Tu Lam: The Truth About My Opioid Addiction

About this video

Tu Lam recounts his experience with opioid addiction that began during active military service, when doctors readily prescribed large quantities of painkillers to keep him deployable. He describes how the addiction affected his performance and relationships, his eventual retirement from special forces, and the severe depression that followed. Lam shares how he overcame addiction, rebuilt his life through teaching tactical skills and partnering with Call of Duty, but still struggled internally with feeling like a fraud until seeking help through a veterans program.

Key takeaways

• Lam recounts that during his military service, doctors provided him with large amounts of opioids (up to 150 pills at a time) to keep him operational in the field, which led to addiction that the military did not fully recognize at the time.
• Lam describes hitting rock bottom after his medical retirement, spending months in depression, and eventually flushing all his pills and enduring withdrawal symptoms before finding purpose again in teaching.
• Despite achieving professional success (appearing on History Channel, becoming a downloadable character in Call of Duty, building a tactical gear business), Lam says he still felt internally broken and struggled with cannabis use to numb emotional pain, feeling like a fraud when speaking publicly about leadership and values he felt he wasn’t living.

Episode details: published July 19, 2026 · 11.7K views · 27:00 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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