"I knew I was in trouble": David Bromstad opens up about substance use in My Lottery Dream Home: David's Happy Ending

In the HGTV special, My Lottery Dream Home: David’s Happy Ending, which was released on December 19, 2025, designer David Bromstad opened up about substance use and childhood trauma, giving viewers a glimpse into a challenging phase of his life. 

In an exclusive clip from the special shared by PEOPLE on December 19, David revealed that he turned to using intoxicants after watching a storm in Florida ruin his home while it was in the process of being renovated. 

Resorting to drugs, he said, was the easiest way to manage the trauma of the incident.

“I got into some unhealthy behaviors, and it’s really easy to go there when you’re under distress. Using substances has been … it’s a real easy escape to take yourself out of a stressful situation. I knew I was in trouble,” David confessed. 

The HGTV star further explained that the stress of the situation pushed him into such a dark corner that things became unmanageable. 

Matters escalated to such a point where he had to admit himself to a treatment program to regain the normalcy he had lost.

David shared that he had to seek rehabilitation while filming My Lottery Dream Home: David’s Happy Ending. 

David Bromstad gets candid about his addiction struggles in My Lottery Dream Home: David’s Happy Ending

David embarked on an adventurous journey of remodeling his “forever home,” which was documented in the December 19 special. 

However, he had not anticipated the drastic turn things would take. After working on his house for over 250 days, a storm nearly destroyed the entire property.

The damage was so significant that David had to tear it down and start afresh. 

The sudden turn of events took a toll on David’s mental health, as he admitted that he was “emotionally, physically, spiritually, psychologically” invested in the project. 

As a result, when he watched his “forever home” get destroyed, he confessed that his world came to a standstill and he was “literally screaming out for help.”

He was so intertwined with the house that his “mind was going crazy” to think he had to start afresh.

The shock from the incident compelled him to turn to “substances,” as he struggled to cope with the trauma. 

David also shared that the house was a project he designed to recover from his childhood trauma of being bullied. 

“Back when I was a teenager, I didn’t deal with what really happened. I was exactly thai amount of gay, this amount of perfect, but that was not celebrated, that was looked at in a different way back then,” he said.

The HGTV star continued:

“I was super depressed. I was super bullied. And so for me to idealize my childhood was a complete defense mechanism that was beautiful; it saved me.”

With that, David admitted that to watch his “childhood fantasy,” which was the home, get destroyed, affected him in many ways. 

The flooding from the rain and the consistent rain caused significant damage to the house and even led to an “extensive mold problem.” As a result, everything had to be stripped down and redone. 

It was then that David began indulging in “substances,” and after a period of time, he realized it was time for him to put the house “on hold” and seek help.

“I need to talk. I need to climb out of this hole. I need to understand why I climbed into it in the first place,” he said.

The Florida home eventually took four years to be completely renovated.

After checking into a treatment program and getting the proper attention he needed, David traveled to Norway in August 2023 to reconnect with himself and celebrate his 50th birthday. 

In the caption of the picture, he expressed how grateful he was for “every aspect of his existence” because it taught him to love himself, including the good and the bad parts. 

In another Instagram post about the trip to Norway, David opened up about his sobriety and how the journey he was on taught him to let go of his past mistakes and regrets and live “the life I was intended to live.”

Stay tuned for more updates.