Matthew Perry on why ‘everything starts with sobriety’
I grew up with ‘Friends’ and remember watching him deterioriate on TV
I’m thrilled to see Matthew Perry looking happy and sober, because I remember watching him disintegrate in realtime.
At the height of his fame as one of the young stars of the sitcom Friends, Perry was at one of the lowest levels of his personal life.
For young people who only know Friends via binging it on Netflix, I can’t really put into perspective how much Perry’s shocking weight loss and well-known addiction problems dominated the tabloids at the time.
In a new article in People magazine to mark the release of his new book, he describes just how bad things got.
According to People’s account of Perry’s new book, which comes out on Nov. 1, he was down to 127 pounds and taking 55 Vicodin per day at one point.
“I didn’t know how to stop,” he told the magazine. “If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail,’ I’d start packing. I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older.”
He nearly died at one point because drugs had completely destroyed his gastrointestinal system. As he puts it, people would have been shocked if he died, but not surprised.
This whole deterioration was tough to watch as:
- A human being
- A Canadian (he grew up here)
- Someone who met him personally and knew him to be a kind and gracious person (I interviewed him at the height of his fame when I was a nobody intern at my local newspaper about hockey, of all things — he was in town for a playoff game and I managed to find him near his suite during an intermission)
Bouncing back
Thankfully, it appears Perry has finally found his way to sobriety and a sense of peace and calm. He goes to the gym and now calls himself “a healthy guy.”
He talked to People about a newfound sense of gratitude.
“I’m an extremely grateful guy. I’m grateful to be alive, that’s for sure. And that gives me the possibility to do anything.”
He also has an inspiring message for anyone who is struggling right now and know the depths he struggled in.
“What I’m most surprised with is my resilience. The way that I can bounce back from all of this torture and awfulness.”
Congrats to Matthew Perry … I look forward to reading the book!
Thank you very much for reading this post all the way to the end! I hope it inspires you on your own sobriety journey. If you enjoyed it, please give it a clap or two so others can find it!
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