HGTV star David Bromstad is getting candid about his battle with substance abuse.
In his latest special, “My Lottery Dream Home: David’s Happy Ending,” which premiered Dec. 19, Bromstad revealed that he entered a treatment program after a storm at his Florida dream home led him to turn to substances to cope with the emotional fallout.
Bromstad said the severe damage to his fairy-tale-inspired home, including extensive mold that required the structure to be stripped for nails, triggered a personal crisis.
“I got into some unhealthy behavior and it’s really easy to go there when you’re in a pinch,” Bromstad said in the special. “I knew I was in trouble.
The renovation project had deep personal meaning for the 52-year-old creative, who designed the home to help heal childhood trauma from bullying. When the storm nearly destroyed him, he linked the physical damage to his emotional state.
“When I was a teenager, I didn’t deal with what really happened,” Bromstad said. “I was exactly that gay, that perfect, but it wasn’t celebrated, it was pretended [at] in a different way then.” He added, “Now my childhood fantasy, my house, is broken, like me.”
When renovations stalled, Bromstad knew he needed help. “I think with the house where I was emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, everything stopped. I was literally screaming for help,” he said.
This realization led him to seek treatment. “I decided it was time. I have to put my house on hold and I have to sign up for some program,” Bromstad said. “I need to talk. I need to get out of this hole. I need to understand why I got into it.”
After finishing treatment, the TV star celebrated her 50th birthday in August 2023 with a trip to Norway. On Instagram contributions out of the way, he reflected on his journey to recovery.
“Learning to love myself, warts and all, has been the hardest and most beautiful process,” he wrote. In another post, he said that “it feels good to be present, sober and living the life I was meant to live.”
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