Steve-O Reflects on Sobriety, Emotional Growth in New Book: 'I'm Capable of Being Less of a Douche'

Although comedian and Jackass star Stephen "Steve-O" Glover is best-known for partaking in extreme and oftentimes death-defying stunts for the MTV series and film franchise, he's added to his loyal fan following over the years by showing off his softer side on Dancing with the Stars, as well as being unflinchingly honest about his addiction and past drug use.

At the age of 48, Steve-O is taking stock of life's highs, lows, and lessons learned in his new book A Hard Kick in the Nuts: What I've Learned from a Lifetime of Terrible Decisions, in which the entertainer details his misadventures as a practical guide to "growing up without growing old."

"Over the course of the 10 years after my first book came out, I started to think, man, I got another book in me. These last 10 years have been really crazy," Steve-O tells PEOPLE. "My literary agent said, 'Sadly, memoir part two is not a thing' but I settled on writing a book of wisdom and using it as a vehicle to tell all my crazy stories from the last 10 years."

The "memoir wrapped up in a self-help disguise" is full of the performer's signature humor and honesty. "I take advantage of every opportunity to make fun of the fact that I'm writing a self-help book," says the comedian.

"I think anybody reading it will be surprised to find that, um, there's actually some legitimate wisdom to glean from it," Steve-O says about his new book. He continues, "My experience in life isn't super relatable just because it's been so crazy. But my takeaways from the experience that I've had, I think, is relatable."

Among a host of other topics, the book delves into his 14 years of sobriety and battling all forms of addiction, which he says is a "continued exercise in understanding" his own limitations.

"It's been more of an exercise in just understanding that I don't know how to rein anything in and just kind of accepting that moderation is not my strong suit," Steve-O says. "Accepting who you are, and what about that is not gonna change, I think is a big part of it for me. I've come to accept that I'm never gonna be a moderation guy."

He continues: "As it relates to addictions, I think that it's about sort of surrendering to the process of recovery... the first step in the 12 steps being admitting that we're powerless in our lives. We admit defeat, you know? And you surrender when you've been defeated. So that's kinda how you address addiction."

He does not shy away from the "warts and all," honest approach to his personal ups and downs. When asked about his first book Professional Idiot: A Memoir, Steve-O jokes, "the book I wrote 12 years ago made me look like a piece of sh-- too."

"Right about when I celebrated one year of sobriety, there was a documentary special on MTV called Steve-O: Demise and Rise, and it showed really graphic footage illustrating my downward spiral, my descent into drugs and alcohol, and it was shocking," Steve-O recalls. "But that documentary, anybody who saw it, it did nothing to paint the picture of how ugly my run with drugs and alcohol got compared to my book. My first book, I remember writing it thinking, 'Dude, I'm gnarly.'"

Comparing his first book to A Hard Kick, Steve-O says, "that first book really, really detailed how bad sh-- got. This book acknowledges that I'm always gonna be a douche, but I'm capable of being less of a douche."

Steve-O credits much of his positive change to long-time fiancée Lux Wright. "I do not believe there is a single person in my orbit who's even remotely close to me or cares about me at all who doesn't recognize that, in my relationship with Lux, I am a better version of myself," the actor and comedian says.

He also recognizes that becoming a better person requires work: "A relationship involves compromise a lot of the time… I'm pretty good at viewing moments of compromise as an opportunity to express myself as the great guy I aspire to be."

He continues: "The people I work with and the work that we do revolves around me. So I do get trapped in a cyclone of me, me, me… I'm a self-centered douchebag and Lux is so much not that, you know? Like, Lux is constantly thinking of others and reminding me to do so. It hits me so regularly and so powerfully what a good person Lux is."

Steve-O's fiancée figures prominently in the book, so much so that he says "the book is effectively a love letter to Lux."

The book also contains plenty of Jackass content, of course. Steve-O refers to the two decades he's been involved with the series and franchise as "wholesome" knowing how counterintuitive that sounds.

"We beg for the attention, we're willing participants in all of the nasty stuff that we put ourselves and each other through," he says. "The intent of Jackass is very positive. It's- you know, we're here to make people laugh and give them a good time. It's devoid of any hatred or, anything mean."

When it comes to talking about his fellow cast mates, Steve-O jokes that he is "Switzerland" amongst the group.

"There's not a lot of tension or negativity among the other guys. Really, just the one outlier would be Bam with the situation that unfolded with him and the lawsuit and everything," he says. (The lawsuit, in which Bam Margera sued Johnny Knoxville and Paramount Pictures for "inhumane, abusive and discriminatory treatment" on the set of Jackass Forever, has since been dropped.)

"I have a great relationship with Bam, I have a great relationship with everybody else. And that's despite me having brought to the table some fairly negative energy myself," he continues. "We've certainly bumped our heads. We've, you know, had our conflicts and our friendships have endured, and that's really, really special."

He adds: "In a lot of ways, I think that were it not for Jackass, my personal arc would not necessarily have been so positive in its spirit."

Career-wise, Steve-O has no regrets. "My career's sort of based on making terrible decisions … like, I can't regret the dumber things I've done in my career because that's worked well for me," he says. "I've just got tons of regrets in my personal life. I regret any time that I was harmful to others."

The actor is currently on his "Bucket List" comedy tour and recording episodes for his podcast "Wild Ride! With Steve-O".

A Hard Kick in the Nuts: What I've Learned from A Lifetime of Terrible Decisions is now available. (Note from Steve-O: Signed copies of the book cannot be found on Amazon. The book must be pre-ordered from a website which explicitly states it sells signed copies.)