Tom Schwartz has been on Vanderpump Rules for 12 years, but nothing prepared him for the shockwaves the Scandoval sent throughout the nation. Before joining reality show Stars on Mars, Schwartz was ready to pack up and leave Los Angeles for good. The reality star said he'd “lost his way.”

“I had this sort of mounting urge to just pack up my stuff and move, I don't know where — not run away, but just move,” Tom Schwartz told People.

After the Scandoval broke, involving the lying and scheming of his friends Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss, Schwartz was also dealing with personal matters. He was going through multiple family health scares as well as processing his divorce from Katie Maloney. So, Schwartz was “yearning to just disconnect, to take a break from the internet, my phone, social media.”

Taking time away to go on Stars on Mars gave him the opportunity “and it couldn't have come at a better time,” he said.

“I had romanticized this idea,” he said of disconnection, “but once it came time to sort of part ways with my phone, it was scary. … I'm scared of how dependent I am on my cell phone in every facet of life. So it was nice to take a little break from that. And yeah, it felt rejuvenating and restorative.”

“I got a massive infusion of levity and an adventure, and it was kind of just what the doctor ordered,” he added.

Looking ahead at the new season of Vanderpump Rules, he said: “I feel more optimistic. I feel myself again, and I just feel better equipped to handle whatever life throws at me. I feel more me. I feel like myself again. … [I have] a fresh perspective, I guess. Yeah, I guess the word is, I feel like I recalibrated. I feel like I just lost my way. I lost my way a little bit. I really did, lost my way and now I'm found.”