Casey Neistat reveals how LA has changed his priorities in life

Alan Bernal

YouTube star Casey Neistat has reprioritized his life after moving to Los Angeles, saying that the good times in California are in “the shadow of the hardest, most tumultuous five years” of his life.

Moving all the way from New York City, Neistat’s “hustle and grind” in production has earned him a YouTube channel boasting over 11 million subscribers, two million followers on Twitter, and over 900,000 followers on Facebook.

From a dishwasher in Connecticut to a media pioneer in New York, Neistat’s ascension has been one of the most impressive and inspiring climbs to internet stardom.

Neistat seems content to take a step back from work to be with his family more.

However, this success came at a price, with the YouTuber revealing he had an “addiction to work” which led to his prominence – but might have left important facets of life “on hold.”

“All of (the fun since moving to LA) is in the shadow of what was the hardest, most tumultuous five years of my life professionally,” Neistat explained. “As long as (my fans have known me) work has been my life, and everything else including family have been on the sidelines.”

Moving to the sunny beaches of LA, Neistat was finally able to realize just how much he’s been making his family or health secondary to his work.

Noting how hard it was for him to admit that, the YouTuber is now looking forward to restructuring how his life operates with an unconventional form of “rehab.”

“Instead of going to rehab to overcome an addiction to a substance,” Neistat explained. “I feel like I’m in rehab to overcome an addiction to work.”

The new era of his life will see that his family and his well-being are the top priority. It seems like content creation and his work will now be taking a backseat to spending time with his wife and kids or going out to surf and run trails.

Neistat isn’t sure he’s overcome his addiction to work, since he still carries “the passion to make things,” but going through with the decision to move across the country gave him the opportunity for “a hard reset.”

Since the YouTuber has always had an active connection with his following, he gave his viewers a simple request to prevent him from falling back to old patterns.

“I’m still going to make YouTube videos,” he said. “And if I make too many videos, please, put in the comments ‘Casey, stop making videos. Go play with your kids.’”