Tag: celebs & addiction

SNL’s Pete Davidson Realized “It Wasn’t The Weed” In Rehab

“I was sober for 3 months at one point and I was like this f— sucks.”

In a recent interview, Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson expanded on his decision to return to smoking weed after a brief period of sobriety made him realize he was “never sadder.”

The 24-year-old Staten Island native told Howard Stern on Monday (Sept. 24) that he needed rehab to gain control of his marijuana use, but ultimately, could not live without it.

“There was no way I could stop. I was like somebody has to put me in a house where there is literally nothing. I had too much access,” Davidson said. The comedian entered a treatment program in December 2016.

He said in 2017: “I never really did any other drugs, so I was like, ‘I’m gonna try to go to rehab. Maybe that’ll be helpful.’”

But once he was in treatment, he said “it wasn’t the weed.”

“I was sober for 3 months at one point and I was like this f— sucks,” he told Stern. Davidson said in a past interview with Pete Rosenberg that he was “never sadder and everything was just way worse” during this period of abstinence.

But at first, he seemed to enjoy the immediate effects of quitting marijuana. In a since-deleted Instagram post from March 2017, he said, “I quit drugs and am happy and sober for the first time in 8 years. It wasn’t easy but I got a great girl, great friends and I consider myself a lucky man.”

But later he would be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), an explanation for why he feels “depressed all the time.” “This whole year has been a f— nightmare,” he said in September of last year. “This has been the worst year of my life, getting diagnosed with [BPD] and trying to figure out how to learn with this and live with this.”

Davidson has been candid about his marijuana use and how it helps him cope with BPD as well as Crohn’s disease.

“I have Crohn’s disease, so it helps more than you can imagine,” he told Stern. “There was a point where I couldn’t get out of bed. I was 110 pounds.”

He told High Times in a past interview: “I found that the medicines that the doctors were prescribing me, and seeing all these doctors and trying new things, weed would be the only thing that would help me eat.”

View the original article at thefix.com

27 September 2018
Demi Lovato's Mother On Overdose: "We Didn't Know If She Was Going to Make It"

“I literally start to shake a little bit when I start to remember what happened.”

The mother of singer Demi Lovato spoke at length about her daughter’s drug overdose and recovery in an emotional interview for Newsmax TV.

Dianna De La Garza said that she still finds it difficult to recall the events of the July overdose, which she learned about through phone texts. Though alarmed by her daughter’s condition, she said that her faith provided her with the strength to support Lovato through her hospitalization and subsequent rehabilitation.

“I can honestly say today that she is doing really well,” she revealed.

As TMZ reported, paramedics arrived at Lovato’s home in the Hollywood Hills in the early hours of July 24, and found the performer unconscious from an apparent drug overdose. She was treated with the overdose reversal drug Narcan before she was transported to a Los Angeles hospital, where she remained for 12 days before being released and taken to a rehab facility outside of California.

In an Instagram statement posted on August 5, the pop star thanked her family and the staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for getting her through the ordeal, as well as her many fans who had expressed their support during her hospitalization. “The love you have all shown me will never be forgotten and I look forward to the day where I can say I came out on the other side,” she wrote in her statement.

In her interview with Newsmax TV, De La Garza said that she still struggles with recalling or talking about the events of July 24. “I literally start to shake a little bit when I start to remember what happened,” she said.

She said that she found out about her daughter’s condition when texts from individuals expressing their concern began to flood her phone.

Confused by the outpouring of support, De La Garza said that her mood quickly changed when she received a call from Lovato’s assistant.

“She said Demi overdosed,” recalled De La Garza. “It was something I never, ever expected to hear as a parent about any of my kids. I said, ‘Is she okay?’ And she stopped for a second and said, ‘She’s conscious, but she’s not talking.’ I knew at that point that we were in trouble.”

De La Garza said that Lovato was in “bad shape” when she saw her at the hospital, but needed her to know that her family was with her.

“I said, ‘Demi, I’m here, I love you.’ At that point, she said back to me, ‘I love you too.’ From that point on, I never allowed myself to ever think that things were going to be okay.”

While Lovato lingered in critical condition, De La Garza turned to her faith to help her dispel worries about Demi’s health.

“We just didn’t know for two days if she was going to make it or not,” she recalled. But the singer pulled through with the help of the hospital staff and support from her many fans. “I just feel like the reason she is alive today is because of the millions and millions of prayers that went up every day,” said De La Garza.

Today, as Lovato continues to work on her recovery while in rehabilitation, De La Garza said that her daughter is “doing really well. She’s happy, she’s healthy, she’s working on her sobriety, and she’s getting the help she needs.”

View the original article at thefix.com

21 September 2018
Mel B To Enter Rehab For Alcohol, Sex Addiction

Brown says she has been using alcohol to “numb my pain,” spurred by a difficult divorce and the death of her father.

TV personality and performer Mel B is heading to rehab for alcohol and sex addiction, according to the Guardian.

The former Spice Girl, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), said she’s had an “incredibly difficult” six months in which she’s had to relive past traumas while writing her upcoming memoir Brutally Honest.

“It has been unbelievably traumatic reliving an emotionally abusive relationship and confronting so many massive issues in my life,” she said.

The America’s Got Talent judge (born Melanie Brown) confessed that she has been using alcohol to “numb my pain,” spurred by a difficult divorce and the death of her father.

“Sometimes it is too hard to cope with all the emotions I feel. But the problem has never been about sex or alcohol—it is underneath all that,” she said, according to BBC. “No one knows myself better than I do. But I am dealing with it.”

She further clarified her decision to enter rehab on a recent Ellen appearance. “No, I’m not an alcoholic; no, I’m not a sex addict,” she told guest host Lea Michele.

This isn’t the first time Mel B has sought professional help. She told Michele that she has been receiving therapy since her father got diagnosed with cancer nearly a decade ago.

The current treatment she has been receiving has been “really helping me,” she said, according to The Sun. “I am fully aware I am at a crisis point.”

The singer and songwriter is getting help to become “a better version of myself for my kids, for my family and for all the people who have supported me in my life,” she said.

And if she can be a voice for those who silently suffer, “if I can shine a light on the issue of pain, PTSD and the things men and women do to mask it, I will,” she added.

Mel B is finalizing her divorce with Stephen Belafonte, which ended with restraining orders and a domestic violence trial that was settled out of court.

The singer said she was emotionally and “financially battered” by the breakup.

“You know, I was with the same person for 10 years, and that was quite a turmoil, very intense,” she said on Ellen. “That’s all I can say about it. I’d like to say a lot more, but on this show, let’s keep it PC. But… I did kind of have to ease my pain. I suffer a lot from PTSD.”

View the original article at thefix.com

29 August 2018
Lisa Marie Presley Discusses Past Addiction Struggles

“I was not happy. The struggle and addiction for me started when I was 45 years old. It wasn’t like it was happening all my life.”

Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley, recently spoke on the Today show about her personal struggles with addiction.

Presley spoke with Jenna Bush Hager at Graceland on the eve of the release of Where No One Stands Alone, a new compilation album of her father’s gospel songs. (She co-produced the album and sings a posthumous duet with her father on the title song.)

Lisa Marie, who is now 50, said that her struggles with addiction began five years ago.

“I was not happy,” she said. “And by the way, the struggle and addiction for me started when I was 45 years old. It wasn’t like it was happening all my life. I have a therapist and she was like, ‘You’re a miracle. I don’t know how you’re still alive.’”

In a 2003 interview with Paper magazine, Lisa Marie credited Scientology for getting her clean after one last bender.

“I was on a 72-hour bender,” she said. “Cocaine, sedatives, pot and drinking—all at the same time. I never got my hands on heroin, but it’s not like I wouldn’t have taken it. I just couldn’t be sober. I don’t know how I lived through it.”

In 2016, Us Weekly reported that Presley checked into a high-end rehab for an addiction to painkillers.

Along with her father’s iconic music career, Elvis was also legendary for his own struggles with addiction. Lisa Marie was nine years old when her father died of a heart attack on August 15, 1977 at the age of 42.

Elvis’s death was a big shock at the time, and is still a strong cautionary tale against the excesses of fame and prescription drugs. Elvis had a personal doctor, Dr. George Nichopoulos, who came under fire for prescribing too many drugs to the singer, and after several medical board inquires his medical license was permanently suspended in 1995.

According to Biography, the toxicology report from Elvis’s death showed he had high levels of Dilaudid, Quaaludes, Percodan, Demerol, and codeine in his system.

Yet in the depths of her despair, Lisa Marie reached out to the spirit of her father for help. “I’m not perfect, my father wasn’t perfect, no one’s perfect,” she told Today. “It’s what you do with it after you learn and then you try to help others with it.”

When Hager asked what she would ask her father, Lisa Marie said, “I would want to know he’s there. Yeah, it would be pretty much, ‘I could use your help right around now.’”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 August 2018
"Mighty Ducks" Actor Shaun Weiss Arrested For Public Intoxication

Weiss was reportedly held in custody until he sobered up.

Shaun Weiss, best known for his role in the Mighty Ducks movies, was arrested in Northern California in the early morning of Saturday, August 4, according to People.

According to a police statement, officers came across 38-year-old Weiss and three other individuals outside of a closed business complex in Oroville, California.

“Weiss was arrested for being under the influence of drugs,” the statement read. “He was transported and booked into the Butte County Jail. He was arrested for intoxication only and no further criminal proceedings are desired at this time.”

Lt. Chris Nicodemus tells People that the group was “behaving erratically with flashlights” and officers suspected drugs or alcohol as a factor. As officers confronted the group, Nicodemus states it was obvious that Weiss was high on some sort of substance, though the exact type was not determined and no blood test was taken.

After being taken into custody, Weiss was reportedly held until coming down from the substance he was on. He was then released without charges, which, according to Nicodemus, is typical for public intoxication arrests in the state.

At the scene, Nicodemus says, Weiss was not argumentative or violent. Instead, according to arresting officers, he was “witty.”

Though this was Weiss’ first interaction with the Oroville police, it was not his first confrontation with law enforcement.

In 2017, Weiss was sentenced to 150 days in jail for stealing $151 worth of merchandise from a Fry’s Electronics in California. Two days after being arrested for that incident, Weiss pleaded no contest to petty theft, according to Fox News. It was his second such offense.

Shortly after the incident at Fry’s Electronics, Weiss was charged with a misdemeanor for meth possession and he was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

While Weiss’ most well-known role was in the 1990s as Greg Goldberg in the The Mighty Ducks movies, he most recently appeared in Netflix & Chill in 2016. Prior to that, Weiss held a handful of small roles in various movies and TV shows.

According to People, Weiss and his manager did not return requests for comments regarding his latest encounter with law enforcement.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 August 2018
Keith Urban & Other Celebs Offer Demi Lovato Recovery Advice

Kelsey Grammer and Mackenzie Phillips are among the celebs who offered words of encouragement to the pop star.

Pop star Demi Lovato is expected to make a full recovery after landing in the hospital last Tuesday for an “apparent overdose.” CNN reports from a source close to the singer that the next step will be to enter a recovery program.

News of Lovato’s apparent overdose was especially striking; as the “Sorry Not Sorry” singer and Disney Channel alum has made a name for herself as a champion of mental health and recovery support. She celebrated six years of sobriety in March.

Fellow celebs in recovery have offered words of encouragement as the dust settles from last week.

While appearing on The Today Show in Australia, country singer Keith Urban, who has over a decade of sobriety, shared that it would benefit Lovato to have “good people around her and a willingness to want to live a different way if that’s what she wants to do.” He added, “It’s all up to her.”

The “Blue Ain’t Your Color” singer spent time at the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California in 2007 for alcohol. “I wish I’d gotten sober many years earlier than I did, but it is what it is,” he said in March.

Kelsey Grammer, star of the classic sitcom Frasier, could also relate. “Forgive yourself. That’s about it,” he advised Lovato. “Somebody told me a long time ago, a pretty smart guy, [that] ‘Any kind of addiction is really the result of unsolved grief.’ And that has held true for me as I’ve gone through life ever since and that’s why I give that piece of advice.”

Grammer said last summer that alcohol and drugs were his way to cope with a series of family tragedies, including the murder of his father during a home invasion.

He was finally able to move on, with the help of the proper treatment. “I just put [that pain] where it is: in the past. But it’s a pain that you can always stumble into again—it’s with you 24/7, especially in the case of tragic death, and there have been a few of those. It’s just a part of life. Maybe I learned a little earlier than most, but it’s just the way it goes.”

Actress and recovery counselor Mackenzie Phillips also put a word in. “You’re talking about someone’s life. You’re not talking about a breadwinner, you’re talking about a human being who’s struggling with a real, real problem. And so people need to just let her do her thing and get well.”

View the original article at thefix.com

2 August 2018
Dennis Quaid Revisits "White Light" Moment That Spurred His Recovery

“I was basically doing cocaine pretty much on a daily basis during the ‘80s.”

Since kicking off his acting career in the ’70s, former Hollywood “bad boy” Dennis Quaid has come out on the other side of cocaine addiction—“my greatest mistake.” Quaid, now 64, revisited the height of his cocaine use and the turning point that made him want to quit, during a recent interview.

“I grew up in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and there was a completely different attitude about it then. Even in some movie budgets. I kept roaring on,” he told Megyn Kelly.

“I was basically doing cocaine pretty much on a daily basis during the ‘80s. I spent many, many a night screaming at God to please take this away from me, I’ll never do it again because I’ve only got an hour before I have to be at work.”

But by the afternoon, the young actor would change his mind, and the cycle would continue.

By the time he was filming The Big Easy (1986), he’d sleep for just one hour a night. “Doing blow just contributed to me not being able to handle the fame, which, at the time, I guess I felt I didn’t deserve,” he wrote in a 2011 Newsweek essay. “I was doing my best imitation of an asshole there for a little while, trying to pretend everything was okay.

“Meanwhile my life was falling apart, and I noticed myself, but I was hoping everyone else didn’t.”

Quaid struggled to quit until the late ’80s, when he finally sought help. “I had a white light experience where I saw myself either dead or losing everything that meant anything to me,” he told Kelly.

He provided more detail about his moment of clarity in his Newsweek essay: “I had a band then, called The Eclectics. One night we played a show at the China Club in LA, and the band broke up… because it all got too crazy. I had one of those white light experiences that night where I kind of realized I was going to be dead in five years if I didn’t change my ways. The next day I was in rehab.”

But even after rehab, Quaid recalled that things got worse before they got better.

“It was one of those times when you think, ‘Well, if I do the right thing and clean up my life, it’ll get better.’ No, it got worse! In 1990 I did Wilder Napalm, which came out and went down the tubes. But that time in my life—those years in the ‘90s recovering—actually chiseled me into a person. It gave me the resolve and a resilience to persevere in life,” he wrote. “If I hadn’t gone through that period, I don’t know if I’d still be acting. In the end, it taught me humility. I really learn to appreciate what I have in this life.”

View the original article at thefix.com

25 July 2018
Cory Monteith Took Pain Meds For Dental Work Before Fatal Overdose

“He had a lot of medication in his system, which was not good for his body coming out of rehab,” the actor’s mother recently revealed.

The late actor Cory Monteith had been taking pain medication after a “massive” dental procedure he’d had not long before his fatal overdose on July 13, 2013, according to his mother Ann McGregor.

The Canadian actor, known for his role as Finn Hudson on the TV series Glee, died in a Vancouver hotel room from a toxic drug mixture including heroin, alcohol, and traces of morphine and codeine, according to the coroner’s report. He was 31 at the time.

Around the fifth anniversary of his tragic death, his mother discussed his use of pain medication post-dental work between May and July of 2013.

“He had a lot of medication in his system, which was not good for his body coming out of rehab,” she said, according to Washington, D.C.’s WENN. “He didn’t have enough drugs in his system to kill him, but for some reason it did because of his intolerance.”

Journalist and author Maia Szalavitz explained the effect that abstinence-based treatment programs like the one Monteith attended in the spring prior to his death will have on a person’s tolerance.

“Monteith followed the pattern of the 90% of opioid addicts who are coerced into 12-step recovery and denied an adequate period of maintenance treatment: He relapsed,” she wrote in her commentary, published in The Fix.

Szalavitz explained that the risk of overdose “is highest in the initial few months” after a period of abstinence, because a person’s tolerance to the drug will drop during that time.

Not only was the actor “likely not informed” about this heightened risk of overdose from his treatment program, he was not given the option to use medications specifically to aid his recover such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naloxone, which Szalavitz says would have dramatically reduced the risk of overdose.

When Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy discovered that Monteith was using again, he convinced the actor to enter a 30-day treatment program in April 2013, putting the show on hold.

Prior to that, the actor publicly discussed his near-decade-long recovery in Parade magazine in 2011, saying that he was “lucky to be alive.”

He first committed to sobriety at the age of 19. “I was done fighting myself,” he told Parade. “I had a serious problem.”

In his memory, his mother McGregor works to empower youth in the fine arts, through the British Columbia-based Amber Academy in Canada.

“Cory believed in prevention, rather than trying to fix people,” she said. “He wanted to give children opportunities to shine and feel good about themselves so they wouldn’t turn to drugs.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 July 2018
Artie Lange: Howard Stern "Did Not Understand Addiction"

The comedian opened up about addiction, alcoholism and his relationship with former boss Howard Stern on an episode of the Dopey Podcast.

Artie Lange, best known for his gig as the “everyman” sidekick on The Howard Stern Show, recently opened up about how addiction destroyed his relationship with the legendary shock jock.

Lange’s struggle with substance abuse has been lengthy and highly publicized. Over the years, the troubled comedian has routinely bottomed out while in the spotlight, ranging from canceled stand-up appearances to his suicide attempt in 2010.

He’s also had his police mugshot taken a number of times during his career, including three arrests in 2017 alone. Still, perhaps the most infamous fallout from Lange’s demons remains his firing from Stern at the end of 2009—a blow that clearly casts a long shadow across Lange’s career.

Guesting on the Dopey Podcast, Lange revealed just how unmanageable his life had become in 2009 thanks to cocaine, heroin, pills and booze. Despite seeing the root of his problems, Lange’s behavior ended his otherwise wildly popular run on the radio show.

Even worse than his addled on-air appearances, Lange suggested, was the uncomfortable position he had put Stern in.

“Howard did not understand addiction. He gave me the best job ever and he is a genius,” he affirmed on the podcast. “I was on the show for over eight years, but towards the end I was a complete addict.”

Lange likened his relationship with Stern to “a son-and-dad kind of thing,” which potentially made Stern’s decision to fire the comedian more complicated.

Lange also disclosed that he was earning $4 million a year from The Howard Stern Show, in addition to a variety of other opportunities, such as a starring role in the 2006 comedy Beer League.

Shortly after being let go from Stern, Lange’s drug problems and depression worsened. In 2010, he attempted suicide. And while Lange eventually recovered from the incident, it’s obvious that he hasn’t entirely gotten over being fired from the highly-rated program.

In recent months, Lange has even taken to blasting his former boss on social media, threatening to post Stern’s private phone number online. Interestingly, as Lange continues to escalate the feud, he doesn’t fault Stern when it comes to comprehending the true depths of his addiction.

“He didn’t know the extent of it. There’s no way he could’ve,” he told Uproxx. Lange added that even though Stern couldn’t grasp just how far gone the comedian was, he tried to get Lange the help he so desperately needed.

Stern even connected him with a therapist, put him into a treatment center, and encouraged him to take all the time he needed to find sobriety.

During the podcast interview, though, Lange indicated that Stern’s efforts were as generous as they were futile. Lange was straightforward and serious about the reality of his addictions, admitting that he might soon relapse and never find long-term sobriety.

View the original article at thefix.com

16 July 2018
Lily Allen Discusses Addiction, Self-Medicating

“I’ve used drugs and alcohol as medicine, almost, when things have been really bad. If I’m in a bad place, psychologically, I shouldn’t be anywhere near drugs and alcohol.”

British singer Lilly Allen first broke through in 2006 with her album Alright, Still, and now she’s back with her first new album in four years, No Shame.

As her new release hits, Allen is opening up about her battles with addiction, and why she may not be completely sober (though she’s not partying anymore).

Allen told People, “I definitely don’t rely on substances and alcohol in the way that I used to. It’s a bit about having made a conscious decision to leave that stuff behind. I would wake up in a haze in the middle of the Sheezus [album] tour and be like, ‘I’m 3,000 miles away from my kids.’ Why? What is all of this about?”

When asked if she got sober for her children, Allen said, “I think it was age. Waking up in a tour bus, really hungover with makeup running—it’s not a good look when you’re 30. It’s okay when you’re 19!”

Allen said that her drinking “got to a really bad stage, and I was definitely using alcohol as a crutch. I’m just very glad I’m not there anymore.”

Asked if she considers herself sober, Allen replied, “No, I wouldn’t actually. I would just say I don’t party anymore… I don’t take drugs anymore. I wouldn’t say I gave up drinking, because I might like, once in a blue moon, have a glass of wine at dinner.”

Allen said she was being stalked, which kept her close to home and away from outside temptations. “I think my sobriety was sort of forced by that. I wasn’t gonna sit at home and drink on my own, so I stopped; I stopped going out publicly and to places where people would maybe think that I would be.”

Once she had her “unintentional detox and respite from it,” Allen noticed that she was “thinking a lot more clearly… In the middle of the Sheezus [tour], I did do AA—I did my 90 meetings and 90 days, so I did do that, I went through that process, and I found it really helpful.”

Allen added, “To be honest with you, I don’t think I’ve ever been an addict, so to speak. I think that I’ve used drugs and alcohol as medicine, almost, when things have been really bad. If I’m in a bad place, psychologically, I shouldn’t be anywhere near drugs and alcohol. But if I’m okay… I just don’t, I’m just not really in a space where I want to drink.”

View the original article at thefix.com

21 June 2018