A global artist in the electronic music scene opens up about years of addiction, the near-death experience that forced him to seek help, and the life-changing impact of his time at NEOVIVA. This piece is anonymised to protect the artist’s identity.
When the high becomes the trap
For years, his life was defined by a desire to make music, performing for crowds, and feeling a symbiotic connection to his audience. To his fans, he seemed to have everything. But behind the scenes, the highs came at a devastating cost.
“I tried cocaine for the first time when I was sixteen,” he says. “At first, it was just out of curiosity; a way to belong, to feel something. I come from a good family, but I was hanging out with street people. I talked some older guys into letting me do a line of coke. It was my first time, but I told them, ‘I have done this before.’ I remember the next day. I was missing something. I was already feeling down. Slowly, it tightened its grip on me. But I didn’t have money, so I did something bad. I sold the gold from my communion and the gold of my family.”
He felt a lot of guilt and stopped using for a while.
But as his career grew, so did his dependence. “By the time I was 21, I was earning good money and getting popular with my job. I’m an artist and I travel a lot. I drank. I started using drugs again, and it crept up: cocaine, then ecstasy, then GHB. Slowly, slowly, it became more. Between the ages of 28 and 36, I developed a hardcore addiction.”
He pauses and says quietly, “I was awake for two or three days, sometimes four. I had a sex addiction, too. I was losing my mind, using and calling escorts. I was doing things I would never do before. I was not recognising myself anymore.”
Life became a cycle of performances and binges. The illusion of control was holding just long enough to keep up appearances. “As far as anyone else was concerned, I was living a big, happy life on stage. But off stage, I had a parallel life, in hotel rooms, awake for days, completely absent. I wasn’t even enjoying it anymore. It wasn’t recreational, it was a severe addiction, and it was killing me.”
The night everything changed
The breaking point came far from any nightclub, studio or festival.
“I almost died,” he says simply. “I was in Thailand with my girlfriend. I’d been awake for days. I overdosed, and she saved my life. She’s a doctor, but there was no hospital nearby. She was able to get diazepam, and she injected me with it. If she hadn’t done that, I would have died of a heart attack.”
He promised to quit, but within days he was using again. “I knew then I was in danger,” he admits. “It wasn’t about fun anymore; it was about survival. I knew if I carried on, I would die soon.”
Something clicked. “It wasn’t the drugs that scared me anymore. It was myself,” he confesses. While his girlfriend slept, he spent the night searching online for a rehab clinic. “That’s when I found NEOVIVA. I saw the nature, the animals, and the privacy. It stood out to me. It felt human. And they used rTMS in treatment, which I’d tried before and knew it might help calm the stress.”
The next morning, he called the clinic and talked to Oliver. “We spoke for an hour,” he remembers. “After that, I knew NEOVIVA was the right place. Oliver really understood me. He told me words I will never forget.”
Understanding not judgement
Arriving in Switzerland was incredibly hard. “On the first day, I looked for any excuse to leave,” he says. “I complained about the waiting, the food, the water, anything. It was the monster within me whispering and begging me not to recover. Thankfully, I was in constant contact with my girlfriend, and she kept urging me to stay.”
The early days were brutal. “I couldn’t sleep. I was shaking and had a fever. It was the most difficult period of my life. I didn’t expect it to be that hard. But the medical supervision by NEOVIVA’s team made a difference. They gave me medicines to help calm me while I detoxed. I was gently but firmly coaxed into a routine by the team. No one gave up on me.”
What got him through, he says, was the whole team’s compassion, and it especially helped having NEOVIVA’s recovery counsellors to talk to, who had lived experience of addiction. “They had a past like mine, or similar. I never felt alone. They knew how to talk to me, especially in the first period of rehab when I was so angry and anxious. The entire team, from the recovery counsellors and the psychotherapists to the medical doctors, really knew how to treat patients like me.”
He credits them for giving him something deeper than treatment: understanding. “They made me feel loved. They made me feel I wasn’t the worst person in the world. They made me feel human again.”
Back to the stage
Leaving NEOVIVA was both terrifying and liberating. As part of the leaving ceremony, I burnt a letter which expressed some deeply personal thoughts. It was a symbolic moment; letting go of my old self,’ he explains. “I cried a lot. Those tears were where I let out all the pain. When I left the clinic, I felt like a newborn, walking into the world again.”
Going back to performing was a difficult period. It meant facing constant temptation. “My job is in the night,” he says. “Imagine going from rehab to clubs and festivals. The first time someone offered me a line, I said no. They laughed. The second time, they were surprised. The third time, they stopped asking.”
That resolve became his new strength. “Shedding people around me who weren’t good for me was easier than I thought. If you are strong with your decision, the people you don’t want around you leave. And later, they come back with respect. Some say, ‘I wish I could do what you are doing.’ Others told me, ‘I don’t drink for six weeks because of you.’ That’s something incredible.”
Rediscovering musical creativity was also a challenge. “I had been using and doing shows every weekend for 10 years. It took me a few weeks after rehab to understand how to play sober. Now I’m having the best time ever in my career.”
A mentor and a message
A key part of his recovery was the bond he formed with Oliver Neubert, NEOVIVA’s founder and chairman.
“For me, Oliver is the person who really made my recovery strong,” he says. “I’m someone who needs a mentor, someone who can guide me. Oliver became that person in my recovery.”
The lessons he learned in those conversations still guide him today. “He reminded me that my mission as a musician matters. He helped me see my responsibility, and he gave me a message. That is what Oliver does. If you receive this message from him, it’s so powerful.”
“Oliver kept in touch, and the aftercare from NEOVIVA was fantastic. They supported me for six months after I left the clinic, checking in with me, continuing the therapy. The hardest part of the recovery journey was going home after treatment. Without the support of NEOVIVA’s team, I don’t know if I would have made it.”
He fondly remembers introducing Oliver to his family. “He came to my birthday dinner with my closest friends, my family, and my parents. My mother recognised something. She understood then how important he was to me.”
That mentorship, his time at NEOVIVA, and his new start changed how he saw life. “My music had purpose again. Oliver helped me understand who I really am.”
The long road home
He says life after addiction isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being patient.
“Even after two and a half years, I still don’t know how to handle some things,” he admits. “But I’m learning. It’s not a line of coke that resolves problems, it’s knowledge.”
He still goes to therapy and says it’s essential. “Psychotherapy is super important. It opened the door for me. Addiction always has a reason behind it. There is something in the mind, in the spirit, that needs to be resolved. It’s not just about drugs. It’s about pain. I’m learning to be vulnerable. And that’s OK. I know I still have things to work on from the past.”
These insights have brought him closer to the people who matter. “My girlfriend sacrificed so much to help me,” he says. “She left her job for almost a year to stay close to me. When I was travelling, she came with me and helped me stay calm. That was incredible.”
And his family, who once were bewildered and hurt, now understand. “After rehab, I told my mother everything. She didn’t know much about cocaine, but she saw that I was a different person. She said, ‘Now I understand what was happening to you.’”
A Life with purpose
Almost three years later, the artist is sober and thriving. His work has evolved, and so have the people around him, but his sense of purpose is stronger than ever.
“My creativity came back,” he says. “The right people started coming into my life: professionals, not dealers. The wrong people stopped showing up at my parties. It’s amazing.”
He no longer counts the days he’s been clean. “Before, I was counting weeks and months. Now I just live. Every morning that I wake up clean, it’s a gift.”
He says recovery gave him more than just sobriety. It gave him purpose, clarity, and a new sense of self. “I know myself better now. I don’t regret my past. Without it, I wouldn’t understand myself. I’m not a better person, I just know myself better.”
He often reflects on something Oliver told him: that purpose keeps us alive when everything else falls away. “He was right,” the artist says. “Before, I was chasing the high. Now I’m pursuing my dreams. I’m showing up for myself and the people I love.”
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