This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

This week my guest is Nick Barba.  I have known Nick for years now and when I first launched the podcast I knew that I wanted to sit down with him to go through his story but I thought it was too soon.  I made excuses as to why I couldn't reach out and I also wanted to give him so time.  Recently Nick posted his video part which you can watch here and I knew after that I needed to get connected with him.

We went back and forth to get something scheduled and sometimes things just work out.  We ended up meeting one night and got a chance to sit outside, enjoy the weather and hash out his journey.  

Nick's introduction to drinking goes back as far as he can remember.  He details memories of being a young kid and his family members giving him beer because they thought it was funny.  By the time Nick was in 8th grade, he can remember already having a tolerance for alcohol.  

As Nick got older he can remember drinking and having a good time while skating with his older friends.  One instance he remembers well is going to skate at Bam Margera's barn.  Nick nailed a trick while Bam was watching and Bam asked him afterward how he did it.  Nick was dumbfounded...A skateboarding LEGEND was asking him for tips!  Nick told him what he did and Bam ended up nailing a trick he had been working on himself.  After that, he went to hang with Bam and drink.  

This became a trend, but Nick didn't think anything of it.  He would go hang at the barn, skate, drink and everything was cool.  Nick ended up getting an ankle injury and he received muscle relaxers and pain killers for this injury but he never took them.  He knew he didn't need them so he never went and filled the scripts. Shortly after his injury, Nick went to film again and did the same exact thing to his other ankle.  This time was different though, Nick did get the scripts filled.  He couldn't go skate so all he had was these pills and this alcohol.  

This is when things began to really go downhill for Nick.  He started with one pill and then that wasn't enough so he started taking more.  Soon that wasn't enough so he began snorting them and doing anything he could to increase his high.  

People started to notice a change in Nick.  He would be nodding off at parties and people were asking questions and putting pressure on him to chill out.  It actually got to the point where Nick traded his pills for cocaine.  Nick figured that people would see he wasn't nodding out at parties so they would get off his back.  For Nick during this time, he was strictly focused on keeping people off his back for the things that he was doing.  

The toughest part of Nick's story is that he has a tough time remembering specifics from his story.  When it comes to the night of Nick making the decision to go to rehab Nick doesn't remember a whole lot.  Nick remembers that he was up for multiple days straight.  He convinced someone to pay for his Uber to get to Chester to get drugs.  Nick remembers walking around the streets of Chester PA early in the morning.  He left Chester and went to Philly to continue partying.  The last bar that Nick went to in Philly was called 12 steps down ironically.  He convinced someone to pay for his Uber to get him back to West Chester to drink more.  He leaves the bars in West Chester to go home and this is when he realized he had nothing left.  He had no money, he had been up for days and he was SUPER ANGRY.  He tried to fight his brother, he was breaking things in the house and he remembers having a conversation with his mom.  

The next thing Nick remembers is pulling into a rehab facility in New York but he doesn't even remember agreeing to go.  Once there Nick realized where he was and he was prepared to take off into the woods and figure it out.  Nick figured it would be easier to just bite his lip and go through this to get back to where he was.  Nick ended up being in detox for 7 days straight because of what he was coming off of.  

Going through the program Nick started to realize that maybe this was something he needed to take seriously.  Towards the end, Nick started to hustle the counselor a little bit to get a script for Adderall.   The person who he talked to ACTUALLY wrote him a script to get it.  When Nick returned home he tried to get it filled but nothing worked.  He couldn't get it filled, he couldn't get an appointment, nothing.  Nick took this as a sign, maybe this was done.  

Once Nick was out, he started to realize how good he actually felt.  This has been the biggest motivator for him.  Nick doesn't want to go through what he went through again and he feels so amazing he doesn't want to ruin that.  Nick has gone through so such an amazing change that he doesn't want to ruin it.  He has truly gotten his life back.

 

This was truly such an amazing conversation and I hope that you all enjoy.  Please make sure to check out Nick's video part here!

 

Nick's Instagram

Nick's Facebook

Do It For Yourself Instagram

Support the show here