Jake Anderson is well-known as one of the longtime stars of Discovery Channel’s Emmy Award-winning reality show “Deadliest Catch,” which chronicles crab fishermen battling the cruel Bering Sea in Alaska.
But away from the cameras, Anderson was battling another deadly adversary: substance abuse. This month, he released his autobiography, “Relapse.” It covers his struggles with alcoholism and drug abuse as an aspiring skateboarder and commercial fisherman.
Anderson said some of the issues started in 1999 when he suffered a serious injury that threatened his dream of becoming a professional skateboarder.
“I kind of gave up on everything,” he said.
Before then, he had occasionally used marijuana and drank alcohol. But he began to take pills and even used methamphetamine. When he decided to try and get back into skateboarding, he started taking the stimulant Adderall. Anderson said at the time he thought the drugs were helping him become a better skater when really they were standing in his way.
His addiction came with a stigma. He lost contact with friends who wanted nothing to do with a drug addict.
“They don’t want to touch you, they don’t want to talk to you, they point the fingers at you,” Anderson said.
He ended up on the streets of Anacortes, homeless and wandering with his skateboard for two years. He was alone and ashamed of what he’d become.
“There was nowhere to go,” Anderson said. “I can’t express the humiliation one feels at 4 or 5 in the morning, and all you can do is watch yourself walk up and down the streets.”
There’s a moment he remembers, sitting on his skateboard on the Tommy Thompson Trail, an area where he’d often hide, with no money and the rain falling on him.
“I’ll never forget that,” Anderson said. “I’d given up on life.”
At 24, he moved to Kodiak, Alaska, to start his fishing career and began to change his thinking. He focused on being positive and told himself he could do anything. After relapsing back into drug use, he joined a support group and started working towards sobriety. He strictly followed the program and was able to crawl out of addiction.
Now he is more than four years sober, married, living in Seattle and working on the Northwestern, a crabbing boat featured on “Deadliest Catch.” And shortly being released last month, his book has become a bestseller.
And while he was selfish as an addict, Anderson said he’s started to change. He now takes time to give back to his community rather than take.
“It’s my fave thing about being on television,” Anderson said.
Anderson said the most important change he made to get clean was to change his thinking. He started believing in himself. Believing he could overcome addiction. Believing he could accomplish whatever he could put his mind to.
His sobriety helped him through some of the darkest moments in his life. In recent years, Anderson has faced several losses, including his sister and several close friends. His father, retired Anacortes High School counselor Keith Anderson, disappeared in January 2010, and his remains were found 2 1/2 years later in a remote area near Darrington.
Jake Anderson said he has been able to handle the blows thanks to being clean.
“I don’t have every emotion in my body running off negativity,” Anderson said. “Since I was sober I had the power of choice.”
Anderson said he’s pained to see the growth of drug and alcohol abuse among the youths of Anacortes and in Skagit County. He hopes that someone will hear his story and believe that they don’t have to live in addiction.
“They don’t have to be that way; they can still be an do anything they want to do,” Anderson said. “If I’ve done what I’ve done and made it where I am, they can do far better.”
ABOUT JAKE ANDERSON
A fourth generation fisherman, Jake Anderson grew up in the rich fishing environment of Anacortes, Washington. At age seventeen, Jake began salmon fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and by the age of twenty-five he was crab fishing in the heart of the Bering Sea. Soon after, Jake became a deckhand on the F/V Northwestern and joined the popular television series Deadliest Catch. As an integral part of the show, Jake is known for his hardworking nature that has allowed him to evolve from greenhorn to licensed captain.
Aside from fishing, Jake has a harrowing story that has yet to be told. As an avid skateboarder, Jake aspired to become a professional until he was sidelined by injury, addiction, and homelessness. After relentlessly battling back, he was then confronted with the untimely losses of his sister, father, and mentor, Phil Harris. But with depth and maturity, Jake persevered. In his debut book, Relapse, Jake serves as an inspiration as he candidly shares his private journey to overcome tragedy.