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Austin Shepard<\/a> faced a harsh reality after he made his way onto the Love Island USA villa in Fiji last summer. The TV personality recently appeared on TMZ\u2019s Previously On\u2026 podcast<\/a>, where he revealed he is 11 days sober after a stint at rehab for opioid addiction.<\/p>\n \u201cI know how this road goes. I\u2019ve got plenty of friends that are not here today that have sadly passed from it. It\u2019s either death or a long life of misery,\u201d he said of his struggles with addiction.<\/p>\n He explained that he experienced a moment of clarity while filming the reality show\u2019s spin-off, Love Island: Beyond the Villa. According to TMZ, producers reportedly didn\u2019t know about his relapse because he \u201ctried to avoid filming as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a pretty manipulative, functional addict until it becomes so unmanageable, like how it got,\u201d Austin explained, before revealing he had a seizure once he arrived at the detox center and had to be sent to the emergency room.<\/p>\n Austin Shepard on Love Island USA season 7.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time Austin has opened up about his struggles with addiction. After he left the Love Island USA villa last year, he told The Journey Podcast<\/a> about an unconventional and \u201csuper intense\u201d 18-hour treatment he underwent.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was 22, to get clean from opiates, I did this psychedelic stuff called Ibogaine,\u201d he said on the August 26 episode of the pod.<\/p>\n He added that during his trip on the psychedelic, he saw a version of his life flash before him. \u201cIn it, I lived until I was 64 years old as an addict, day in and day out,\u201d he shared. \u201cHad two kids, a wife, kids got taken away. And then I came out of my trip 18 hours later, and I was like, \u2018Holy shit, I need to get my life figured out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n These days, Austin says he\u2019s committed to staying sober as he stays with his dad and his girlfriend (he\u2019s reportedly dating Raven Wood from O\u2019ahu Shores), telling TMZ that he \u201cplans to pay it forward and start a scholarship for those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Love](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ae508e9f-8ed2-4d1e-8a14-7dca1e9d7960.jpeg\" "\\"Love")
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