Matthew Perry tells all in his new book, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing where he goes into detail about his drug addiction.
The 53-year-old actor has struggled with alcohol and opioids for years and he estimated that he has spent $9 million to get sober.
The actor said that his addiction began at 14 with Budweiser and Andres Baby Duck wine and later graduating to quarts of vodka and taking Vicodin, Xanax and OxyContin.
In an interview with the New York Times he said, “I would fake back injuries. I would fake migraine headaches. I had eight doctors going at the same time. I would wake up and have to get 55 Vicodin that day and figure out how to do it. When you’re a drug addict, it’s all math. I go to this place, and I need to take three. And then I go to this place, and I’m going to take five because I’m going to be there longer. It’s exhausting but you have to do it or you get very, very sick. I wasn’t doing it to feel high or to feel good.
“I certainly wasn’t a partier; I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin and watch a movie. That was heaven for me. It no longer is.”
At the age of 49 he nearly died when his colon burst from opioid overuse. The actor spent two weeks in a coma, five months in the hospital and had to use a colostomy bag for the next nine months.
In the book he also said that the doctors had given him a 2% chance to live. “I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.”
When he did survive, it dawned on him that he was going to lose everything. The star has been sober for 18 months now. He first got sober for the Friends Reunion film in 2021 and has managed to stay sober since. His memoir goes on sale on November 1.
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