Rise Above | Adam Vohra's Story

Adam Vohra grew up in Connecticut ....a kid of color in a Jewish day school who always felt different. At 13 he found out why. He and his sister had been adopted. Nobody had told them. And six months later he had his first drink.

What followed was 15 years of DUIs, gambling debts with drug dealers, dropping out of college, four months in a Connecticut jail, and relapse after relapse. Every time he got sober it was consequence driven. Every time something good happened he went right back out.

Then his best friend Lauren called. And he didn't answer. She took her own life shortly after.

It wasn't until a recovery coach flew him down to a tiny house in low country South Carolina and a stranger at a local meeting invited him to dinner and read him the Doctor's Opinion that something finally clicked.

Now 3.5 years sober Adam has his recovery coaching certification, a nonprofit consulting practice, a podcast and a life built entirely around purpose.

This one is for anyone who has tried to get sober for the wrong reasons and keeps ending up back at square one.

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If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health, you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to my partners at Compassion Behavioral Health. They offer individualized care and a full continuum of treatment.

#RiseAbove #AddictionRecovery #SoberLife #3YearsSober #RecoveryIsPossible #AdoptionStory #DUIStory#MensRecovery #GriefAndRecovery #SobrietyJourney #MentalHealth #RecoveryCoach #FindingPurpose#RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #AdamVohra #ConsequenceSobriety #PurposeDrivenRecovery #SoberCommunity#OneMoreDay

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Carly Schwartz had a career most journalists only dream about. Running the San Francisco Bureau of HuffPost at 26. On the leadership team of one of the biggest news organizations in the world. Blogging for a governor who became California's Governor. Expense accounts, concerts, restaurant openings and a life that looked absolutely electric from the outside.

And she was going to bed every night wishing she wouldn't wake up the next morning.

Behind the blazing career was a secret life of cocaine benders, blacking out, taking hits of nitrous oxide under her covers at noon on a Sunday, and a depression so severe that she dropped out of Northwestern University, checked herself into a psych ward, and eventually found herself standing on the roof of a Panama City highrise on the phone with a suicide hotline.

She went to a Panamanian jungle to find herself. She found cocaine instead.

Now 8 years sober, Carly has written her memoir I'll Try Anything Twice — and built a life centered on storytelling, healing and finally understanding what it means to love herself.

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health, you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to my partners at Compassion Behavioral Health. They offer individualized care and a full continuum of treatment.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week 📲 Follow Carly: @carlyzita (Instagram) 🌐 carlyz.inc 📖 I'll Try Anything Twice — available now

#RiseAbove #DepressionAndAddiction #SoberLife #8YearsSober #RecoveryIsPossible #AddictionRecovery#MentalHealthAwareness #FunctioningAddict #WomenInRecovery #SuicideAwareness #CocaineAddiction#SobrietyJourney #ITryAnythingTwice #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #CarlySchwartz #Journalist#HuffPost #StorytellingHeals #OneMoreDay

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Suebelle Robbins had a life that looked like a movie. Playboy Bunny by night, first grade teacher by day. Travel escort taking groups to Hawaii and Switzerland. Corporate wife living on Gulfstream jets. Beautiful homes, European vacations and everything money could buy.

And she was miserable every single minute of it.

Every morning started with a bong. Every afternoon she switched to Scotch. She was so depressed she took sleeping pills on a sunny day in Honolulu just so she could sleep through paradise. She made three suicide attempts, he last one a full bottle of pills that sent her to the hospital to have her stomach pumped.

She lost her father to a drunk driver at 13. Her house burned to the ground at 17 — taking her dog and every childhood memory with it. She married twice. She had everything. And she wanted to die.

Then a housekeeper showed up in Ralph Lauren — and invited her to a meeting.

Now 39 years sober, Suebelle has written her memoir Beyond Your Wildest Dreams — and built a life so full of love, laughter and purpose that she says if she ever drank again she'd lose everything that matters.

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📲 Connect with Suebelle: https://www.suebellepalmbeach.com/

#RiseAbove #WomenInRecovery #39YearsSober #AlcoholRecovery #SoberLife #RecoveryIsPossible#BeyondYourWildestDreams #SuicidalIdeation #FunctioningAlcoholic #SobrietyJourney #MentalHealth#GriefAndRecovery #PalmBeachSocialite #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #SuebellRobbins #MemoirMonday#SoberAndThriving #WomenWhoRecover #OneMoreDay

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Mike Supak was a Division 1 track athlete. He never touched a drop of alcohol in four years of high school. He was structured, dedicated, trustworthy — the model kid.

Then he discovered alcohol the summer before college and everything changed immediately.

What followed was 20 years of cocaine, heroin, DUIs, overdoses, jail, and a slow death that nobody around him could stop. He got his second and third DUIs within 48 hours of each other. He overdosed on heroin in the back of a cab, was Narcanned six times, and showed back up to his family's St. Patrick's Day party hours later wearing a blue paper hospital suit — with no memory of any of it.

He tried to die. He kept waking up instead.

It wasn't until a judge set his bond at $900,000 to keep him off the streets — and a nun in Saint Augustine, Florida answered a calling from God — that Mike finally found the thing that saved his life.

He spent three years with no phone, no TV, no computer, washing his clothes in a five-gallon bucket, praying the rosary three times a day. And it worked.

Now seven years sober, Mike is married, reconnected with his kids, back working as a building engineer in Chicago, and more at peace than he has ever been in his life.

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health, you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to my partners at Compassion Behavioral Health. They offer individualized care and a full continuum of treatment.

#RiseAbove #HeroinRecovery #SoberLife #7YearsSober #RecoveryIsPossible #AddictionRecovery#FaithAndRecovery #CatholicFaith #ChicagoAddiction #MensRecovery #GodSavedMyLife #SobrietyJourney#MentalHealth #JailToSober #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #MikeSupak #Unbreakable2413 #HopeReborn#OneMoreDay

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Crystal Meliea grew up alone on 183 acres of North Carolina mountain property with a narcissist mother who left her unsupervised with music industry men in Los Angeles at 16. No protection. No parents. Just a bottle of Xanax she found in her mother's purse that made everything quiet for the first time in her life.

By 19 she was running marijuana from Mexico to Texas to North Carolina on a massive scale. She was taking 10 Xanax bars in a single night — enough to black out most grown men. She was fighting so violently that police would call ahead and ask her to just turn herself in so they didn't have to find her. She went to jail three times in one week for physical violence alone.

At 37 weeks pregnant she broke into a woman's house and stabbed her in the face with a broken beer bottle — leaving her with 40 stitches. Two weeks before her daughter was born the FBI, DEA and ATF swarmed her home.

Then her daughter's father went to federal prison. She had her baby alone. And discovered opiates.

What followed was years of IV drug use, meth, crack, halfway houses, relapses, a lesbian relationship that ended with a domestic battery charge, and finally — sitting on a sidewalk in Fort Lauderdale, watching buses go by, making the decision to walk in front of one.

She went to detox the next day instead. And never looked back.

Now 11 years sober, Crystal has two college degrees, ran a multimillion dollar insurance company, and is rebuilding her life with nothing but her daughter, her faith, and a story that should have ended on that sidewalk.

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health, you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to my partners at Compassion Behavioral Health. They offer individualized care and a full continuum of treatment.

#RiseAbove #WomenInRecovery #11YearsSober #XanaxAddiction #HeroinRecovery #SoberMom #RecoveryIsPossible#AddictionRecovery #TraumaAndRecovery #SingleMomInRecovery #FaithAndRecovery #SoberLife #MentalHealth#DrugCartel #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #CrystalMeliea #SuicidalIdeation #GodSavedMyLife#OneMoreDay

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TJ DelVecchio was a Division 1 baseball player at Providence College who walked onto Wall Street during the dot-com boom and made his first million dollars by 28. By 30 he was broke, $300,000 in debt, unloading boxes at FedEx in the middle of the night just to keep health insurance for his kids — and quietly becoming addicted to opioids.

For years he held it all together on the outside. Wall Street lunches with pint glasses three quarters full of vodka. Parties in Miami. VIP sections. A lifestyle that looked like success and felt like a slow death. At his worst he was taking 6 to 10 thirty milligram Roxies a day — spending $5,000 a month on pills — while his ankles swelled, his kidneys ached, and his soul quietly disappeared.

Then one night on a hotel balcony in Miami, he looked up at the sky and told his late father — if I don't stop right now, I'm never going to see my kids again.

He flushed the pills the next morning. No rehab. No Suboxone. Six weeks of pure hell. And he never looked back.

Now six years sober, TJ is remarried, living in Sarasota, building rental properties with his wife, and finally the man he always wanted to be.

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health, you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to my partners at Compassion Behavioral Health. They offer individualized care and a full continuum of treatment.

#RiseAbove #WallStreet #OpiateAddiction #SoberLife #6YearsSober #RecoveryIsPossible #AddictionRecovery#FunctioningAddict #BaseballPlayer #FinancialRuin #MensRecovery #SobrietyJourney #MentalHealth#FaithAndRecovery #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #TJDelVecchio #WallStreetAddiction #ColdTurkeyDetox#OneMoreDay

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Kyle Garges had everything — a loving husband, a beautiful daughter, a career in advertising sales, and a life that looked perfectly put together from the outside.

But behind closed doors she was hiding alcohol in her daughter's Stanley Cup. She was drinking through blackouts, through rehab, through aversion therapy in Seattle where they made her chug vodka until she vomited. She drank through her father's death. She drank through interventions. She drank through every promise she made to herself and everyone she loved.

Thirty years of alcoholism. Three treatment centers. And a dying father who grabbed her by the neck and looked her in the eye one last time.

Coming up on two years sober, Kyle is finally free.

In this raw and deeply moving episode of Rise Above, Kyle shares:

This one is for every woman out there who is hiding it and thinks nobody notices.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week 📲 Follow Kyle Garges on Instagram

Kyle Garges had everything — a loving husband, a beautiful daughter, a career in advertising sales, and a life that looked perfectly put together from the outside.But behind closed doors she was hiding alcohol in her daughter's Stanley Cup. She was drinking through blackouts, through rehab, through aversion therapy in Seattle where they made her chug vodka until she vomited. She drank through her father's death. She drank through interventions. She drank through every promise she made to herself and everyone she loved.Thirty years of alcoholism. Three treatment centers. And a dying father who grabbed her by the neck and looked her in the eye one last time.Coming up on two years sober, Kyle is finally free.🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week📲 Follow Kyle Garges on Instagram

#RiseAbove #WomenInRecovery #MomInRecovery #AlcoholRecovery #SoberMom #FunctioningAlcoholic #SoberLife#RecoveryIsPossible #AlcoholismAwareness #MentalHealth #SobrietyJourney #GenerationalTrauma#RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #KyleGarges #TwoYearsSober #AddictionRecovery #GriefAndRecovery#WomenWhoRecover #OneMoreDay

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You can buy it at a gas station. It's sold next to energy drinks and lottery tickets. And it almost destroyed Matt Dean's life.

Matt Dean had already been through the pill mill era in Florida, cold turkey detoxed off 50-60 Percocet a day, built a career in real estate, and gotten sober from alcohol — twice. Then his little brother died of an overdose. And a well-meaning smoke shop employee handed him a free sample of 7-Hydroxymitragynine.

Within weeks he was spending $100 a day — burning through his 401K and savings — chasing a high from something most people have never even heard of. He went to treatment twice just to get off it. The second time, he had to go back to detox just to get off the Suboxone they gave him to get off the 7-OH.

This is one of the most important episodes of Rise Above to date — because 7-OH was just banned in Florida in August 2025, and something just like it is already taking its place.

In this eye-opening episode, Matt shares:

If you or someone you love is using Kratom or 7-OH and thinks it's "just a supplement" — you need to hear this.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health, you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to my partners at Compassion Behavioral Health. They offer individualized care and a full continuum of treatment.

#RiseAbove #7Hydroxymitragynine #7OH #KratomAddiction #GasStationDrugs #AddictionRecovery #SoberLife#OpioidEpidemic #KratomWithdrawal #RecoveryIsPossible #NewDrugs #FentanylAlternative #MentalHealth#SobrietyJourney #PillMillEra #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #MattDean #FloridaAddiction #OneMoreDay

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John Luedke had it all on paper — a scholarship to Michigan State, a successful father, a big house, and every material thing a kid could want. But underneath it all, he was drowning. His parents' affair and messy seven-year divorce left him as the emotional middleman between two broken people. He got cut from the basketball team. He lost his identity. And he spent the next decade eating, drinking, using cocaine, nitrous oxide, and anything else he could find to fill the hole.

At his heaviest, John weighed 315 pounds. By his senior year, he was paying people to take his classes, doing coke in Cabo while being held at gunpoint by cartel members, and surviving a campus mass shooting — all while telling himself he had it under control.

He got sober on January 1st, 2024. He was 22 years old.

In this raw and honest episode of Rise Above, John shares:

This one is for every young guy out there who looks fine on the outside but is completely lost on the inside.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week 📲 Follow John Luedke: find him on Instagram and check out his book

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health, you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to my partners at Compassion Behavioral Health. They offer individualized care and a full continuum of treatment.

#RiseAbove #CollegeAddiction #SoberAt23 #CocaineAddiction #WeightLossJourney #MichiganStateShooting#AddictionRecovery #SoberLife #MensmentalHealth #RecoveryIsPossible #GenZSober #YoungAndSober #75Hard#TraumaAndRecovery #SobrietyJourney #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #JohnLuedke #CartelStory#OneMoreDay

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Elisa Nicole Saunders was a Palm Beach County schoolteacher, standing in front of classrooms every day — and quietly drinking and drugging her way through 30 years of addiction. Two DUIs. A five-car pile-up. Crashing drunk into a tow truck while two people had to run for their lives. Sitting in a jail cell staring at her wrist, wondering how it got this bad.

She never wanted to get sober. A judge gave her the nudge.

Now, coming up on 15 years of sobriety, Elisa has rebuilt her life from the ground up — from losing her teaching certificate, to borrowing gas money to attend an addiction conference, to becoming a respected professional in the drug and alcohol rehabilitation industry in Los Angeles.

In this honest and deeply moving episode of Rise Above, Elisa shares:

This one is for anyone who thinks they're functioning just fine — and for anyone who's been sober a while but still feels like something's missing.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week 📲 Follow Elisa: @elisansaunders (Instagram & Facebook) | linkedin.com/in/elisansaunders

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health, you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to my partners at Compassion Behavioral Health. They offer individualized care and a full continuum of treatment.

#RiseAbove #FunctioningAlcoholic #AlcoholRecovery #SoberLife #15YearsSober #DUIStory #TeacherInRecovery#AddictionRecovery #RecoveryIsPossible #SpiritualAwakening #WomenInRecovery #SobrietyJourney#MentalHealth #GriefAndRecovery #TwelveStepper #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #ElisaSaunders#DrinkingAndDriving #OneMoreDay

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