More Life with Carl Radke - Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino on Hiding Addiction on ‘Jersey Shore’ and the Phone Call that Saved His Life

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino sits down with Carl to share the story behind the ‘Jersey Shore’ icon America thought it knew. Mike opens up about hiding a debilitating pill addiction on the biggest reality show in the country, the on-camera moments fans remember, and how he went from owning a vodka company to running Archangel Centers, his nationwide network of treatment facilities. Now nearly 11 years sober, Mike talks about redemption, fatherhood, fame, and why the comeback is greater than the setback. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Delivery fees may apply. Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets? Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different, locked in, loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it like it belongs to them. So when your brand shows up on Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo. So, are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify advertising. You're among fans. Hey guys, I'm Carl Radke and welcome to More Life. We've got a special, special episode today with Mike Sorentino. You know him as the situation.

I know him as the inspiration, the transformation. You know him from Jersey Shore, Jersey Shore Family Vacation. He's an author. He's a founder of Archangel Centers. He's also a father of three, a loving husband. I think you guys are going to love this conversation. I can't wait to talk to him. We're excited to dive in here at Soft Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

All right, let's get started. Mike Sorrentino, welcome to more life. It is an honor that you're here, man. I'm kind of low-key freaking out inside in the best way. I'm following you and watching you for a long time. Thank you, brother. I'm hyped. Thank you so much for having me.

When my team hit me up and they said that I was going on your podcast, I was super hyped. I've been watching you. I've been following you. You're a fellow sober brother. Congratulations on this beautiful soft bar. Thank you, bro. When you first did it, I was like, that is a good idea. Thank you.

I've been very fortunate to be in the position. I'm in where I started an alcohol company with my two best friends. Oh my God. Back in 2018, but being in an alcohol company and then getting sober was what opened my eyes to a lot. Oh my God. We have that in common as well because I used to be, I used to also own a vodka company, you know, early on in my career. And then I eventually sold it. And then now I'm now almost 11 year sober this year, right? My lucky 11. And I now own treatment centers. throughout the country. And that brand of treatment centers

is called the Archangel centers, which I'm just so in love. So from booze to centers. Yeah, so we have that in common, which is just amazing. I knew that we were going to have a fire podcast. Yes. But now I truly know it's definitely going to be amazing.

So thank you for having me. Of course. I appreciate you coming to Brooklyn. It's great to have Mike here. He's in the building. Of course, my podcast is called More Life, which is actually, Mike, something I used to say,

early seasons of Summer House. At the time, Drake had his album, More Life. Oh, shit. Okay. In my sobriety, it's become a saying that I kind of look at as taking advantage of your opportunities, living life to the fullest. For you, do you have something that is one of your favorite sayings

or something that you kind of embody? I embody the comeback is greater than a setback. My story, you know, my book is probably like Wolf of Wall Street but with a better ending. 10 years sober now? I'm 10, but I will be 11 this year. Congrats. Well, looking back, I mean, is it crazy to see yourself back on,

you know, how far you've come? I get tingles just thinking of my trajectory, because it's just, it's wild. You know, I used to be the biggest part of you're on TV, right? You know, I also had my own vodka company. I was essentially maybe even like the villain that you love to hate for a little bit. But that really wasn't me, you know. So, I mean, the situation that, you know, which was probably one of the most iconic characters

in the history of reality TV, which I was a big situation fan, always loved you. Yeah. You wear your heart on your sleeve, you were a big personality. I did, I did. You had a little more of a sensitivity and emotion. I did. And as someone who relates to that, I loved it. Yeah.

Was it hard like playing that character of the situation? No, it really was at that time when I was in my 20s. You know, I only knew one speed. And that was. So that was you. That was me. Yeah. Right.

But then when you added substances and you added alcohol and you added fame and you added money, it was gasoline to the flame. Was that happening a lot before the Jersey Shore started? Yes. Yes. Little do people know right before Jersey Shore started, I just got out of rehab. No, sure. Like my first rehab.

And I was just young. Was it drinking? It was drinking and it was pills. Yeah. Right? And when I first went to rehab, I just didn't really know much about self. I didn't have the education about addiction. You know, I didn't know about the steps.

I didn't know much about anything. I just was like, oh, that's not me. That's some guests on who've talked about rehab. I didn't, I was sat down by some network executives around 2018 and also 2019. Same. So I'm thinking I'm getting called into the office. because of something else. And it was more of like an intervention,

honestly, and I'll never forget one of the women I work with and she's an amazing woman. Work with me for 10 years on Summer House. Sits down, and I was at that point in my career not comfortable talking about cocaine in my story. I wasn't admitting I was sober yet. But cocaine to me was like this other layer of like degenerate and darkness.

Yeah. I was a total piece of shit. So for a while, I thought I could just admit that it was just the alcohol. But I get called into this executive's office, sit down and she's like, Carl, you know, we're really concerned about you. And the way they presented it to me was very from a loving place. I was like,

yeah, just my drinking. And she looks at me and she's like, Carl, is it just your drinking the way she said it to me? Dude, I unraveled. And for the first time, oh, you immediately unraveled. Oh, wow. I was like, because I finally realized that everybody knew because I thought I could hide. I was in denial, denial, denial. So I'm curious, like when you were going into that first filming of Jersey Shore, I came in, I got back from Abiza before season one, seven day bender, had one day off and then started Summerhouse. I, I had still, cocaine in some of my pockets. I had just gotten back from rehab and I sat down with the casting producers and I didn't say anything about it. So they had no idea. Yeah, they had no idea. And then I went

on Jersey Shore and I thought I could just, I was like, you know what, I'm going to stay where from pills. You know, I'm just going to drink. I'm too young, you know, to hang it up now. So I went to the first season at the Jersey Shore. I did stay away from pills. I, the season wasn't too crazy, right? It really got crazier in season two once the money. came and then I just let it all hang out. I want to talk about the fame being a drug too. Can you like walk me through? Like, I mean, you guys explode.

Yeah. What was that like at that time? You got a bunch of money. You're getting invited to parties. Everyone wants to hang out with the sitch. Yeah. You just said then I got tingles because it comes back. You know what I mean?

It's just like, oh my God. It was like a roller coaster that you really just had to hold out and you couldn't control it. You know, the money was coming in at an excessive level. The parties were upset. The women were excessive. Drugs were excessive. Do you understand like the theme of it all?

And that was sort of the beginning of the end, I guess. When you were in that early seasons of filming and like the drug use was kind of happening, were you worried about if it would come out later on or even thinking like that? Oh, no. I was trying to be one step ahead of the producers. You know, it was like Mission Impossible every season because there was a different caper to try. to get past production. Also, if I was flying, I was also trying to get past TSA. So you were hiding shit in your shoes? I was hiding stuff in my shoes in Italy. I was hiding stuff in season two in

Miami in the bottles of fat burners. I was, you know, unconstituting a pill and then re-constituting it with the drug. And then when I was being filmed like 24-7, I'd be smiling, you know, because I knew they couldn't know, right? How would they know was inside, you know those pills? But I was fooling myself, right? And it seems like were you able to manipulate the production a little bit? Maybe in the beginning because I was definitely a very big character in the beginning seasons. And I kind of knew that. And I also knew that we had just signed a new contract.

Jersey Shore was the biggest show in the country. So I kind of pushed my weight around a little bit. But the writing was on the wall. Like the production saw it and the behavior kept getting. getting more out of control as the seasons went on. Sure. To the point where it was just unavoidable. And every season, like you just said,

the MTV producers would come sit me down. Then it, you know, and they would do the same thing than they did to you. How did you, I mean, was it like, I was in denial. I'd be like, I don't know what you're talking about, you know. And then I would play the victim, you know, and I would call the lawyer and be like,

oh my God, they're saying I'm on drugs. Meanwhile, meanwhile, when they left talking to me, right, I would escape. They would come in and be like, listen, it's okay. We want to help you. And I'd be like, I don't know what you're talking about. And then as soon as they left, I would call the drug dealer. And it was just the insanity of it all to the point that MTV started to get hip to it.

And they started to amend the contract. And they were like, you know, if he escapes on set, we can penalize him. Got it. And I still ran away. I would, you know, purposely get into an argument. or have a short fuse and throw the mic at somebody and be like, I'm out. And then they would chase after me and they would get hip to it. Then once they would chase after me, I didn't want them to follow me after a while.

And then it turned into like car chases. It was, it got dangerous. Were you resenting in those moments like the camera's still pursuing you just because, like I can relate to this big time because I had a moment on season four, which actually is an on summer house. I stormed away from a dinner because I got called out for my drug use at a dinner. Yeah, no. And I was like, fuck everybody. I'm done. I ripped my mic off through it.

And I didn't return until the next morning. They couldn't get a hold of me. Yeah. But that's what prompted getting called into the office. The same thing happened to me. They, on camera, I'm in interview, you know, and you know exactly what that is. And I guess they wanted reality to be reality. And they were like, do you have a problem?

And they asked me an interview. And I was like, like, how dare you? Yeah, exactly. Meanwhile, they had every right to do that, right? And I was like, how dare you? And then I straight up, you know, again, I manipulated the situation and I immediately, you know, stormed out of interview. And then the interviewee who was asking the question slowly started to follow me like, you know what, I'm sorry. And they're trying to fix it.

And then eventually I'm storming out of the compound and I'm walking past security. And they're like, stop him. And then that's when I started to run. And I jumped in a cab and it was like almost like a movie and I escaped. So they had this written in your contract to kind of protect from some of this behavior. And they were probably trying to protect me too. Yeah. I think that's what's beautiful is I had that level of love and care.

And I feel like the team, they obviously loved you and cared for you. But it was a fine line of like enabling you. But also I own treatment centers now. So I know exactly what they're doing. I do this on a daily basis, right? You wrote the book. So, yeah. So they were essentially trying to save my life.

And I was probably one of the most resistant people they've ever. I thought I was like, you know, Tom Cruise on Mission Impossible trying to escape and car chases. And I jumped out of a moving car one time while Snoopy was in the car, J-WOW was in the car, and I did that to try to escape the cops that were following that were there to protect me, the security guards that were there to protect me. And I needed to get a little bit of distance in order to get to the drug dealer. In the tanning salon, I mind you, Jim Tanning, we got a fucking situation.

Excuse my language, but... No, please. We were allowed to swear here. Okay, okay. Let it fly. But some of the capers that I pulled, you know, during my time, you know, on TV the past 17 years, it's like a movie, right? The stress levels of, like, trying to, like, thread the needle from filming and then picking up. Me and you were doing the same thing on essentially a different network at very similar time periods.

Yeah. And I even had code words because I was on the phone. the duck phone, mind you, right? Quack, quack. Right? In Seaside Heights, and the code word was to bring girls to the club. Girls. Girls.

So, girls was drugs. But I did that specifically because I knew that blurred the lines. Because we were going to the club and we were single men and we were looking for girls. He's perfect little code word. Right. And it was in intervals of 10. So if I said, bring 10 girls to the club, That meant bring 100 pills or 100 roxies.

Wow. Which if no one knows what a roxy is, a roxy is a 30 milligram oxycodone, a little blue pill. Father's Day is coming up, and it's the perfect time to give that kind of gift he'll actually use. Something that helps him feel confident, refreshed, and ready for whatever's next. That's where this next sponsor comes in, I Restore. From June 8 through June 21st, I Restore's Father's Day Savings event makes it easy. to upgrade his self-care routine with limited time savings on an advanced at-home red-light therapy devices. I've been using the IRIS store aluminum mask, and here's my honest take.

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Remember the first time you took a painkiller? Yes. Was it like well before Jersey Shore? It was when I was 19.

19. Yeah, I was 19. And a childhood friend said that someone, around the corner had the big sea or cancer and they had these yellow pills they called them bananas and that um i believe uh they can get their hands on them wow and they said you know what you know i'll try it sure and as soon as i tried it i'll be honest with you um i fell in love with it you know it was like this warm you know fuzzy feeling that i felt that became my drug of choice i did try an oxy in college yeah with some friends at a party i got sick yes i didn't like it yeah no

I still, to this day, pray because I can remember how horrible I felt from it. It was OC80. Oh, God. And we, wow. You did an OC80. He licked like the powder coating on the outside, chopped it up. We did a little lime. Yeah, you can snort that.

I was so sick, man. Oh, my God. Yeah, no. See, we're opposites. I would get sick if I did the speed. Got it. But I was in, I was very stubborn, which means I still kept trying. Sure.

So I would do the Adderall. I would do the Coke. You know, I would do some of those. some of those drugs because I was like, oh, let me try again. Let me see if I like it again. Sure. You know, I was one of those kids that was very curious. And, you know, curiosity ended up killing the cats. So you're a couple years into Jersey Shore. And I want to get into something about which I read in your book was just like the Dancing with the Stars. Yeah. Where you're talking about you're, you know, using, you're performing. Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine how difficult that already is on

its own, dancing with the stars. The workload, the practice. And then you're juggling all that. At what point in your short career did the Dancing with the Stars come along? Was it like midstream? No, it was second or third year. Okay. In 2011, ironically, I was GQ Man of the Year, which is very unattainable. Usually for reality star, they don't really like reality stars. In that same year, I was dancing with the Stars participant.

And I was, you know what? I also got the big raise from Jersey Shore that year where they gave me a million dollar raise. All deserved. I bought my Ferrari. the same year. I essentially was drinking my own Kool-Aid, you know, thinking of who I was, right? So you didn't get any, like Dancing with the Stars reaches out, fuck it, let's do it. You weren't worried about. Exactly. That's what it was. I was so high on myself. I was like, fuck it, let's do it. You know what I mean? Like we'll fly out to LA. It was six or eight weeks

of onset. You know, I'm running into like, you know, David Hasselhoff and all the other stars and you know, I'm tipping my glasses and stuff. You know what I mean? like the situation is here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I didn't. You had a larger than life personality. Yeah, I had one of those.

Were the dancing folks privy to some of the struggles behind the scenes? When I was on Dancing with the Stars, I was, I had a raging, debilitating drug addiction. Like, I was taking, you know, six to eight Roxy three times a day, right? Like, in between practices, I'd have to stop and go to my bag and, you know, pop four more or pop five more. Even on live TV, I remember. I remember, you know, David Hasselhoff coming up to me. He's like, man, you got your, you're ice in your veins because it's live TV. You're in front of millions of people and you've got to do this routine.

And he sees me with these glasses on just chilling, not even unbothered, right? And needless to say, I was all in six to eight rocks. He's three times a day, right? Yeah, you were just, like, yeah, like enough drugs to kill an elephant. Were the dancing folks behind the scenes, like did they pick up on maybe that you were struggling on a little bit or? I think everybody knew. You know what I mean? But I was just really good at hide in it. Well, the reason I asked, plus I had the glasses on it all times, right?

So I had that persona of I don't want you to look me in the eyes. Actually, which is so crazy, which I don't really tell people too often, but my rider, in the writer, it says you can't look me in the eye. You can't look the situation in his eyes. Like, how ridiculous is that? All I've been doing this whole conversation is looking in the eye. How ridiculous is that? I actually had in my rider that you cannot look this, and third person, You cannot look the situation in his eyes. Like, it's so crazy. That's a hell of a writer comment.

But I had to learn the hard way, you know. Something that comes to mind while you're talking about this is you're at your cast members. You know, Vin, Pauley, the girls. Yeah, they probably hated me at the time. Do you think they understood how down bad you were behind the scenes or what you were really dealing with? Well, also in the Italian culture, you know, you don't rap. So they definitely knew, you know, but they didn't know exactly what it was. And also, they never, like, caught me in the act.

Sure. Did you ever open up to any of the boys and be like, hey, guys, like I'm not really. I assumed that everybody was kind of doing their own thing. Sure. But apparently there weren't. Only, only I was. Yeah, well, that's what's so funny. You think everybody's doing it.

Yeah. You know, I thought like, Jay Wow, and this person's doing that and they're fine. Because of your story, I've had friends of mine that I'm very close to. I mean, Kyle Cook, who's on Summerhouse, one of my best friend. Yeah. He doesn't do drugs. He really doesn't. Yeah.

He drinks. And I'm not outing anything here. Yeah. But I was such a problem and had such an addiction that everybody thought he, He always was doing so. I was a psychopath. I would hold the drink. I had like schemes.

Like I held the drink so you thought I was drinking. But I had a pocket full of pills in my pocket. Dude, I really did so much, man. You know what I'm saying? And then the other people on the cast, they were drinking. And I used that also as like a cover. Like everyone's doing their thing, right? But my behavior was just way off the wall.

Did you have any like tricks that you would pull that, like I'll give you an example for me. I knew I was going somewhere to be on camera or filming and I had been using or really fucked up, I would shower, shave, get like overly dressed up to try and physically look like no one could tell. Well, yeah. 100%. I mean, listen, I would shave. My outfit would be perfect. You're always really well put together on the outside.

But I obviously had the glasses on the whole time, you know, and I refused to take them off. And if you took the glasses off, I was high as fuck, right? But also, in my bag, which I did bring a bag today, but I'm almost 11 years older. It's empty. Yes, it's empty. All good stuff, but yeah, exactly. I got chapstick in there. Good man.

And I used to have a pharmacy in my bag. I don't know if you've probably seen Wolf of Wall Street. Yes. In my bag, you know, to wake up, I had the Adderall, right? In the middle of the day, I had my, you know, my oxycodone that I liked. Also, then I also had like some weed and some coke, right, to pick me up to go to the club. And at night, more percocets and then Valium to bring me down. And I used to travel with that bag, like throughout the airports and stuff.

Did you ever get in, I had a guest on recently, Jason Waller, another kind of amazing reality TV guy who had lived in some active addiction on TV. And he shared a lot about his story of arrests. But like, just kind of seeing you both navigate, I guess like those stories that have been on TV. Like, how do you relive the replaying of these episodes? I mean, when I see them, I, you know, I might. slightly cringe, but... Do you laugh at it at all? I do laugh.

I do laugh a little bit. The reason I ask is I had this the other day. They showed a clip for me 10 seasons ago. Yeah. Dude, I'm wearing overalls. I've been drinking since Thursday. Yeah. And I'm talking to one of the girls I was dating at the time and I'm not even making

sense. Yeah. No, I know. They played the clip and I'm just like, fuck. I know. I even speak differently too. I'm such a, I'm like now I pride myself on being, you know, well spoken. Yep.

When I see old clips of myself, I'm like, oh my God. You know, and again, I was high most of the time. Yeah. You can tell pretty obviously when you're high or not. But like those years in our life, right, and where we are now, right, as we continue to elevate, right, in the public eye, that right there's our test in our testimony. Right. So like I'm essentially working on maybe a documentary and a movie on my life. Those years when I was, you know, crazy and owning it, you know, it's like an action movie almost. But again, it kind of, you know, gives a little substance to my whole life, which I feel like I've lived 100 lives. So if you're, I mean, if you're laughing at it or kind of using it to inform the future.

Yes. Yes. Yes. I use more or less this podcast to get some therapy too, by the way. Yeah. No, it's very therapeutic. I try to pick up on some of the best things you've pulled because these clips sometimes pop up and I'm blackout. I'm on coke. I'm fucked up. Yes. I know. I know. But like when we sit down with someone that wants to get sober, right? or we sit down with somebody that needs help, they love and they respect our story. So they're going to listen to us, right? So that was necessary, right? Twizzlers keep the fun going.

Yeah, I know. I just stopped whatever you were listening to to tell you that Twizzlers keep the fun going. Well, irony isn't my forte, but twisty, chewy, yummy Twizzler sure is. So think of Twizzlers as a little pallet cleanser for whatever's queued up, which, by the way, should be coming very soon.

Like any second now. Okay, Twizzlers, time to keep the fun going. On his podcast, Chasing Life, I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta. CNN's chief medical correspondent brings you the secrets of the happiest and healthiest people on the planet so that you can live your best life. Are some people just born happier than others? And what might they be doing that the rest of us aren't? Follow Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Apple, Spotify, IHeart Podcast,

Amazon music, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get into something that happened on camera that you talked about withdrawal, hitting your head. Oh, wow. Dude, I watched that episode. Oh, my God. The Italy trip was unbelievable. I actually went to that pizza place

that you guys had worked at after in Florence. Bro. Hitting in the wall, I had never realized until after with your book, you were going through it in that capacity. You talked us about the wall in Italy and just all that shit. I mean, that was essentially like a metaphor for my life, right?

I literally and figuratively hit a wall, right? And I needed to. Would you frame that as part of, do you have a rock bottom, would you say? I actually, to this day, now being where I am in life, I celebrate that time. You know what I mean? I actually currently right now I got a guy making a sculpture of me, you know, with the neck brace and sunglasses. Because I swear I do. It's a very iconic moment in reality TV, but it's one of the times that, you know,

shook me to my core. Do you remember what was going on in your head in that moment at all? At that moment, I mean, there was some drama clearly going on in the group, but you were also. I really wanted no part of it because I was going through withdrawal for the last day or two. And no one knew about it but me. And I'm like, oh my God, man, I'm like, I'm about to go through withdrawal on one of the biggest TV shows in the country. And at that particular time period, we were. Jersey Shore has the record for the highest ratings in MTV history with $8.9 million in 2011, I believe. And that was the neck brace episode.

Wow. And I guess, it actually is my worst moment, right? But it is the most iconic moment. Like for me, everybody knows the neck brace and sunglass moment. And every single year for Halloween. You're a Halloween character. I'm a Halloween character every single year. I think right off the dress up is...

It's like a mind fuck, right? That your worst moment on TV turned out to almost be like your best moment where it would you know it changed your life right and also that season two when i got home m tv sent me the letter and they gave me the ultimatum and they said if mike the situation doesn't go to rehab and come back the situation that we love from season one then don't come back at all done and that shook me too because because i believed you know that i was meant to be on reality TV and I was born for that and I was about to ruin it and, you know, ruin my dreams. Was that one of the first times you had someone maybe come from a place of concern and love?

It was probably one of the first times where like... Or tough love, I guess. Yeah, it was tough love by MTV and they were trying for years. They were trying to save my ass in, you know, my life for years. And finally, they gave me the ultimatum and I was like, all my dreams are on the line. I'm about to ruin it, man, you know? So I like, I'm a big fan of Cervetta Sloan. And so I was like, okay, you know, I know that the disease of addiction, you know, the odds are against us.

You know, most people fail, right? And so I pretended like I was rocky and I went on a mountain in Utah and I essentially trained and detoxed and, you know, got sober, right? And then I went back to the show sober, right? But if you do read the book, I essentially pulled the old trick of substitution, which I stopped doing pills and I stopped doing alcohol in front of the camera. And behind the scenes in the bathroom, I was smoking weed and doing Adderall. And no one knew but me. I wasn't fooling anybody but myself, but myself. But, you know, again, I was slowly going in the right direction.

Sure. Trying to fix the problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But not fully. I appreciate your honesty with that part of your story because I think a lot of people just assume, oh, Mike just got sober and flipped the switch. No, no, I was sober in front of the camera in season six. Also, I was on steroids as well.

And, you know, I had an issue with like anger because of those substances. Sure. I mean, you were fucking jacked by the season. It made it worse for me because by me doing that, I was introduced to almost like speed or Adderall that I started to abuse. And it really messed my head up for a while. Adderall, I still contend if you're really not the right candidate or over prescribed. I mean, the mental unwinding you have to do after getting sober from Adderall is. Yeah, I recently took a course on interventions.

I'm intervention certified to go door to door and course correct in addicts life from active addiction into recovery. And I was informed that it takes one to three years for the brain to heal from speed abuse, like Adderall and cocaine and meth. That actually makes me feel a lot more valid. validated because it took me, I would say from the time I got sober, 2021 January, got a sponsor, 90 meetings, 90 days. Ooh, nice. Really fucking did it. Yeah.

Steps, immense. All of it. I didn't mentally really feel like myself. Yeah. Probably until almost a year and a half, two years ago. Yeah. There was almost four years. Yeah.

You mentioned the replacement thing. I got into a relationship before a year. Oh, wow. Which I'm curious, like, you've heard that in the meetings. Yeah. Yeah. No. And can you talk to me like why that's so important?

You're very vulnerable. You know. You're like new stuff and then you're introducing like this love and this attention. You don't want to stress yourself out either. That's the thing. You just don't want in early recovery. You're like a little baby. Yeah.

You do not want to stress yourself out. So that's why they say you need to just focus on yourself, build your foundation, build your recovery, right? Get more sobriety. And then you can handle more. That's why they say no relationships. Yeah. I would drink whiskey and do Coke because it gave me this confidence.

I like to do bad things. Okay. You know, you know, no one had to convince. me. Like, I liked Darth Vader. Like, I, I, you know, even when I was the villain of reality TV, I reveled in it. I wanted to be it, you know, and you were the agitator. Yeah, like, I wanted to be it. If no one liked me, cool, I'll go against everybody, you know? And that just, you know, there's just so much, such an easier way of life to move forward. But inside, there's still that darkness inside. Like, even to this day at, you know, I'm about to be 11 years sober in a

couple months, there's that darkness inside and I have to fight it every day. Well, I want to get into that because there's something that I talked with my producer Annie already about it, which is to come this season on Summer House, I get into a pretty big verbal and almost physical fight with my best friend, Kyle. Yeah. I've seen you obviously get into heated with Ronnie, Paulie, all of it. I'm sober in this episode. Yeah. I flip out. Yes. But I had a reaction. Yes. Not just was like completely taken over. Can you talk about like that stuff still inside of you, but sober and how to kind of navigate those emotions and feelings. Because what I say is sober people can be assholes too sometimes. Yes. Yes. We're not perfect. Exactly. You know what I mean? We're humans.

We have emotions, right? And for me, I just have an obsess of personality and it's never going to go away. And I tell people all the time, there's a good wolf and there's a bad wolf inside of us. And for me, I have to feed the good wolf because, you know, the wolf you feed wins, right? And for me, like I don't lie, I don't cheat, I don't steal, I don't drink, I don't drug, I don't even like to go speed in my car because I don't want to pay the ticket because any little behavior could set off. I have like, you know, I have somebody inside of me like this darkness that I do not want to let out. Yeah, I'm curious like the, what would you, your official sober day was a Christmas Eve? Yes, December 24th of 2015. Wow. Can we talk about a little bit of like why that day?

Just so happened to be that day? Yes. No. Essentially, I had went through probably one of the biggest moments of my life, probably a month or two prior to that, where I had tried a drug that I never thought I was going to try. You know, most of my life, you know, I loved Perkoset. I loved Roxicodone. If you mentioned to me heroin, I'd like, oh, God, that's dirty.

That's gross. Like, you know, people that try heroin, they never come back. You know, and you hear all the time about overdoses and things like that. But once upon a time, I came to the fork in the road where, you know, I had lost everything, you know, in my life. My accountant did a forensic accounting of my finances and said you spent upwards of $600,000 on oxycodone and cocaine. My lawyers said, you know what, Mike, the world loves you, but you can't pay for me. And sorry, we have to, you know, part ways. the landlord sent the letter and said you're three months behind on rent and we're going to have to evict you right

and now i'm also down on myself anxiety at an all-time high and vulnerable so i called up a high school friend of mine best friend i said man we need to score some pills right and um says no problem he said come pick me up we'll go to newark i'm like dude come on i can't go to newark right you know i'm in the situation. As soon as I come into Newark, they're going to arrest me. They know, you know, I'm a famous face. He's like, no problem. Just stay in the car. So I stayed in the car. I'm sweating bullets. I know it's a horrible decision. And he comes back an hour or two later. And I'm like, sigh of relief. Like, oh, man, all this time is not wasted. He throws something on my lap. And I'm just like, what is this? And he throws this bundle on my lap. And then I'm like, oh, no, he just threw heroin on my lap.

I'm like, fuck. I was like, if I don't try this, I'm going to get sick soon. I'm going to go through withdrawal, right? So now I'm at the fork in the road, like, am I going to do this? Now we're on our way home. It's, you know, getting dark, right? And essentially, I have to make a decision. Like, am I going to try this heroin or not?

And so I go up into my room. I see my girlfriend. We're obviously fighting. And I say, I need to be left alone. I turn on the movie 2012 because I love End of the World movies. And if shit goes haywire, at least I'm in the vibe for it, right? You're ready. I'm ready, right?

That's fucked up, but it's true. Yeah. And so I opened the bag of heroin and I'm like, you know what? If I just try a key bump, I should be okay. This is the first time I'm trying it. And I also have a good tolerance for Roxy's. So I tried it. And I'm like, oh, my God, I didn't, you know, I didn't really like it.

But I'm like, I didn't die. So I'm like, okay. And then all of a sudden a little devil on my shoulders, like, you know, you need to try a little bit more. Right. And as soon as I did that, I swear to you, I went in for a bigger key bump, right? And with my right hand and on my left hand, the phone's ringing. And I look at it. And I swear I get tingles every time I say the story.

And it said, mom on it. And I have tingles right now. And I was just like, no fucking way. No fucking way my mom's calling right now. where I got the devil on one hand and the angel on another. So I'm like, what am I going to do? I got to pick up.

It's mom, right? So I pick up and I say, Mom, what's up? She had concern in her voice, right? I'm like, no, you got to be fucking kidding me right now. I got heroin in his hand. And my mom is like, oh my God, are you okay? And I'm like, bro, I have tingles right now. I got tingles right now.

And so at that particular point, I looked up at this guy and I'm like, oh my God, are there cameras in this into my ceiling right now. I'm starting to get paranoid. Like, this is too crazy. And thankfully, thank God, I took this moment as a come to God moment. The Almighty was trying to tell me something, right? My eyes and ears were open just a little bit, right? And I started a tear coming down my eye. And I was like, I got to go, mom. I hung up. I flushed the heroin down the toilet. And as I was doing that, my then-girlfriend, who's now my wife, mother of my three children, body the door.

You know what I'm saying? Like it was just, there was two angels fighting for my life. It was just ridiculous, right? It was like a cinematic moment. And I'm never forget it. Every time I tell the story,

I have tingles. Yeah, I'm chilling right on. That was my big come to God moment. And I embraced my then girlfriend who was not my wife. I said, I have a problem.

I did something that I just didn't think I was going to do. And I said, I needed help. Right? I got out of my own way. And I said, I need help.

And then at that particular time period, I was on pre-trial. If anybody knows about pre-trial, that's essentially, that's the government that you have to report to. I essentially ratted myself out, called my pre-trial officer and said, you know what, I have a problem, I need help. And I was in rehab the next day. Wow. Fast forward to Christmas Eve. I was in treatment for like 30 days, and somebody snuck rocks he's in. And this is why they say you're very bonable in early recovery.

So I'm in rehab, right? I'm in rehab and somebody snuck in Roxy's, my drug of choice. I only have like 30 days. And what do you think I did? You did it. I did it. I actually, I don't know if I'm, I don't know if I feel shame about that because it's almost like a little blemish on my story, but it's the truth.

So I did it. It's in my book, but I did it. And then as soon as I did, I had instant regret. Instant regret. Now I'm in rehab. Right? And now it's Christmas Eve. I'm by myself high. And I just couldn't believe that now, like I just did this. And now I'm trying to hide that I'm high in rehab. Because if they find out maybe they're going to throw me in prison. Because if you're on pretrial and you violate, you see it all the time in the news. Like certain celebrities, they'll remand you and they'll send you to prison. Sure enough, guess what happens? Right? Somebody in their rehab are at it on me? Now I'm in the owner's box or whatever. And my pretrial officer is coming to sit with me.

And they're now discussing throwing me in prison early because I just violated my pretrial agreement. And that was the day. That was Christmas Eve of 2015. Yeah. And then she sat me down. I'll never forget it. And she said, you know, I can throw you in prison right now. And I said, what happens if you give me another shot?

She said, well, if I give you another shot, you really got to take it. I said, I promise, I promise. And right then and now, I knew it. I knew my life was on the line. You know what I mean? And right then and there, I am now, like I said, I'm 10 years cleaning sober. We're going on our lucky 11th. Amazing.

What made you not want to give up on yourself? I mean, listen, that come to God moment had just happened. And also, I'm on pre-trial. I lost all my money. America essentially has given up on me, the family. Like, I got, I got, everything's gone. There's nothing left. I remember just being in rehab and thinking to myself,

most of my life I have skated by and been a C student. Sure. Right. And America loved me, right? And never tried my hardest, ever. So at this moment, I'm like, well, I'm like, what happens if I try my hardest, right? what happens if I give it my all and try to be everything God has created me to be? What would happen?

I was like, because I really need a prayer. I really need a perfect game, a perfect comeback to come back from this. Right? Yep. I got singles again. You're making me cry a little bit, honestly. And what happened was, that's what happened. I needed a perfect game and we ended up pitching a perfect game.

What's like a thing in your day-to-day recovery that, or even for most people, they wouldn't maybe realize living in that day-to-day? It looks like a clean thing. It's like, okay, I get sober, go to meetings, work steps, and you're sober. I always put my sobriety first. Yeah. You know, I am brutally honest. I am always transparent and everything.

But I tell people all the time, and I sometimes, and it feels so good saying this. I feel like I was born for TV, right? You are. I love being on TV. but I love helping people more. You can see the joy that you bring to these, I mean, difficult conversations, difficult family situations, difficult individual stories.

Yeah. You have a lightness and a brightness about you given even all the darkness you've been through. Yeah. It's so beautiful to see how you extend that. And you feel it even through your social media. Thank you. Which I applaud as someone who's a male and watching another male.

I mean, we need more positive male stuff. I really appreciate what you said about the darkness. And I want to say this, is that when your nightmares come true and when you are in the darkness and you look around, right? And you kind of like are like content of where you are and you sort of like take a big, deep breath, right? You end up realizing that you are the light.

And then when you start to elevate from there, you know, then you walk into a room like God sent you. You know, and it's a beautiful thing. Do you do therapy? I do therapy, yes. Yes. Yes. I own a rehab. Of course. So I have access to therapy.

I run groups with my rehab twice a week. I'm in my office five times a week. I do interventions. You're in it. I am in it, brother. You know, I did like two interventions last week, which was just amazing. People just don't realize that you run a smoother life when you're keeping your side of the street clean. Like if I don't lie, cheat, steal, drink, drug, or speed, right?

That eliminates a lot of things. It takes terrible a lot. When the problem happens, I'm like, it wasn't me. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't me. Generally. Right? You know?

And so I think that I have found the secret in, at least for me, of going through life at a very elevated position, a very elevated vibration. Yes. And those two words that I'm saying to you, I know you understand it. The vibration? Yes. It's like I'm, we're all in the same room, but not everybody's on the same vibration. I could go into a club now and I'll be the happiest guy in the club.

And I will just be happy on life. Right. I'll be happy on the music that they're playing. And see, the thing is, everyone else will have to drink to get to my level. Right? And then after about an hour, they'll be slowing their words. and we can't even have a conversation anymore. It comes on.

They fall off a cliff. Right? So people don't really understand all that. But it comes with practice, though. Yeah. Because in the beginning, before I got to that, there was like, oh, my God, is America going to love me again? Because they known me as the situation with the abs and I got the girls and I, you know,

and all that stuff. And I had to find a different version of myself that was inside there the whole time. And I was scared. And when you're scared, you got to jump. And that's what I did. Dude, unbelievable. Like, all of that is exactly how I felt in the last few years is, like, getting into that acceptance of yourself of, like, the younger version of myself or, like,

this vibration that's, like, it took me some time, but now, like, I don't want it any other way. And it's giving me so much freedom. Oh, my God. And happiness. It's, I don't want to get emotional. But the, the butterfly is proof that it can go through a great deal of. darkness and become something beautiful.

I think that's what it is. Yeah. Right? Or it's the caterpillar. Well, the caterpillar of the butterfly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a quote, yeah. I mean, you're going to make me cry, man.

It's so beautiful what you say because I relate to a lot of that so deeply. That jumping mentality and like, you know, that acceptance of who you are. Yeah. I had the MTV producers sit me down in season one of the new reboot. And they, I wasn't used to being in front of the camera again. sober at all. Yeah. I was used to being in the interview chair like lit or high.

I don't wait. Every time I did interview seasons one through four, I was drunk. Yeah. So anytime I would go into interview, I would be like a, like a chemist. Like, oh, what should I mix up today? What should I do today? And everyone, you know, I would say, you know, Mike used to do, he's so funny, does amazing interviews, you know, best in the business or whatever, right?

So when I came back and I was sober, I needed to find that version of myself that was inside of myself, right, that can articulate myself, right? And connect with the interviewee and try to connect with the audience. It was like an art that I needed to find that I wouldn't even know existed if I didn't try. Yep. So, I mean, your example of like filming or going through that. is like similar to what I went through is where I got sober and then I'm going back into these

same kind of environments on camera, confessionals with my friends. Yeah. I almost had to like learn how to walk again. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. But once I got into like I found that voice a little bit. Yeah. It's like so freeing because I'm like that's me. Yeah. You started to lean into it. Now like when somebody needs to speak on camera, I'm ready. Yeah. You know, I always tell people all the time. The only way to be ready is to stay ready. Sure. I have this question a ton over the years with Summer House. like you're going back to the same places, the Southampton, the clubs, the bars, same people. People, places and things, yeah.

How do you handle that with your current, you know, Jersey Shore family farewell? And like, you're 10, 11 years sober, family man, husband, father, you know, and I know the other, your other friends are all married and have things going on. Yeah, no, yeah, for me, it's not even a thing. You know, now, like I said, I'm going on my 11th year of sobriety. Now I'm happier than the whole club.

You know what I mean? When I walk in it, as soon as I walk in, into the club, I'm dancing and vibing and smiling, right? And I'm like, you know, also like, maybe if I want a Red Bull or maybe I want a diet soda, maybe I want some chicken tennies at the bar, you know what I mean? Like, I am like staying in my own lane and I am running my own race perfectly. I think what people don't realize is in life, we all have different tests. And if we copy off of each other, we fail. Right? So like, I'm just like, you know what? I got my own test and I'm going to take it. Do you feel like the audience is now finally seeing who Mike Sorrentino

is and the character? Yes. And I feel like I'm still, you know, turning into my best self, right? I feel like I keep evolving, you know, year after year, you know, as I now am an owner of my own treatment center. Which I want to get into, like talk to me about the beginnings of this. What was the inspiration of getting involved in that treatment stuff? Were you inspired by other people that um for me i was inspired probably by my own pain you know i felt that um you know they made an example out of me and um they tried to bury me but they didn't know i was a seed you know and um so good man so i was just determined to to prove you know the haters and the naysayers wrong and so i also you know when i got out of prison i had a conversation with my team and they said

what's next for the situation? And I was like, you know what? I want to help people that were once in my position, right? I want to be able to provide a safe space for them to be able to write their comeback story or help them write it. And that's also very important to you, to have like a vision board, to no matter how old you are in life, to always have, you know, something on your vision board, always have dreams, never lose the kid inside of you. You can do anything you want to do, you know, anything that you dream as long as you are positive and, and, you know, and, you know, and try to put the work in and be optimistic. There's a such thing called manifestation.

Yes. Right? We manifest a lot here. Yeah. So, like, out of nowhere, I'm like a daydreamer. All day long, I'm like, you know, I want a movie on my life. I want, you know, I'll be honest with yesterday I was on a phone with somebody. And then, like, let's draw up the agreements.

Like, we're going to start to, you know, look into making a movie about my life, right? I love it. Like, you know, why not? I love it. Right? You miss all the shots that you don't take. Right? So why not take all the shots you can?

Of course, that are organic. Sure. You know, when you're reaching, those things don't work. But when you actually put in the work and things are organic, those are the things that work. And they almost, you attract them versus chasing them. Like for instance, you're many, many years sober, sir. You know what I mean? You're successful.

A softball is an amazing idea. When I heard you wanted to do it, I was like, I want to do that. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, right. I'm like, I want to do that in Jersey. It's not too late. We can still maybe do that. Yes. Yeah, maybe we'll... There's a future here. We're going to manifest more locations.

Yeah, who knows. I'm curious, you mentioned something childlike self or getting back to that, like kids can dream and you're a father. Something I think about with the stuff we put out there in the world on TV, the past. How are you going to talk to your kids about some of olders and short? I mean, listen. Because I don't have kids yet. I'm not married, but I'm like, how am I going to sit them down at some point and explain seasons one through four? You know what? My kids are going to see dad. every single year with a giant fun fetti cake celebrating his sobriety on Christmas Eve.

Every single year. My kids are young too. They're four. They probably think it's just your birthday now. Yeah, they probably do. It's my other birthday. Exactly. My sober anniversary.

But four, three and two. So every year sobriety is going to be prevalent, right? Awareness is going to be prevalent. Education is going to be there from an early age. So I think that is the best preventative. Again, my kids, when they get older, they're probably going to want to experiment just like me, right? But from an early age, they're going to be taught about awareness and education about the consequences of drugs and alcohol. I love it.

So I think we're in a pretty good position. But again, I'm sure when my kids get older, they'll definitely hone in on my younger years. I appreciate this. I mean, would you say it is imposter-ish a little bit sometimes? It's just weird. I walk into a store and I don't ever have to show an ID. Everyone's like, you walk in and you're everyone's best friend. I walk into a store. Hey, Mike. And you're like, hey, Mike. And you're like, hey. You just met them for the first time. They've been with you for 15 years. Yeah, exactly. And because I've been in America's living rooms for 17 years, they consider me like a member of their family. And I love it. With great power comes great responsibility. And now I'm using that platform to save lives. But I will, I will be honest that every now. And then it is, it's weird to process. There is a little bit of a weight of like you get the tingles and you're like, wow, like what's so special about me? You know?

I relate to this so much, man. You know, you're just like, this is amazing. And I just walked into a crowded room everywhere I go. And it's almost like the Truman Show where everybody knows who you are. And you don't know anybody. This is unbelievable. Right? I'm on a constant journey of finding and meeting people that I want to be like or learn, try to understand their perspectives.

I've had an unbelievable time. I'm so glad I did this podcast. I have such a good feeling. Appreciate you, but I'm an amazing brother. Thank you. You're the best. It's an honor having you here. I mean, all the work you've done, it's helping me.

And that's the beauty of what this world is with recovery is I often am shocked because people will come up to me and say, Carl, you help me. or you got me sober and I'm like, of course, I process it in my head. I'm like, but then I remind myself, I tell them, hey, you're going to impact someone in your life just the way I did, living loudly, living honestly. And that's the gift. Well, also, like, we've had this conversation. This is the first time that me and you ever met. And I feel like we've known each other our whole lives.

Well, parasocally a little bit for me. You know what I mean? It's, no, this is going to help a lot of people and I've had a lot of people come to me. And they were, truthfully, they were like, when is Mike coming? on. Oh, yeah. I'm just glad this happened very organically. Yeah, it's probably one of the best podcasts I've had in memory, sir. Appreciate you, man. Thank you for having me on. Well, shout out to you. Shout out to your Jersey Shore crew. Thank you for being here on More Life today. Thank you guys so much. Appreciate you. We'll check you guys next time here at Softbar in Greenpoint Brooklyn. Thank you to

Mike Sorrentino. Check him out. You know where he is. He's easy to find, but love your brother. Thank you. Keep going. Thank you. Cheers, guys. More Life is produced by Annie Siegel and executive produced by Adam Reynolds and denim pictures. This episode was directed by Annie Siegel, edited by Mike U.R.T. and recorded at Soft Bar Studios in Brooklyn, New York. More Life is a production of Sony Music Entertainment. From Sony, our executive producers are Chris Skinner and Joanna Clay. Original music by Function Adams. Set designed by Michael Ignacio. Publicity by Caitlin Healy. Additional support from Abby Sharp. Special thanks to Allison Shano and Joanna Orland. New episodes drop

every Tuesday. We'll see you next time.