The Situation Details How Much of a 'Menace' He Was Filming Jersey Shore Amid Drug Addiction (Exclusive)

The reality TV star had already started using opiates before he was cast on the series, but his instant fame and sudden influx of serious cash only exacerbated his abuse. By the end of the show's second season, however, production had a pretty good idea what was going on with him and started to really push back.

In his new book, Reality Check: Making the Best of The Situation - How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison, Sorrentino details some of the behind the scenes drama, revealing their Shore paydays -- "well above six figures" starting Season 2 --  and how he snuck drugs into filming. Speaking with TooFab, he said he "definitely was a little worried" about spilling too much involving production.

"I definitely was a little worried because I've been an employee of MTV for -- it's gotta be a decade straight but on and off for 15 years -- so I did walk that fine line of telling the truth, but at the same time, having total accountability on what had happened during that time period," he explained.

"The whole time, while all this was going on, season after season, MTV and the executives and [producer Sally Ann Salasano of 495 Productions] would pull me aside and be like, 'Are you okay? It doesn't look like it. Your behavior, is huge red flags.' And I'd be like, 'No, I'm okay. I'm okay,'" he recalled, adding, "And as you read in the book, I was a menace and they will admit that to you."

Saying he's "so lucky to be alive today," he said it will probably be "very jarring" for fans to see just how much was going on while filming one of the biggest reality shows in the world. Sorrentino said that as his drug use increased -- going so far as to work out an arrangement with a local tanning salon in Miami where he could pick up pills as part of his GTL routine -- his behavior became harder and harder to ignore.

"I think season after season they tried to at least get some physical evidence so they could sit me down and be like, 'Listen, we got you red handed.' I think they really were trying. If you read the book, it was a game of cat and mouse every season. It was Mission: Impossible," he explained. "I was pushing the envelope on every single thing that you can do on this juggernaut of reality show for MTV."

He wrote in his book that after filming the second season, producers actually asked him on camera whether he had a drug problem while doing confessional interviews. He said he stormed out after telling them to "Go f--k yourself" and complained to the head of the network how he felt he was being "disrespected" by producers "trying to make me look like a drug addict" ... while he was one. His costars began to turn on him as well, with Vinny Guadagnino and Pauly D starting to distance themselves from him, while Jenni "JWoww" Farley also confronted him in an argument that made air -- but didn't include any mention of drugs.

After a season in Italy -- where he snuck pills into the country in his shoes, before going off the deep end when he ran out with weeks left of filming -- and an immediate return to Jersey Shore for Season 5, Sitch says he was finally given an ultimatum.

"They were like, the writing is on the wall, he's escaped from set probably almost a dozen times -- literally a dozen times, because it was about two to three times a season -- and eventually they put it in my contract at a particular point, they said, if Mike escapes, we're allowed to penalize him monetarily," he told TooFab. "I still escaped multiple times in season five. And once that happened, they sent the ultimatum and they said, 'If you don't return to set on season six, The Situation that we know and love from season one, pretty much you're not welcome."

In the book, he acknowledged his "toxic behavior further fatigued my castmates," admitting he was "very confrontational" and "wasn't pleasant to be around" at the time. He also began mixing Lean -- aka codeine mixed with Sprite -- with Roxicet, often passing out with lit cigarettes and even once waking up to a couch in flames. He also revealed that if anyone watches that fifth season back, anytime he's heard talking on the phone about how many "Girls" would be at the club, he was using code, and was actually referring to the number of pills he'd be scoring that night.

After the ultimatum, Sitch told TooFab he took it "very seriously" -- adding he was "surprised that I was able to take it that far and was happy to go to rehab" at the time. Sobriety didn't last, however, and soon he was using steroids, put on Adderall and taking Valium to sleep, smoking weed while also burning through cigarettes and Red Bull. While the face of a drug used to treat opiate addiction, he also start using them again too.

He continued to spiral, losing a lot of his money in the process after the steady cash flow from Jersey Shore came to an end when the show concluded after its sixth season. His rock bottom was a scary heroin ordeal you can read about here, before he entered rehab a final time -- relapsing once while in treatment before finally getting sober. This month marks eight years of sobriety for Mike.

After his wife Lauren Pesce read the book, Mike said she couldn't believe he was actually able to fill its pages -- as he was high out of his mind for a lot of his past, leading to hazy memories.

"I was my own pharmacy, my own chemist and I'm lucky to be in front of you right now. In the book I write that I always had hundreds and hundreds of pills on me at all times. It was just really insanity, that I'm so grateful to be in front of you right now," he told TooFab.

"All I can do in this situation is be accountable and be truthful. I'm releasing a book and I've made it to the other side of the life of excess and the excess of parties and drugs and women," he continued. "And I'm now eight years clean and sober. I have two babies with one away and a healthy, happy marriage. So I think it's very, very important to scream from the rooftops these positive stories, because if Mike can do it, you can too."

Saying he's "all in my feels" now that the book is out there, he hopes he can serve as an inspiration to others and has already been feeling the love from fans.

Reality Check: Making the Best of The Situation - How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison is available now.