Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino faced some hardships during his time on the original version of MTV's Jersey Shore.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the 41-year-old discussed his previous drug addictions which led to a brief downward spiral before Sorrentino was able to recover. The reality show star goes in-depth about his experiences in his new memoir, Reality Check: Making the Best of The Situation – How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison, which will be released on Dec. 19.
At one point of the interview, Sorrentino says that he began spending at least $500,000 on his "reckless" drug addiction, which mainly took place while filming Jersey Shore, which aired from 2009 to 2012. “I did spend about half a million dollars on cocaine and oxycodone,” he told ET. “I was wild. I was careless. I was reckless, and I fell prey to drug addiction.”
Sorrentino's addiction to drugs like cocaine, weed, Valium, and Xanax were commonplace in his day-to-day life. “I was into everything. I had everything on me at all times in my Louis Vuitton bag. Everything,” he said. “My life was going by so quickly that, at the time, I made a mistake and I thought it was going to help my performance or my stamina, and for a little bit, I have to say, that it did."
Sorrentino admitted that his drug dependency began before the inaugural season of Jersey Shore, but worsened as the show headed towards its conclusion. In a season four episode, Sorrentino slammed his head into a wall during a fight with cast member Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, which he blames on "withdrawals."
“I was going through withdrawals at the time ’cause I had ran out of pills," he told ET.
In 2015, Sorrentino said he reached his lowest point when he tried heroin, calling it a "desperate" attempt to remedy his “anxiety” and “self-doubt.” “I ended up trying a drug that I never thought I would try. A drug that kills most people. A drug that most people don’t come back from. A drug that I told myself that I would never do, that I thought was dirty. It was heroin,” he said.
Nearly ten years after checking into rehab in 2015, next month, Sorrentino will celebrate eight years of sobriety, supported by his wife Lauren, and his mother, Linda, who he credits for saving him.
