Faces of Midland: Adam Wittbrodt
Faces of Midland is a collaborative storytelling project celebrating the vibrant lives of those who live, work, and thrive in Midland.
From Collapse to Contribution
Adam Wittbrodt gives back
By Trisha Fenby
Photo by Renee’ Deckrow, Captured Studio
Feeling unstable, Adam Wittbrodt reached for the hotel counter where he worked as a registration clerk. He was trying to stabilize himself long enough to check the guest into the hotel, but everything turned fuzzy and then he collapsed. The guest called 911, as the heroin needle fell from Adam’s pocket. She saved his life that night because for a moment, Adam was gone. Her quick action brought the first responders to the scene and Narcan brought him back. Addiction had complete control of Adam’s life.
Down the road, Adam’s mom was working at a convenience store. Someone came in and made a comment that an employee at the hotel just overdosed. While Adam’s life was focused on his next fix, his family was grieving the man they used to know.
Little did he know, his journey to recovery started the moment he was resuscitated.
Additional drugs were found on Adam when they administered the Narcan. This meant that he would have to go to court. But he knew how the system worked and set his own arraignment up, expecting to get released on a PR Bond. He arrived in court with money in his pocket to go get high after the hearing, but the judge had other plans for Adam and set the bond at $500,000. Adam was placed in the Midland County Jail.
Adam recalls saying to his cellmate, “it's BS that they revived me just to charge me with a felony.” It was in that moment, hearing his words, he realized that he needed help.
His eventual willingness to change emerged during incarceration, where he recognized the need for help and entered a recovery court program. This program demanded frequent reporting, meetings, and court appearances, fostering accountability and a focus on gratitude.
His drug use started around fifteen years earlier, when a sports injury led him to a prescription for Vicodin. He was a sophomore in school, and there was no awareness on how addictive opiates are. His mom monitor his use of the prescribed opiates, but he was asking for them early. While she didn’t give them to him, it was a an early sign that he was chasing the feeling. The recreational use started shortly after that, and no one was monitoring that.
Today, Adam is celebrating 9 years of sobriety. The hotel, where his life nearly ended, was recently torn down, symbolizing the death of that era of his life. Adam is a different person now. He’s healthy, successful, married, and has a family.
Fitness emerged as a passion during a period of self discovery. He was reading a book that talked about passion and purpose. Throughout Adam’s life, he wanted to be active. He joked about “Ball” being his first word. He started working out again, and recognized the positive coping mechanism this provided.
This passion, combined with his desire to help others led him to build a personal training business. A space where he can live his passion, and help others reach their goals too. He is actively involved in community programs aimed at supporting individuals affected by addiction and trauma, including youth transitioning out of juvenile care center To expand his outreach efforts, he now has a podcast and writes a fitness column in the Midland Daily News, in addition to his training business.
Another positive outcome as a result of his sobriety is Amanda. They met on June 23, 2018, two years after his last high and got married on July 8, 2022. She has children, and now Adam is a role model for four young boys.
“I went from being a child of someone who with a substance abuse problem to becoming a stepparent to children who share that same experience.” Adam has lived every angle of addiction – the confusion, the anger, the empathy.
Adam shares his story openly because he knows it can help others. This is who he is, unfiltered. “Relate, don’t compare” Adam’s motto is formed from his own lived experience. Coming from having nothing but the clothes on his back, to owning a successful fitness business, helps him see both aspects. He knows what it felt like to have nothing. This drives him to provide opportunity for others.
His story reminds us that it isn’t just recovery, it’s reinvention.