During a recent interview with “The Chris Van Vliet Show”, Jake Roberts commented on his battle with addiction, DDP helping him turn his life around, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On getting connected with DDP: “He just said ‘Hey man, do you wanna quit?’ Hell yeah, but it’s never happened before. I’ve been to three rehabs, I’ve done all that stuff and it didn’t work. But what worked for me was doing it for a longer period of time, having a support team, and by him not giving up on me. Because it wasn’t always smooth. There were some bad days. There were four instances where I went out and drank. Most places would’ve kicked you out. But he said ‘Shut up and come back tomorrow.’ And I’m like ‘Damn man, aren’t you gonna give up on me?’ He said ‘No, I’m not giving up, forget it.’ I just stuck with it. Now I look back and it’s scary – the things I did, the things I survived. But again, I just wanna help other people who need help.”
On owing DDP his life and the pain addiction causes: “Nobody knows the pain that is involved with addiction. If you haven’t been there, you don’t know. You can’t understand. You can’t get your mind around it. Nobody I’ve ever met has told me ‘Man, when I was young, my dream was to grow up and become a drug addict and an alcoholic.’ Nobody dreams that. But it does happen. It can happen quickly, it can happen over time. But you don’t know until you’re there. And once you’re there, it’s too late. It took me three years to get sober. I had to live with him, I didn’t go anywhere by myself. I quit driving cars for 10 years because me alone with a car is not a good thing. I might just wind up in the wrong place. And I don’t want to do that. I did that movie or documentary or whatever you wanna call it because I wanted people to know you could make it. It’s not easy, man. It’s a lot of suffering and lonely nights and a lot of hate. But the only way for recovery to happen is for you to get honest with yourself and talk about where you’re at, whether you’ve been molested as a child as I was, the only way to make it better is to talk about it, which is something you don’t want to do but you have to. I’ve had hundreds of people thank me for doing the documentary, I’ve had a lot of people come to me and say ‘Man, when I seen that, that was the last day I drank.’ And that right makes me feel good. No human being should ever have to feel the pain addiction can put on you.”
On advice for someone going through recovery: “Do not give up. If you fall, dust your ass off and get back up and get back in it. And don’t listen to your head. Because your head will tell you you’re not worthy, you’re not worth it, you’re not gonna make it. You’re gonna hear all that stuff if you’re going through it. But just don’t give up. Keep reaching and don’t be ashamed to get help.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
