Karamo & His Son Share Their Story Of Addiction | KARAMO

foreign to admit when there's a problem and to sit down on my couch and talk about it and anything I expect from my guests I also expect from myself so today I'm going to be very vulnerable with you all with you and talk about something that is close to my heart which is addiction so let me tell you what happened almost two years ago I found my son Jason he's my oldest son lying I'm about to get crying right now um I found my oldest son Jason lying on the floor um dying from a drug overdose and it's something that I've never talked about publicly and I don't know why this emotional reaction is happening I guess it's because I'm opening up and sharing about with you all right now so I gotta get myself together girl oh my gosh oh sorry oh I think that's the first time I ever caramelled myself okay but no one else sincerely um it was a very it was a very very hard day for me um my son this is at the beginning of the pandemic um my son was basically a great kid grew up sweet I have two sons and one of my sons I've had challenges with and but Jason was always the one that I was like oh everything's fine he's great he's good in school he's sweet he's awesome and during the pandemic I noticed that there was a little bit of isolation I knew that he was kind of but I was like that's what we're all doing we're all kind of in our own minds we're all trying to figure out even though I'm reaching out um I still figured you know what everything's all right and then I started noticing some dramatic things happening like he um wasn't picking up my calls which is very un very rare because Jason and I are super close and so then he stopped paying some bills and I was like uh we're not doing this in this black house so okay you're not playing no bills what's going on I started getting calls and you know and so I was just kind of figuring like maybe it's just the pandemic maybe it's just the fact that he's young you know he was 23 at the time maybe you know this is a moment where he's trying to grow and figure out himself but then it started to get worse and worse and so his mama lives in Texas y'all and I was like listen you're going to your mama house because I can't deal with this I'm done you 23 I don't have any time for this and I'm a strict Dad I'm gonna be real with y'all but I kept buying in flights and Jason kept missing the flights so I gave him the final straw of like you have to be on this flight tomorrow morning 7 A.M go spend some time with your mother be with her get yourself together and then we'll come back and figure this out and I've had custody of my son since he was 10. so it's always just been he and I it's not as if he's always gone back with his mom it's just been he and I that morning at 6 30. the car service is calling me calling my best friend Trey saying there's no one out here no one's here seven o'clock comes we're calling no one's here and so I'm gonna be real with y'all I call my best friend and I'm sitting on the couch and I'm putting on my shoes and I'm like girl I'm about to go over there and whoop this boy I'm like no uh you done did it again like you don't wasting my money I'm talking about I was upset y'all and got in the car ready to go over there to have a confrontation with my son and when I got to the apartment I went up the stairs and the door was a jarred and I thought something was going on I thought maybe he had gotten robbed we'd gotten robbed or something was happening I opened the door and it was a complete mess the house was the house was dirty and I saw my son laying on the floor in cat litter phone coming out of his mouth and um I sprung into I'm sorry y'all laughs this is I don't know if you've ever experienced Addiction in your own lives or with family members but when you find out what's going on when you realize it's been happening and you didn't realize it when you realize that you might lose someone it just kills you inside and I was terrified that I was about to lose my son and I um I sprang into dad mode and tried to figure out how to get them help try to figure out what to do um and the the crazy part is I didn't take him to the hospital immediately because I didn't know what to do I was in shock and I say this and I'm vulnerable with you on this way because I'm trained in this I give this advice all day and when it came to my own life my own moment I could I didn't know what to do I didn't know what to do and um and I say that for anybody else who's out there going through this stuff don't don't get don't beat yourself up because none of us know how to handle this type of stuff but I got him to a doctor I got a doctor immediately to the house and basically he woke up two days later unaware of what was going on and um I told him he had to go to rehab and it was a hard moment but we made it through and I would love for you all to meet my son Jason who has now been two years sober Prince come on out oh my gosh well the way to make me [Applause] crying back down yeah you did way to make you do it oh my god um so something y'all gonna find out Jason I sound exactly alike yeah all the time we get that all the time all the time yeah yeah it's kind of weird yeah yeah I hear it a little bit okay so Jason I just want to know from you what do you remember about the day because you just I mean we've talked about this but I don't you know we never talked about this openly in public oh yeah um what do you I truly don't remember much I kind of don't remember that whole week yeah in general so um what was the last memory you have mixing pills and drinking the night before at some random bar got it got it got it um so I again thought that I could be aware of all this signs like I have clients that come into my office and I'd be like oh there's something going on I can see it I I did not know you're using when did you start so it all started like right after like right out there in college not the Laughing you know because we had a good memory all right that college no no because the story is funny it actually pertains to you okay Dad you gave me your card that night to go out to a party yeah um and you told me that car needs to be back here or that is my ass but I got I got way too wasted and um I could not drive I was not about to drive your truck your car at the time um and so someone came up to me was like try this it was cocaine this will help you out this will sober you up this will I promise you it would do the trick yeah it did the trick and I remember driving home and like physically feeling like oh I need more and that was your first time trying stuff that was my first time trying it um so I always wonder why in that moment because we have a pretty open relationship I always try to Foster relationship in our household where um we can talk yeah um like one of the things I'll tell you about parenting style I don't believe in punishing a child if they're honest with you because I believe it Fosters a atmosphere of like well if you're honest then and I get punished well I might as well just lie so I would always be like if you honestly tell me the truth you're not in trouble we'll just have a conversation we'll learn from it we'll grow we'll talk um so why in that moment did you feel like you could talk to me why didn't you moment you think you could call me and say hey Dad I got messed up I know you know so I don't know I I just was like I said I was I wasn't thinking straight I was super drunk dad like and I'm not about to I'm not about to tell you I got your car out here with these kids and I'm just wilding out like that's not a thing I'm about to do yeah so I remember you telling me that you were relieved that you got caught yes I was actually so relieved at it uh whenever you caught me yes um when I found him when you found me um I don't know I was I was truly tired of the way I was living and at some point I I was feeling that I was just tied up living and uh too much for me oh my gosh okay um but yeah I just it was almost like what was it that was getting to you that made you feel like you just didn't want to live anymore I was super depressed I was not talking to you Mom family at all I just lost all type of connection with anybody and anything that I ever once loved except for drugs that was the only thing that was obsessing with yeah so one of the things that I beat myself up a lot and I said this to you early and I kind of said don't feel guilty if you if you feel this at home don't feel guilty if you have a family member and you didn't know but one of the things is like I always said to myself how did I miss the signs how did I miss the signs I guess my baby we talk every day I don't get how I miss this how why do you think I miss the science honestly it was up to me I was I came to you every day anytime I would see you or anytime I would call you um and I would present myself in the best life hey Dad ain't nothing wrong going over here like surely was just making sure that you had no idea what was going on I was on my p's and q's with that yeah I think as human beings we're prone to putting people in our families in boxes and categories and so like this is the strong sister this is the crazy brother this is the one who can handle it all this one you know is going to fall apart and since I had two sons and I said oh this is the one that he does he's always fine I literally put him in a box instead of allowing him to be a human being yeah and I I say that to you all is use that as a reference to say of course anyone who's addicted to drugs it's their own life and their own choices but we have to also all reflect on what are we doing how are we looking at our actions to say I'm not letting you just be holistic I'm not letting you be your authentic self I'm letting you you're only the strong one you're only the funny one you're only the smart one and therefore you couldn't have any other problems when it's like no you're a human being that could have all these problems and I should be checking on you even if I think it's something that you would never do and at the time I would try to like blame it on like you know um you had just started queer eye you just started all these things within your career and I was like I don't want to be a burden and like tell Dad I'm going through this that would be a burden to me baby I know but I think what you just said is an important lesson for people know is that if you're addicted to drugs if you're going through something you're not a burden there are people that want to help you and even if you have relapsed once twice three times people want to help exactly so I know this but how has your life changed since rehab my life has been way better actually yeah I um I didn't like rehab you on the caramels [Applause] um no uh it changed like drastically and for the better for the best ways um at first I was very shameful of rehab and going through that process but um I realized that I I needed it and it taught me a lot by myself and how to love myself and how to just really just show up for myself in different ways I never knew how to I I feel so good I'm proud of you Prince you've been you've been doing it I just watched you ascending but one thing as you're ascending I've learned is I still check in on you and it's not just now about drugs but it's also about everything all the things that I think he should just are I already assume that he can handle a chicken on all that now yeah um I mean he's taking on my nerves sometimes this morning if y'all saw us backstage he didn't have the right outfit I was like why you ain't got the outfit I'm still strict dad though but I'm also still yeah being I'm being aware now and I think that's the biggest lesson that you're going to rehab taught me is to be aware to ask your kids ask those you love everything about them be curious about their lives in every way possible because that Curiosity I think is connecting us deeper making us closer but also it's keeping us both safe um so you're here you have made it through amen what is it that you would like the world to know um truly I would like the world just to know that if you're going through something please reach out um drug a drug addiction can show up in minor forms are in a major form and before it gets too late for you are too detrimental just please reach out to somebody what do you want to say to your peers as well because I think that you know I guess it's every generation but I notice now like people like to say things like oh I'm just California I'm high or you know though yeah it is like yeah or people just be like oh well you know I can still get to work on time or whatever the case may be and I think sometimes this generation has sort of this idea that addiction is not real because they're still functioning yes um and so like there's people that are functioning addicts they like think like oh just because I still can get around I'm still doing it no one's messing up but it's like based on your story that you just told which I don't know at all I was not a functioning addict yeah so yeah yeah yeah so what would you say to any of their generation that still feels like oh you know what I just I can just do what I want to do I mean it's gonna catch up to you I promise you drugs are gonna catch up to you it's gonna show in the worst ways and I mean honestly just put put it down it's just whack a little kid just whack it's gonna be real cheap put down the drug just left oh you got me crying out here this is the first time on my own listen backstage they had to give me so many tissues come on now where you going I'll tell you where you're going right here to subscribe and right here to watch more curious

Channel: Karamo Show

Views: 245,534

Keywords: Karamo

Id: Tz7Udep7hVw

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2022