Rise Above with Kevin Lanning

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.
Call or Text: 844-443-5669
Visit: https://compassionbehavioralhealth.com/?utm_source=rise%20above%20with%20kevin%20lanning&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=may

#RiseAbove #WomenInRecovery #11YearsSober #XanaxAddiction #HeroinRecovery #SoberMom #RecoveryIsPossible#AddictionRecovery #TraumaAndRecovery #SingleMomInRecovery #FaithAndRecovery #SoberLife #MentalHealth#DrugCartel #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #CrystalMeliea #SuicidalIdeation #GodSavedMyLife#OneMoreDay
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.
Call or Text: 844-443-5669
Visit: https://compassionbehavioralhealth.com/?utm_source=rise%20above%20with%20kevin%20lanning&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=may

#RiseAbove #WallStreet #OpiateAddiction #SoberLife #6YearsSober #RecoveryIsPossible #AddictionRecovery#FunctioningAddict #BaseballPlayer #FinancialRuin #MensRecovery #SobrietyJourney #MentalHealth#FaithAndRecovery #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #TJDelVecchio #WallStreetAddiction #ColdTurkeyDetox#OneMoreDay
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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:

Growing up with an alcoholic father and watching the same disease take over her own life

Missing 18 Mondays in a row in high school — and still graduating early

Drinking through Ole Miss, UGA, Charleston, and a career in ad sales

Aversion therapy in Seattle — chugging vodka until she vomited while staring at herself in a mirror

How one beer after ten months sober during breastfeeding flipped the switch back on instantly

Her dying father grabbing her by the neck and saying "don't let this disease get you"

Filling her daughter's Stanley Cup with White Claw and calling an Uber to the airport — her last drink

Waking up in an ambulance at 2am in North Carolina thinking she was finally going to die

What she did differently this time that made sobriety finally stick

The moment her daughter looked at her and said "I trust you, Mom"

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
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.
Call or Text: 844-443-5669
Visit: https://compassionbehavioralhealth.com/?utm_source=rise%20above%20with%20kevin%20lanning&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=may

#RiseAbove #WomenInRecovery #MomInRecovery #AlcoholRecovery #SoberMom #FunctioningAlcoholic #SoberLife#RecoveryIsPossible #AlcoholismAwareness #MentalHealth #SobrietyJourney #GenerationalTrauma#RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #KyleGarges #TwoYearsSober #AddictionRecovery #GriefAndRecovery#WomenWhoRecover #OneMoreDay
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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:

Growing up in a sober household and discovering opiates at 18 after surgery

The pill mill era in Florida and cold turkey detoxing off 50-60 Percocets a day

Getting sober from alcohol twice — and what kept pulling him back

Losing his little brother to an overdose and the grief that followed

How a free gas station sample of 7-OH started a $3,000-a-month addiction

What 7-OH withdrawal actually feels like — and why treatment centers don't know how to treat it

His relapse after treatment — and the second rehab stay just to get off Suboxone

Where he is today with 3+ months clean and what he's building

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.
Call or Text: 844-443-5669
Visit: https: https://compassionbehavioralhealth.com/?utm_source=rise%20above%20with%20kevin%20lanning&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=may

#RiseAbove #7Hydroxymitragynine #7OH #KratomAddiction #GasStationDrugs #AddictionRecovery #SoberLife#OpioidEpidemic #KratomWithdrawal #RecoveryIsPossible #NewDrugs #FentanylAlternative #MentalHealth#SobrietyJourney #PillMillEra #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning #MattDean #FloridaAddiction #OneMoreDay
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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:

Growing up privileged while quietly falling apart after his parents' divorce

Getting cut from basketball and losing the only identity he had

Paying people to take his classes while drinking and drugging through COVID

Surviving the Michigan State campus shooting and what those hours of terror felt like

Being held at gunpoint by cartel members in Cabo at 5am — the moment everything changed

Going from 315 pounds to 196 through fitness, sobriety, and deep inner work

How journaling, meditation and therapy helped him finally face the root causes

Writing his book to help other young men who are suffering in silence

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.
Call or Text: 844-443-5669
Visit: https://compassionbehavioralhealth.com/?utm_source=rise%20above%20with%20kevin%20lanning&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=may

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices