Adam Wittbrodt is a personal trainer and recovery advocate. He grew up with an alcoholic father who walked out on his 12th birthday and died before Adam turned 19. Carrying grief Adam spent the next decade and a half burying under IV heroin, forged checks, and 8 felonies. One day he collapsed at the front desk where he worked after injecting what he thought was heroin. It was laced with fentanyl and cocaine. A hotel guest walked in at exactly the right moment and called 911. Three weeks into county jail after that, he heard himself tell his cellmate he was pissed that the paramedics had saved him. That was the break. He went through Midland County Recovery Court, then treatment at Harbor Hall in Petoskey. Sober June 22nd, 2016. He has 10 years, runs a personal training operation with 100+ clients, a fitness and recovery program inside the Midland County Juvenile Justice Center, and co-hosts the Level Up Life podcast.

I Used To Do Heroin At Work Now I'm 10 Years Sober w/ Adam Wittbrodt | The Hopeaholics Podcast #359

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0:00 — Intro
0:58 — Adam Wittbrodt
11:59 — Cigarettes at 13 to IV heroin
12:53 — First Vicodin prescription at 14
14:50 — "Maybe if I do what my dad did, I'll understand him"
16:34 — Dad dies; $10K in life insurance gone in a month
18:29 — First 90 days in jail at 21
21:06 — The Curry Hotel: 3 × 80mg Oxy loaded into one shot
23:24 — Conning doctors
25:08 — 23 months to 14 years
30:00 — Grandmother dying in the ICU
31:20 — Using laced Heroine at work
33:06 — It was fentanyl and cocaine: just hitting the market in 2016
33:52 — Survivor's remorse: "Why was I saved?"
35:42 — The ER should treat addiction like a diabetic emergency
52:32 — 7th and 8th felonies, $500K bond
1:03:23 — 10 years sober; 210 meetings in 210 days
1:14:37 — Building the personal training business
1:15:48 — The Rebuild Program
1:19:52 — 300 fentanyl deaths a day: why he thinks he was saved

At 18 Riley moved to LA, got into the adult entertainment industry, made fast money, found cocaine & alcohol, and ran that combination through her entire 20s. In 2023 she got pregnant but couldn't stop using. She missed 2 Christmases that she blamed on her daughter being sick when it was Riley being hungover. Riley's breaking point was being in closet at 4am doing coke, convinced there were people in her house that weren't there, called 911, the operator told her to get some sleep and hung up, and she grabbed her daughter and drove 80 miles an hour to her ex's parents' house to try and convince them they needed safety.


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Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!


Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics

Our Merch:
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

00:00 Intro
01:40 Riley Jensen
06:40 The family disease
08:32 Doing P*** at 18yo
14:14 First attempt at sobriety
16:23 Pregnant and couldn't stop
18:28 Post partum addiction
20:06 Going Into Psychosis
22:33 Walking into AA, 3 times a day, the first 60 days
31:55 First sober airplane and vacation
35:51 80-year-old sponsor
39:43 Dad chaired her first meeting
43:18 Breaking the cycle
56:24 "This is me. This is the real Erica."

Nate Block is a professional crisis de-escalation instructor with Jumpstart Mastery, traveling the country to train correctional departments and agencies on how to work with people in crisis. Nate dropped out of high school and spent the years that followed bouncing between apartments, bar shows, and eventually a college town he moved to chasing a girl, working odd jobs and drinking past the point where it felt like a choice, past the point where it was the only thing that made him feel like he was worth being alive. At 19 he made his first suicide attempt, and he'd make 3 more over the years that followed. Today Nate is 13 years sober and he's 60 days into "The Weight We Carry," a rucking challenge he built from scratch where he adds 1lb into a pack and runs a mile until he can't anymore; for 1 goal: to force men to talk about suicide.

Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:
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https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics

Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!

Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics

Our Merch:
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie


0:00:00 Intro
0:05:26 Oklahoma City bombing
0:08:48 "Childhood ends the moment you realize your own mortality"
0:14:16 Finding out he was adopted at 12
0:17:44 First drink at 13: punk rock and playing bars at 15
0:25:57 A friend is killed, dropout at 15
0:32:10 Drinking was the only thing that made me feel worthy
0:33:03 4 close call suicide attempts
0:36:29 "There is a big difference between reactive and premeditated"
0:38:05 "I heard a voice that wasn't mine"
0:46:09 1lb a day for men's suicide prevention
0:51:00 Men's suicide and the cost of being told to toughen up
0:53:50 Reasons to Stay: writing letters to people who are reaching out
0:54:13 You have no idea how good it can get
0:57:08 Firefighting
0:58:33 2 kids from his safety class didn't make it out
1:13:36 What he does now: crisis de-escalation, men's coaching
1:21:43 "Don't doubt the addicts"
1:23:04 Mama Bird pushes the babies out of the nest