By: Jacqueline Liu | Orange County Register

Jason Wahler’s story starts off simple enough: he grew up in Laguna Beach, attended high school there, and became famous in the most unconventional way.

“Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County” aired on MTV for three years and documented the personal lives of a group of students attending Laguna Beach High School. Cast members’ interpersonal relationships, dramas, and fights were captured on camera for the entire world to see. Wahler made his first appearance in season two and established a reputation as hard-partying womanizer.

“‘Laguna Beach’ turned into such a large success and went a totally different route,” said Wahler, 26. “It was the biggest show on cable. The day after an episode aired, I walked outside and people started running up to me. It was something I never expected.”

The show received moderately favorable reviews from critics, and millions of viewers tuned in every night to witness the antics of Wahler and his friends. After the conclusion of the show’s second season, MTV commissioned a spinoff. At the age of 18, Wahler moved to Los Angeles, where he continued his storyline on “The Hills.”

It was in Los Angeles where Wahler’s alcoholism began to spiral out of control. “I was basically living the dream of any 18-year-old, being paid to party and travel the world at no expense,” he said. “It seemed like I was living the dream which eventually became my biggest nightmare.”

Wahler was arrested for being a minor in possession of alcohol at the age of 17. As a result, his parents sent him to a wilderness retreat program, which he attended only to appease them. “Being really young and having the connections I had and the availability of everything, there was no way I wanted to stop,” he said.

Over the next few years, Wahler had multiple run-ins with the law, many of them drinking-related. “To any person on the outside, they would have thought getting arrested four times within six months was crazy, but at that particular point, I was like, ‘Whatever.’ And now looking back, I realize that was absolutely absurd. My thought process was completely destroyed.”

Besides alcoholism, he battled depression and attempted suicide multiple times over the years. “It should have killed me,” he said. “I don’t know how it didn’t.”

From the ages 17 to 23, he was in and out of nine treatment centers and even appeared on VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” in 2010. He says that he appeared on the show as “just a background prop.”

“I was just going on that show not to necessarily get help but to have a career change and show the public how I really am,” Wahler said, “but obviously I ended up getting a lot of help from Dr. Drew (Pinsky) and his staff.”

Since his stint on “Celebrity Rehab,” Wahler has been sober for three years and now works at Northbound, an Orange County addiction treatment facility, where he oversees client services. His duties include offering support to clients and helping them adjust to treatment.

“It’s not work to me,” he said. “I get to help people on a daily basis; I get to see people change their lives.”

Wahler is newly engaged and plans to marry fiancée Ashley Slack in October.

“Today I live a dream,” he said. I’ve overcome my over-inflated ego and underestimated sense of self-worth and I’ve been able to work through that now. I’m confident; I enjoy life.”

“I feel like those six to seven years of being on TV was because God put me in a position to show how deadly and overbearing addiction can be, and to share the outcome of someone who can get through it.”