Dustin Rhodes Credits 'Divine Intervention' And WWE's Wellness Program For Saving His Life

Veteran wrestler Dustin Rhodes has had a career spanning almost 40 years, and while he won several championships and performed under multiple different gimmicks, for years "The Natural" struggled with addiction and his personal life suffered. Appearing on the "Unbreakable" podcast, Rhodes looked back at his addictions, and credited the WWE Wellness Program for helping him to finally break bad habits.

"I'm on the other side, with 16 years clean and sober, and that's amazing to me to say that," Rhodes explained. The former Goldust then noted how he "lost everything," and looked back to how his battle first began when he took painkillers to deal with the pain like many other athletes before him. "Pretty soon, you know, my world is a mess: I've gained weight, I don't think I have any problems, and I am 60 pills in a day, half a gallon of vodka a day, an eight ball every three days — of cocaine — and it was just a mess and I didn't give a s**t about anything, anybody, nothing — I didn't give a s**t about life; I tried to kill myself twice."

"There were very rough, sad, moments and days, and I think what did it to me was divine intervention," he recalled. Rhodes then recounted going on a three-day binge and running out of money despite his wife constantly pushing him to get better. "And the third day after taking, you know, Vicodins, Xanax, coke, alcohol, everything — I woke up at two in the morning," Rhodes explained, noting that he then came to his senses and admitted to his wife that he needed help, leading him to get in touch with his dad, Dusty Rhodes.

Rhodes praised the WWE Wellness Program, noting how they help wrestlers get into rehab, and recalled how they got him into one within two days and showed real concern for his recovery. "I got in there and I woke up eight days later — I had eight days of detox — and then like after two weeks I started seeing things for the first time clear," he explained.

Rhodes further said that the rehab program wanted him to stay for another 30 days after he completed one month, but he refused. "I never wanted to go back there, but it did get me where I needed to be to go out and use the tools that were available," he added.

Rhodes also revealed that his struggle with addiction hurt his relationship with his daughter for years, and that he had to see her on supervised visits and would sometimes have to neglect her to make sure he attended his AA meetings. "My daughter's the number one thing that keeps me clean and sober now," the veteran added. "That's what it took for me to get out of this." Rhodes also noted that he suffers from depression too, but has come to the conclusion that it's okay to have bad days sometimes.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Unbreakable" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.