Reality TV star Dakota opens up about addiction struggle: "Nobody got it"

Reality TV star Dakota is opening up about a highly personal and painful episode of his life—his addiction to drugs that started when he was only 17. In an open-ended interview on Nick Viall's The Viall Files podcast, Dakota took his listeners through the grueling beginnings of his use of substances, which began as a desire to relieve his aching knees as a young basketball player."Had bad knees, and I recall being at a practice one time, and my knees were really hurting," Dakota explained. "I was at the gym, and a kid was in there working out or something. He was just one of my buddies, sort of. I was whining about my knees… and then he said, 'Oh, man, I have some pain pills.'"Not knowing what the pills were, Dakota took them—and the effect was transformative, but not in the way he would have imagined."I went and practiced, and I recall that I had absolutely no pain. It was the greatest thing on earth," he explained.From there on, Dakota began going after more of the pills, which he later found out were prescription opioids. At first, he did not see what he was doing as risky."It was a pill and I didn't see, I think, the bad side of that in that way," he said.But things moved fast. When he and a friend went back to get more pills, their dealer offered them an introduction to snorting the pills for greater effect. That grew into Oxycontin, and then, a friend asked him to smoke them off of tin foil—a turning point Dakota recognizes as key in his addiction."That's when things really started to change."Dakota was working a construction job at the time, but the wages weren't sufficient to sustain his increasingly expensive drug habit. That's when heroin became an option."Heroin was cheaper and more accessible," he suggested. "Eventually, I began robbing my parents and doing return scams on big box stores with my friends. I was spiraling.Dakota's addiction was not just impacting his individual life but also his most intimate relationships. He had been dating his high school sweetheart, who ended up becoming his wife. She knew about the struggles he had but had no clue on how bad things were."She was aware of [the addiction], but she didn't realize it," Dakota said. "No one did. No one realized it. My family didn't realize it … She didn't know I was using heroin. She knew, [but] she didn't know how bad I really was."Dakota's tale is but one of many that illuminates the way a young life can easily slip into the hold of addiction—all from taking something as innocuous as a pain pill. His candor is a poignant reminder of how important awareness, support, and understanding are for individuals who are combating substance abuse.As Dakota continues to share his journey, he hopes others will learn from his experience and see that recovery begins with truth—and that even the darkest paths can lead to healing.