09-17-2023 GAR - Flipbook - Page 18
18 A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Sunday, September 17, 2023
An Incredible Journey to Recovery
Brandon Novak Almost Lost Everything Until He Found Sobriety
By Gregory J. Alexander, Contributing Writer
12
failed stints in rehab.
Multiple arrests. In and
out of jail. Losing most
of your friends. Having
your own mother buy a premature
cemetery plot for you. Family
members taking out life insurance
policies for you knowing your death is
imminent. Many people would think
any one of these life events – let alone
all of them – would be the impetus to
someone getting sober. For Brandon
Novak, however, it took waking up in
a park in Baltimore with a rat on his
chest after prostituting his body to a
man the night before just so that he
could score some heroin.
“I burned every bridge in Baltimore
and West Chester, Pennsylvania. I
was a New York Times-bestselling
author, yet I was living in my mother’s
house in Little Italy and stealing from
her every day. Eventually, she served
me with a restraining order, kicked
me out, and I was living in a park,
prostituting my body to men for drug
money and waking up with a rat on
my chest,” Novak recalls.
“Everyone asks me, ‘What was the
moment that forced you to get sober?’
What I know now is that it was a
combination of events that led me
to a point where the pain became so
unbearable. It had to come to a point
where my back was against the wall
… I was optionless, homeless, jobless,
moneyless. I had to be willing – even
just a little bit – to ask for help. That
day was May 25, 2015.”
Novak has been sober for eight
years and tobacco free for five years.
“When I went to treatment the last
time – the 13th time that God willing
worked – I was convinced that no
one knew that I had a problem. Turns
out, everyone in the world knew
that I had a problem but me. I was
the last person to realize the severity
of my situation as a direct result of
my addiction because as an addict, I
am wired to minimize or justify the
situation I am in,” he says.
“After all my success, when I went
to treatment that 13th time, the only
things I owned at age 38 were eight
scarves, two jackets, three socks, a
stick of deodorant, a needle, a spoon
and a restraining order. Where I was
at that point was fully self-induced,
and I finally recognized that.”
Success at an Early Age
– But at a Cost
Novak found fame at an early age
when his skateboarding skills were
discovered by skate legends Tony
Hawk and Bucky Lasek. Soon he
found himself touring the country on
the Powell-Peralta team and landed
the first ever endorsement deal for a
skateboarder from Gatorade. Later,
he went on to star in movies and
television shows including several of
the Jackass movies, Viva la Bam, the
CKY series and more.