Lamar Odom Gives Update on His Sobriety 5 Years After Near-Fatal Overdose

Lamar Odom is in a promising chapter of his sobriety journey five years after he was found unresponsive in a Las Vegas brothel after a four-day drug and alcohol binge that nearly killed him. The former NBA player opened up about his health today Monday on Good Morning America ahead of the release of his upcoming documentary, Lamar Odom Reborn, airing this week on YouTube, MTV Live and other social media platforms.

Odom has struggled with drug addiction since he was 12 years old after the death of his mother, but his 2015 overdose nearly killed him, causing 12 seizures, six strokes and two instances in which his heart stopped. At the time, ex-wife Khloe Kardashian rushed to his side, but the two would finalize their divorce in December 2016.

Now, the 41-year-old athlete shared with ABC News’ Steve Osunsami that he was staying sober with the help of ketamine, which has been administered to him in small, controlled doses as part of an FDA-approved treatment for the past two years now. “I went to rehab and did some other things, but ketamine came into my life at the right time,” Odom shared on Monday’s Good Morning America. “I’m feeling amazing. I’m alive. I’m sober. I’m happy.”

While ketamine was a popular club drug in the 1980s, scientists have been working with small doses of the substance to help people suffering from issues such as drug addiction, PTSD and suicidal thoughts. Odom explained that the treatment he has been receiving him has left him without the urge to do drugs. “I don’t wake up looking to do lines [of cocaine]… or waking up in a dark place or feeling unfulfilled,” he explained. “When Kobe [Bryant] passed away, you know, the old Lamar, that’d have been every excuse in the world for me to go get high, [but] doing drugs didn’t even enter my mind.”

Odom’s journey with ketamine treatment will be followed in Lamar Odom Reborn as it airs this week. The author says he hopes the documentary will inspire men, especially Black men, to pay closer attention to their mental health. As for his mental state and ketamine treatments moving forward, he said he didn’t have any intention of stopping. “I wouldn’t want to try to stop to be great,” he said. “If I have greatness inside of me, I want to try to get it out.”