Mike The Situation Sorrentino says he spent half a million dollars on drugs

After suffering a miscarriage in 2019, the couple are expecting their first child together in May 2021. Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino took to Instagram this week to celebrate five years of continuous sobriety, admitting that “he has been through some situations in life, addiction being one of them.” In 2015, his accountant pleaded guilty to avoiding taxes when filing the reality star’s returns. He told them that just a few weeks earlier, while celebrating getting signed by the modelling agency, he ran into a couple outside a nightclub. Last week, while appearing on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast, the president-elect’s son asked incoming “border czar” Tom Homan what border and immigration-related action the public can expect to see on Day 1 of the new Trump administration.

Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino was scared to have this person read his memoir

Once Lauren’s family understood the aptitude of his substance abuse, he went into a series of rehab and treatment facilities. He served eight months in prison for the tax evasion case in 2019, but he used that time to continue improving himself during his sobriety. “They’d go into a stall and wrap toilet paper around a piece of tinfoil holding fifty or a hundred pills, drop it on the nasty Jenks or Bamboo floor, and exit the bathroom without so much as looking at me.

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This—in combination with regular psychological counseling—was an effective strategy for Sorrentino, but approximately three out of five eligible patients aren’t aware that such options exist. While the use of another opiate drug (which is what led to the addiction in the first place) seems counter-intuitive, it eases withdrawal symptoms and enables the individual to focus on the psychological what was mike the situations drug of choice root causes of the issue. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

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Sorrentino — whose lawyers and accountants later estimated he spent around $500,000 on drugs — was too preoccupied by his lavish lifestyle to pay attention to his finances, though. One of his castmates, Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola was shocked to learn about his life prior to becoming a household name, which included a stint as a drug dealer, regularly smuggling marijuana from Brooklyn to New Jersey. He found household name status as a hard-partying twentysomething on MTV’s Jersey Shore, but the very lifestyle that made Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino famous eventually “practically destroyed” his life. Now eight years sober, Sorrentino pulls back the curtain on what the MTV cameras didn’t show, how much his costars knew and what he really meant when he asked to bring “girls” to the club on Jersey Shore. “I was young, immature and careless and then when you sprinkle in substance abuse, it eventually led me to go to prison,” Mike said. Sorrentino got home, told his then-girlfriend that he wanted to be left alone, and went upstairs.

“Let’s remember that every story of recovery is also a story of community,” said Kristina Williams, drug testing coordinator for Picatinny’s Army substance abuse program. “Substance use disorder doesn’t discriminate — it affects people of all walks of life. But with awareness, education and compassion, we can break down the stigma and create a supportive environment where recovery is not only possible, but celebrated.” Being overseas and maintaining his hard-partying lifestyle, Sorrentino ultimately ran out of his stash and was going through an involuntary withdrawal — a time known for the moment he infamously headbutted a concrete wall and nearly knocked himself out.

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• Ex Jersey Shore star Mike Sorrentino, better known as The Situation, has come to terms with the fact that he had an addiction problem.
• “I was a young and wild, careless kid, and once you gave kids millions of dollars and Ferraris and Lambos and girls screaming my name and yes-men everywhere, it was hard to turn that off,” Sorrentino recently told ET.
• While the MTV hit reality show “Jersey Shore” may have been known for excessive partying and drunken debauchery, one star is celebrating an important milestone on his sober journey.
• Established in 2001, the day aims to reduce addiction and drug-related deaths by encouraging individuals and families to share their stories publicly.
• Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino went to extreme lengths in order to sneak drugs into the Jersey Shore house while filming.

He was also in the throes of substance abuse that led him to heroin, a drug he had sworn he would never touch. Going from being one of the most recognizable faces on what can fairly be described as trash-TV to an ambassador for recovery is quite a step. It seems that after becoming known for drinking too much and getting involved in heated expletive-filled disputes, Sorrentino has stepped into a more adult role. In fact, if you were to watch him in the final season of “Jersey Shore,” you’d notice that he didn’t have a single drink. The Situation really did make a change in his lifestyle, undoubtedly a source of hope for anybody battling their own demons.

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“I was wild. I was careless. I was reckless, and I fell prey to drug addiction, and in the book I describe that I did spend about half a million dollars on cocaine and oxycodone.” Sorrentino flushed the heroin down the toilet, opened the door and told his girlfriend, Lauren, who is now his wife, that he had a problem. He went to rehab the next day and has been sober since Christmas Eve 2015.

Mike Sorrentino says he was once “a young and wild, careless kid” with a powerful addiction problem. It’s particularly special to Lauren as she believes a force more powerful than her drove her and Mike back together and now that force is allowing them to help others battling substance abuse. At age 25, Christopher passed away of an overdose on October 13, 2013. “I wish he had the time to see Mike today because he would be such an example and role model and that it’s possible to recover,” Lauren said. They were immediately back together and embarked on the path of fighting Mike’s substance abuse.

‘Situation’ redemption: ‘Jersey Shore’ star recalls journey from addiction to sobriety

Mike ‘The Situation,’ star of hit show Jersey Shore, is known for fist-pumping, sex with groupies and, of course, those abs. But now he reveals a dark addiction battle, holding nothing back on his hard partying past and how, today, he’s a changed man. Sorrentino said he realized the extent of his substance abuse issues after he appeared as a contestant on Dancing with The Stars in late 2010, early into his tenure as a reality star.