The Fifth Vital
by Mike Majlak and Riley J. Ford
Genre: Nonfiction
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Mike Majlak was a seventeen-year-old from a loving, middle-class family in Milford, Connecticut, when he got caught up in the opioid epidemic that swept the nation. For close to a decade thereafter, his life was a wasteland of darkness and despair. While his peers were graduating from college, buying homes, getting married, having kids, and leading normal lives, Mike was snorting OxyContin, climbing out of cars at gunpoint, and burying his childhood friends. Unable to escape the noose of addiction, he eventually lost the trust and support of everyone who had ever loved him. Alone, with nothing but drugs to keep him company, darkness closed in, and the light inside him--the last flicker of hope--began to dim. His dreams, potential, and future were all being devoured by a relentless addiction too powerful to fight. Despair filled him as he realized he wasn't going to survive.
Somehow, he did...
HE NOT ONLY SURVIVED,
HE THRIVED.
Now he's a social media personality with millions of followers, and an entrepreneur, marketer, podcaster, YouTuber, and author who hopes to use his voice to shine a light for those whose own lights have grown dim.
EXCERPTS FROM THE FIFTH VITAL:
EXCERPT #1:
I tell myself every day, “You will not give up in the
face of adversity. You will look every obstacle, every hurdle, every demon in
its face. You will lower your shoulders and drive through that motherfucker without
hesitation or regret.”
I believe that’s what separates those who make it from
those who don’t. This is the mentality that got me through the most horrific,
life-draining days of my addiction, and it is the same mentality that pushes me
through every single moment I face today in my new career in this new L.A.
world. I tell myself that if I’m able to let this mentality seep into every
cell of my body, I can never lose. And this goes for anyone and everyone…that I
know for sure.
You will not give up. You will get through this. Just
keep moving forward.
EXCERPT #2:
The year was 2005. I had graduated high school just two
years earlier. Many of my classmates from my predominantly white Connecticut
town had gone off to college. Instead, I’d skipped academics and had gone
straight into a different kind of existence.
I’d had a good childhood. I’d had such a promising life.
Now, a decade later, I braved the most dangerous streets
in the country to sell drugs so I could support my own insatiable addiction.
To support this addiction, I sold narcotics to others
like me to keep from getting sick…to keep away the pain.
I often wondered, “How did I get here?”
But then I pushed away this distracting self-reflection
and continued down the path I’d chosen for myself.
Except…I hadn’t really chosen it.
In many ways, it had chosen me.
EXCERPT #3:
The cops pulled me from the car. I knew in that instant that my life was
about to change.
The detectives handcuffed me and placed me in the back of their police
cruiser. They swarmed around my car, and within minutes, found what they were
searching for: bags of heroin and a folded bill loaded with cocaine.
I was taken to the police station, fingerprinted, and placed in a holding
cell. I was officially charged with possession of narcotics and drug
paraphernalia, and then released on promise to appear in court.
I called my father and told him what’d happened. The news barely registered
with him. He was already so resigned, so worn out and tired from trying to help
me, that my arrest just added to his disappointment.
I didn’t even call my mother.
Take
a breath. You will get through this.
At that moment, I had an inkling of what drugs were doing to my life.
Everything that I’d ever valued was gone. My family had all but given up on me
in order to save themselves more heartache and pain.
Most of my friends were drowning in a pit of addiction. My friends who didn’t
use were so disgusted with me that they’d stopped answering my calls. On top of
all that, I was due in court on criminal possession of heroin.
Still, with all that stacked upon my back, I wasn’t yet ready to change. To
me, it seemed all part of the game. The life of a drug addict is a constant,
unrelenting grind. Days passed, nights became morning, and the story never
changed. My life had become a tunnel of dark, saddening events. But instead of
learning from my mistakes and choosing to find a way to prevent them from
happening again, I just chalked up the constant problems and harrowing debacles
as part of the game we were playing.
EXCERPT #4:
Most importantly, to those of you who have found yourselves caught up in
the endless struggle of addiction, mental illness, pain, chaos, and despair:
I am you and you are me.
Our stories, while surely dramatically different, share very similar
truths—that tremendous pressure you feel on your heart and in the pit of your
stomach, the heaviness that chokes the air from your lungs, and the anxiety
that ravages your mind to madness. I have felt that same terrible pain. You are
not alone. You never will be. Revel in knowing there is someone who feels just
like you.
If you have people who support you, take advantage of your extreme
blessing. Lean on them. They will be the ones who carry you on days you cannot
carry yourself. And on days you find yourself alone, burdened, unable to run or
walk, beaten down and ready to give up…crawl. As impossible as it may seem,
pull yourself through the mud. Scrape for every single fucking inch until one day
you find yourself able to walk again. Against the strongest of tides, keep
moving forward. Never stop. Never be pushed under.
However dark things are, and however dark things get, I urge you to find
your light. Find that one glimmering remainder of hope that continues to push
you forward.
EXCERPT #5:
The year is 2018. At thirty-three years old, I’ve taken
the social media world by storm. I’ve partnered with a world-famous
multimillionaire social media celebrity and businessman named Logan Paul.
A few weeks ago, I’d moved into Logan’s $7 million house
just outside Hollywood. I’d relocated to the West Coast to assist in the rebranding
of Logan’s public image and his Maverick brand, which included a clothing line,
a team of talent, vlogs, and other business ventures. The move away from
Connecticut has been therapeutic for me…a way to bookend a story of pain,
grief, and regret that had rooted itself firmly in the town where I was born.
On this particular day, we’re filming the pilot episode
of a new Internet show and podcast, Impaulsive. We’ve been preparing for
weeks leading up to this day. For our first episode, we’d booked a famous sex doctor.
I’d mentally prepared for the show: what I was going to say, how I was going to
act.
Everything was perfect.
Until it wasn’t.
I was on set in the middle of filming when the waves of
an anxiety attack started to take hold.
About Mike Majlak
Mike Majlak currently lives in Los Angeles, where he is the co-host of Impaulsive and the host of The Night Shift. He has millions of followers on YouTube and Instagram.
About Riley J. Ford
Riley J. Ford is a NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling author and UCLA graduate represented by Creative Artists Agency. She writes under multiple pen names and has sold more than one million copies of her novels worldwide. One of her books has been adapted into an upcoming movie for Netflix.
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