Rise Above with Kevin Lanning

Crystal Meliea is back on Rise Above — and this time she’s risking a lot to tell the truth about an industry most people in recovery are afraid to talk about. With nearly 12 years sober, she pulls back the curtain on the business of addiction in South Florida: body brokering, the insurance and call-center schemes, the moving-company scams, and the recovery “influencers” quietly pushing newcomers toward sex work and fraud. She frames it plainly as a warning for the vulnerable people arriving here every day, and for the ones who feel trapped inside it. Before the exposé, Crystal retraces the story that got her here — a childhood of trauma and violence, the “protector” she became, years of dealing, crack, and meth, and the bottom she hit as a new single mom after her child’s father was taken by the feds two weeks before the birth. She’s honest about the harm she caused, the amends she’s made, the grandmother who stepped in, and the moment in 2015 that saved her life. Today she’s rebuilt everything from a single suitcase into a thriving career coaching men — secretly walking them through their own healing — and a platform she’s using to protect the people coming up behind her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

J.R. had two lives most people never see collide. He was a decorated Army soldier — one of the first 500 troops across the border into Iraq during shock and awe, living in one of Saddam’s bombed-out palaces, surviving rocket attacks and losing friends. Then he came home to PTSD, a stack of new diagnoses, and no real plan, and walked straight into the nightlife. Within a few years he was one of the most in-demand DJs in town, pulling $2,500 a night, booking celebrities — and doing cocaine under the DJ booth every single night. He’s brutally honest about the decade that followed: the money, the chaos, the celebrity benders, and the slow-burn misery of being depressed and suicidal while everyone thought he had it all. He doesn’t dress up the bottom that finally woke him up at 36, or the work it took to climb out — the meetings, the prayer and the gym, the self-development that rebuilt him from the ground up, and the moment a therapist told him to start telling his story. Eight years sober, J.R. is now a present father, a recovery coach who’s helped more than a hundred people, and proof that you can come back from two wars — the one overseas and the one with yourself. Follow J.R. on Instagram @JHunterCoaching. If you're struggling with OCD or unrelenting intrusive thoughts, NOCD can help. Book a free 15 minute call to get started at https://www.google.com/url?q=https://learn.nocd.com/Rise&source=gmail&ust=1790019126459000&sa=E Use code RISE when you book. #ad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Larry Chapman had every reason to make it. A 4.2 GPA honor student who graduated two months early, he was the kid everyone thought would be fine. But he was also prescribed Adderall at eight, lost his biological mother to a prison sentence when he was little, and by his late teens was chasing a feeling through weed, Xanax, and cocaine. At 21 he was handed what he thought were Percocets — they were pressed fentanyl — and a two-year double life began that nobody around him saw coming.He holds nothing back about how dark it got: living as a functioning addict while spending tens of thousands on pills, robbing his own drug dealers, breaking into stash houses, pistol-whipping a man for his cash, and finally getting shot in the arm during a robbery — the moment that became his bottom. He’s just as honest about the climb out: a brutal precipitated withdrawal, multiple arrests and detoxing in a jail cell, the fiancée who stood by him when he finally admitted he had a problem, and losing his best friend Adam to an overdose, which sealed his decision to never go back. Three years clean from fentanyl and rebuilding a life he couldn’t have imagined, Larry shares the war stories not to glorify them, but so the person who’s done the same things knows they can still get out.Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dom Scalzo lived and breathed lacrosse. He was the first kid from his small Rochester high school to go Division 1, chasing a childhood dream of playing at Syracuse — until a nagging injury, a bottle of pain pills, and the slow pull of OxyContin took it all apart. What started as prescriptions became 30 pills a day, then shooting heroin, cocaine, and even vodka, as the identity he’d built his whole life around disappeared. He holds nothing back about how far it went: getting kicked out of two schools, an arrest that ended his college career, bringing his own mother into the worst part of the city to buy drugs, overdose after overdose, and a stretch living homeless under a bridge in Brooklyn. He also carries the weight of everyone he lost along the way — more than 200 people over the years. This is the story of how a plane ticket from a near-stranger, a blunt counselor, and one simple phrase finally broke the cycle, and the life he’s built in the 14 years since: a father, an endurance athlete who runs 100-mile races, and a coach who helps high-performers rebuild their health and, quietly, their lives. Follow Dom on Instagram (@dapperdon) Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dalen McMillon’s story is almost too wild to be real. A bull rider and martial artist as a kid, he became an Army airborne paratrooper before 9/11, then built a glamorous career as a celebrity hairdresser — flying around the world teaching for a major hair brand and making a thousand dollars a day. Then a routine injury and a bottle of pain pills pulled him into OxyContin, and eventually into shooting two grams of heroin a day, despite a lifelong terror of needles. He holds nothing back about how far it went: dealing out of his home with fifteen families dropping off their prescriptions, driving the getaway car for a pharmacy robbery, a home invasion where his girlfriend and infant son were held at gunpoint, an informant planted in his house wearing a wire, a 140-mph chase fleeing the feds, a DEA raid, and finally becoming a fugitive who got caught by bounty hunters. He also learns a devastating family secret along the way — the truth about how his father really died. This is the story of how a man who was homeless and loading syringes hoping not to wake up clawed his way back: a brutal detox, a thousand meetings in a thousand days, and the life he’s built today — married to his business partner, a proud dad, and nearly 17 years clean. Follow Dalen’s business, Junk Wax Vintage, on Instagram, Facebook, X and eBay. Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices