction to oxycodone. He has since married his college sweetheart and appears to be doing well.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Steve-O Talks Rock Bottom: My Addiction Was Desperate & Pathetic

    Steve-O Talks Rock Bottom: My Addiction Was Desperate & Pathetic

    The reality TV star discussed his rock bottom moment during an interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger.

    Steve-O did a lot of silly and dangerous stunts when he was staring on Jackass, but the former star says that his addiction put him at much greater risk. In a recent episode of In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Steve-O described his rock bottom. 

    “I’m in [my dealer’s] house and over at the table where he would weigh out all of his drugs, there was a very noticeable residue of cocaine,” Steve-O said, according to People. “And so I went over to the table to scrape up a pile of cocaine to snort it. But as I had sat down looking at it … you could see, like, the little tiny little blood splatter on the residue.”

    His dealer, he said, was known to have HIV. However, the risk of contracting the disease wasn’t enough to scare Steve-O off from using the drugs.

    “This is how just desperate and pathetic my addiction was that I sat there knowingly scraping up this tainted, like, blood cocaine. I sat there and snorted it, which is so f–d up,” he said. “I snorted the blood of an intravenous drug user.”

    On the episode, Steve-O, 43, also discussed the physical toll that Jackass took on him and how it still concerns him today. 

    He said, “I can count five times where I was hit in the head hard enough to actually like black out … That’s concerning to me. I mean especially where the one time I landed on my face on concrete off a second-floor balcony.” 

    He also made some loose safety demands on set, he said. 

    “I heard that getting kicked in the balls a lot like a lot of trauma to your testicles increases your chances for testicular cancer. Once I heard that, I decided to be like, it’s gotta be like a really special occasion if I’m gonna take a nut shot.”

    Steve-O posted on Twitter last March that he has been sober for a decade, thanks in part to the intervention from his friends and co-stars. 

    “Hard to believe it’s been an entire decade since I’ve had a drink or a drug. I just can’t put into words how grateful I am for @realjknoxville and the rest of the guys who locked me up in a psychiatric ward on March 9, 2008, where this journey began. Thank you, dudes, I love you,” he wrote. 

    Now, he’s trying to do the same for former colleague Bam Margera, who recently reentered rehab after a relapse that Steve-O saw coming. 

    “I mean, I don’t know. And I don’t want him to [feel like] I’m attacking him or calling him out, I just think that there were signs that, if he hadn’t already drank, it was evident that he was going to,” Steve-O said. “The signs were there. I think if you’re a sober alcoholic that you kind of can tell.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Bam Margera Enters Rehab For The Third Time

    Bam Margera Enters Rehab For The Third Time

    Margaret’s last went to rehab in early 2018 after a DUI arrest in California.

    Former Jackass star Bam Margera is going to rehab for alcoholism again, just as he did this time last year after being arrested for a DUI. 

    “Off to alcohol rehab for the 3rd time. I am hoping the term 3rd time is a charm is true,” Margera wrote on his Instagram account on Tuesday (Jan. 1).

    Last year, Margera also went to rehab in January after he was arrested for DUI in California. He received three months of probation for the charge. In August, Margera explained what happened when he was arrested. 

    “Last fall, I attended a surprise Jackass reunion at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Hollywood where, as you can imagine, the beers flowed all night,” he said. “Long story short, as I drove away from the party, not knowing where I was headed, I pulled over to try and figure it out. That’s when I noticed the police lights behind me. I was like, ‘Fuck, I’m pulled over.’ As it turned out, the police had actually pulled someone else over right behind me, and then came to my car to see why I was just sitting there. So yeah, I had the pleasure of getting a DUI that night that led to my being in a treatment center for a month.”

    After completing rehab Margera was reportedly sober for seven months until he was robbed in a taxi in Colombia. Margera recounted the incident in a video. 

    “I just arrived in Cartagena alone and I took a taxi, a random one, from the airport to here and I wouldn’t speak Spanish, they couldn’t speak English, and they translated on their phone to read ‘empty your wallet’ as they put a gun on their lap to show it to me. So I did and I had 500 bucks. They let me go. Welcome to Colombia.”

    At the end he’s seen cracking a beer. However, former colleague Steve-O said that he’s skeptical that Margera was sober until the robbery. 

    “I mean, I don’t know. And I don’t want him to [feel like] I’m attacking him or calling him out, I just think that there were signs that, if he hadn’t already drank, it was evident that he was going to,” Steve-O said. “The signs were there. I think if you’re a sober alcoholic that you kind of can tell.”

    Steve-O said there were signs that Margera wasn’t committed to a sober lifestyle. 

    “When people are on the path, sort of doing the things that sober people do, it’s evident,” he said. “It’s evident that he’s not been ready or willing to do the simple things that sober people do that make our lives really great. It’s sad, and I wish that I could somehow force him to want to do these things and get healthy and have a great life, but it doesn’t work that way. You can’t push people into it.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Real Housewives" Luann de Lesseps Takes Sobriety "Day By Day"

    "Real Housewives" Luann de Lesseps Takes Sobriety "Day By Day"

    “Rehab saved my life. It was the best thing that I could do for myself and I’m so glad I did that,”Real Housewives of New York City’s Luann de Lesseps said in a recent interview.

    Real Housewives of New York City’s Luann de Lesseps is more than 120 days sober and says she is taking her recovery one day at a time after a rocky year that involved two stints in rehab. 

    “It’s not easy, but I take it day by day,” the 53-year-old reality star explained. “I feel so much better and happier without it, so it works for me.”

    Last December, de Lesseps was arrested on New Year’s Eve for being drunk and disorderly. She pleaded guilty to the charge and had to attend two AA meetings a week as part of her plea deal. Shortly after that, she checked into rehab after realizing that her drinking had gotten out of control.

    “I had two or three [martinis], then I think two bottles of rosé wine by myself, and then I probably had a six-pack of beer or something,” de Lesseps said. “I was dancing in my kitchen with a bikini on.”

    Initially, she was successful in recovery. 

    “At this point in my life, I don’t want to drink, nor do I have interest in drinking,” she told Extra in April. “Rehab saved my life. It was the best thing that I could do for myself and I’m so glad I did that.”

    In July she posted that she was celebrating six months of sobriety by spending Independence Day with her family, with whom she has a fraught relationship. However, shortly after that she checked into rehab again. 

    Still, de Lesseps didn’t shy away from her struggles during a recent conversation with Fox News. 

    “It’s something that happened very publicly to me, so it wasn’t easy going through,” she said, adding that she hopes other people who are struggling with alcoholism will see her story and know that they can get help — even when things don’t quite go as planned. 

    “I think it’s important for people to see that even if everything implodes, you can pick yourself up,” she said. “For me, it was getting on the cabaret stage, and then, of course, filming another season of the show.”

    de Lesseps is able to continue filming, even though her co-stars still drink. 

    “The girls are very supportive of my sobriety and I’m able to do the new season without too many problems,” she said. She doesn’t expect others to change their drinking habits to accommodate her. 

    “That’s life in general,” she said. “It’s going to always be there. Temptation is always there. It’s up to me to not pick up and drink, but the girls have been very supportive of my sobriety, and that’s made it a lot easier for me.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Top Model" Alum Jael Strauss Promoted Sobriety Before Cancer Death

    "Top Model" Alum Jael Strauss Promoted Sobriety Before Cancer Death

    Jael Strauss, an advocate for recovery and sobriety, passed away from breast cancer earlier this month.

    Former America’s Next Top Model contestant Jael Strauss, who had been candid about her recovery from meth addiction and her sobriety, died on Tuesday, nearly two months after she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. 

    On Oct. 4, Strauss announced her diagnosis in a Facebook post. 

    “On October 2nd I was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. It has aggressively spread throughout my body and is incurable. With treatment it may prolong my life longer than the ‘few months’ doctors said I could make it,” she wrote. “I don’t want to die. I need another one of those miracles that I got back in 2013.”

    The 2013 miracle was her recovery from meth addiction. In August she posted on Instagram celebrating five years of sobriety.

    “Today I have 5 years sober,” she wrote. “Good God! I know a few things to be true: Miracles are real, Recovery is possible for everyone no matter how far gone you think you are, We are never too broken to be put back together, Service work feels better than the greatest high, Sobriety makes you weirder not normal and I’d be dead if it weren’t for all the love and forgiveness I’ve been showered with by my friends and family.”

    After getting sober, Strauss dove into supporting other people in recovery, volunteering with the Solstice Recovery Foundation in Texas, according to TMZ. She often organized fundraisers for people who could not afford treatment, an effort that was returned this fall when people from her recovery community organized a fundraiser to help Strauss cover the cost of her treatments. 

    Strauss appeared on America’s Next Top Model in 2007. Following her stint on the show, she became addicted to meth. In 2012, she appeared on The Dr. Phil Show as part of an intervention, which she later said was exploitative. 

    “First of all, I was interventioned, meaning I did not have a choice. I do feel that The Dr. Phil Show exploited me and has done that to other people and their addictions,” she said in 2016. However, she said the silver lining was that her appearance on the show might have helped other people who were grappling with addiction. 

    “I have an inner conflict, because I know that my story has helped so many people. The number one important thing in my life is to help other people, so I wouldn’t change that, but it was not voluntary,” she said. 

    At the time, Strauss said she had found a lot of joy in sobriety. 

    “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life,” she said. “This journey was very unexpected. I’ve been sober for three years and three months now. Not a drink, not a pill, not a joint, not a line, nothing. It’s really amazing. It’s a huge miracle to still be breathing after what I was up to and I’m so grateful. Whatever path and twists and turns I had to take to get here, I don’t regret any of them.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Teen Mom" Star Leah Messer Reveals Past Addiction

    "Teen Mom" Star Leah Messer Reveals Past Addiction

    “It almost cost me my children. Everything was crashing down on me. I became suicidal,” Leah Messer said about her past addiction to pain medication.

    Reality television star Leah Messer spoke candidly about her past addiction to prescription drugs on an episode of her podcast.

    During a November 14 episode of her Life Reboot series, the Teen Mom 2 personality said that she understood “how it feels to become dependent on anything given by doctors,” and discussed how a botched epidural given during the birth of her second child led to a dependency on pain medication, which her ex-husband, Jeremy Calvert, said she received from her father, who was himself struggling with addiction.

    Messer, who also discussed a battle with depression that left her feeling suicidal in 2015, declared herself “in a much better place now” and feeling no shame for her past struggle.

    On the podcast, Messer said that while preparing to deliver her daughter, Adalynn, in 2013, she was given multiple injections during the epidural. “I couldn’t, like, feel my body,” she said. “I couldn’t get up and they just put me on morphine. I kept telling Jeremy, ‘Something’s not right.”

    Messer claimed that the hospital kept her for observation over the course of seven days, but never determined what the cause of her physical condition. She was eventually sent home with “three different drugs.” Calvert, who was a guest on the podcast, said that the post-hospital experience was “a nightmare.”

    “It was hell,” he explained. “She couldn’t move out of bed… it was just a messed up situation… and she was in pain.”

    Things became much worse when Messer’s father, who was himself addicted to pain medication and living with the couple, gave her pain medication. “It was easily available [to her] with him living in our basement.”

    Messer said that by this point, she was already dependent on pain meds. “Then they put me on Diazepam (the generic form of Valium), and it had me nodding off. I didn’t even know what it was!”

    Despite her struggle, Messer denied claims that she was struggling with dependency and depression. But in a 2018 episode of her podcast, she admitted that this period in her life was among her most difficult.

    “I wasn’t in the greatest place mentally, and then it was affecting me physically,” she said. “It almost cost me my children. Everything was crashing down on me. I became suicidal.”

    Messer would go on to complete a 30-day treatment program for depression and anxiety in 2015 and declared herself “in a much better place now.” She is also reluctant to give her children any prescription medication.

    “We do the numbing gel (for pain) and that’s it,” she said. “I don’t want them to become dependent on or even go through that. I do know how it feels to become dependent on anything given by doctors.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Teen Mom’s Butch Baltierra Is One Year Sober

    Teen Mom’s Butch Baltierra Is One Year Sober

    “I had 365 days clean yesterday but I just want to tell you it’s not all that easy, and it ain’t all that hard.” 

    For as long as the cameras have been rolling, fans of MTV’s Teen Mom series have watched Butch Baltierra struggle with his sobriety. Butch is the father of Tyler Baltierra, who stars on the show with his wife Catelynn. 

    This week, the elder Baltierra took to Instagram to share that is he one-year sober. 

    On Nov. 15, Baltierra posted a screenshot from a sobriety tracker, showing that he had 366 days sober with the caption #IDOSTRUGGLE. Then, he posted a video talking about his first year of sobriety. 

    “I had 365 days clean yesterday,” Butch shared. “I didn’t post anything because I was pretty busy, but I just want to tell you it’s not all that easy, and it ain’t all that hard. Am I struggling? Yeah. I struggle. I struggle every day. I struggle every day that I don’t work a program or I keep in communication with my sponsor or follow direction. I struggle. Do I have obsessions? Yes, I do. Yes, I think about smoking marijuana, I think about drinking every now and then. I’m not a big drinker, but I been thinking about it. But it’s not all that easy, but I know it’s easy when you work a program… That’s all I wanted to say.”

    Viewers first got to know Baltierra and his family when Catelynn and Tyler appeared on a 2009 episode of 16 and Pregnant. The couple soon became fan favorites. They talked about how having unstable parents—including Butch who was living with addiction—caused them to want better for their daughter.

    Since then, Butch’s sobriety continued to be a secondary storyline as Catelynn and Tyler appeared on Teen Mom and Teen Mom OG.

    Butch has been in and out of prison and battling to stay sober. Last January, Tyler talked about wanting to send his dad to rehab, according to Radar Online, even though Butch claims to have been sober at that time, according to his social media posts. 

    In one episode, Tyler talked to Catelynn about the hurt that his father’s addiction has caused him, and about the importance of maintaining healthy boundaries. 

    “I think I’ve just come to the conclusion that I’m always going to feel angry about it,” he said. “When I was younger, I used to like calling him a crackhead. I used to like seeing him [get] angry about that. You can’t help it. You just get angry and you remove yourself from the situation. We know what’s going on here. We’re in control of what’s happening in our environment.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How The Situation's Wife Helped During His Journey To Sobriety

    How The Situation's Wife Helped During His Journey To Sobriety

    “She’s definitely my better half and the reason why I strive to be the best version of myself and to fight for our future,” the reality star says.

    With the popularity of Jersey Shore, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino has become a reality TV fixture. He battled a painkiller addiction in the public eye, and now he is a recovery advocate, speaking candidly about his own experience.

    Now Sorrentino’s wife, Lauren Pesce, has been credited with helping Sorrentino stay sober, even as he’s preparing to serve an eight-month jail sentence for tax evasion, which is set to begin on January 15.

    As People reports, Sorrentino and Pesce met in junior college and dated for about four years. The couple took a break from each other during the Jersey Shore heyday, then got back together once the show had ended.

    Pesce has had to endure a lot as Sorrentino’s significant other, including witnessing his fight for sobriety. Having battled an addiction to painkillers, Sorrentino is reportedly nearly three years sober after two visits to rehab—the first in 2012 and the second in 2015.

    As a practicing Catholic, Pesce said she relied on her faith when Sorrentino needed help.  

    “It’s not so much just going to church,” she says. “It’s finding my belief, that God has a reason for everything, and knowing you’re able to overcome anything as long as you have your faith and trust in God. That’s what I did, and Mike really came into that as well and found his own spirituality.”

    Pesce adds, “What I dreamed of, the expectations I had set for him, him getting healthy and sober—I didn’t know that our relationship would survive had those miracles not happened, and they did. He put in the hard work and thanks to the faith in God that we have, we’re in the position we’re in today.”

    Sorrentino called Pesce “my better half and the reason why I strive to be the best version of myself and to fight for our future.” Sorrentino also wants to be “a good example to her, her family and everyone watching—because my life has been under a microscope. I have a lot to prove.”

    Right before Jersey Shore returned to MTV in April, Sorrentino hit a 28-month sober milestone the month before.

    He told Entertainment Tonight, “I’m very proud, it’s one of my finest accomplishments and it was a huge challenge. It’s a ‘one day at a time’ thing and [I’m] just showing people that it’s very possible.”

    Sorrentino also showed off his two-year Narcotics Anonymous medallion in an Instagram post: “28 months clean and sober. We do recover.” 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Alaskan Bush People" Star Matt Brown Returns To Rehab

    "Alaskan Bush People" Star Matt Brown Returns To Rehab

    “We miss him terribly, but we’d rather lose him from home for a little while than lose him forever,” says Matt’s father, Billy.

    Matt Brown, a star on the popular Discovery channel reality show, Alaskan Bush People, has entered rehab for alcoholism for the second time.

    “I struggle with substance abuse, and after a year of ups and downs, I decided to return to treatment,” Brown told People for the upcoming print issue. “I’m really grateful for everyone’s support and hope to have my life back on track soon.”

    Making a public announcement with People magazine for a second trip to rehab (his first was in 2016) is a strangely hopeful sign for America’s struggle with addiction. The social stigma of addiction is fading, as it is better and more widely understood that addiction is a disease—one that often includes “relapse as part of recovery,” as is frequently said in Alcoholics Anonymous.

    After his first experience in rehab, Juneau Empire spoke to Brown’s mother Ami about their family lineage. “I come from a family of alcoholism. My father was an alcoholic and it tore our family apart. Watching these things as a child, you learn from it. That is the reason why I don’t let them know where, physically, I am.”

    The Brown family had been hit with a serious stressor, as Matt Brown’s mother Ami was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. She has since been declared cancer-free and undergoes frequent testing to monitor her health. Struggling with multiple moves around the country can also put undo pressure on a family.

    After his first stint in rehab, Brown chose to drink in moderation but in the last year, he found that his drinking was becoming increasingly problematic so he chose to enter rehab again. While the family history of alcoholism put Brown at higher risk for addiction, his family’s support gives him a better chance at successful sobriety.

    His mother Ami supports this decision. “It’s hard not having one of my babies here with us,” she told People magazine. “He was so strong for me, and I want to be strong for him.”

    Brown’s father Billy agrees. “We miss him terribly, but we’d rather lose him from home for a little while than lose him forever. We just want him to do what he needs to do to get better.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Steve-O Celebrates A Decade Of Sobriety In A Unique Way

    Steve-O Celebrates A Decade Of Sobriety In A Unique Way

    “I really can’t believe how far I’ve come on this journey of life,” the reality star tweeted.

    Steve-O celebrated his 10-year sober milestone by competing in his first triathlon.

    As Runner’s World reports, the Jackass alum participated in the 32nd annual Nautica Malibu Triathlon, which raises money for children’s cancer research. Alongside other stars like Joel McHale, Steve Howe and Jon Cryer, Steve-O (born Stephen Glover) did a half-mile swim, a four-mile beach run, and a 17-mile bike ride.

    Steve-O’s enthusiasm for the event was off the charts. “I really can’t believe how far I’ve come on this journey of life… I just got tenth place in my division at my first ever triathlon! Woohoo!!! (Full disclosure – my division was ‘men’s celebrity,’ but there were tons of celebrities, so I’m stoked!)” he tweeted after the race.

    Before getting sober years ago, Steve-O’s drugs of choice included cocaine, alcohol, ketamine, PCP and nitrous oxide.

    Earlier this year, Steve-O tweeted about his sobriety on the date his friends had him committed:

    “Hard to believe it’s been an entire decade since I’ve had a drink or a drug. I just can’t put into words how grateful I am for [Jackass star Johnny Knoxville] and the rest of the guys who locked me up in a psychiatric ward on March 9, 2008, where this journey began. Thank you, dudes, I love you.”

    Before he was committed, Steve-O sent out an alarming e-mail saying, “I’m ready to f—ing die.” He was then put on a 5150 hold on March 9, and later transferred to rehab. He vowed, “You can count on my staying nuts; it’s just the alcohol and drugs I’m trying to leave behind.”

    In his goodbye letter to drugs, he confessed, “It became frighteningly clear to me how lucky I am to still have any chance whatsoever at leading a happy, fulfilling and meaningful life. My luck will not last with continued use of alcohol and drugs that are not prescribed to me by doctors that are aware of my addictions.”

    In getting sober, Steve-O has embraced a much healthier lifestyle. He’s now a vegan, and on a mission to have his healthiest year in 2018.

    In a recent Instagram post, he wrote, “For my birthday this year, I decided to get in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I may be old, but I’m healthy as fuck!” 

    View the original article at thefix.com