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Tag: celebs & sobriety

  • Tim Allen Says 21 Years Of Sobriety Is His "Biggest Blessing"

    Tim Allen Says 21 Years Of Sobriety Is His "Biggest Blessing"

    The prolific comedian entered rehab after a 1997 DUI arrest and has been sober since. 

    Tim Allen has had a lot of success in his career with his hit shows Home Improvement and Last Man Standing, and he’s also had success on the big screen with the Santa Clause comedies, Galaxy Quest, and for providing the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story movies. But he’s celebrating an even greater success these days, which is marking over two decades of sobriety.

    Allen told Parade, “To be perfectly frank, I’m going on 21 years sober. That’s the biggest blessing in my life.”

    Allen went through a terrible trauma when he lost his father at the age of 11. “When my dad was killed, we had a priest that said, ‘He’s in a better place,’ and I kind of snapped, like, ‘What are we doing here, then?!’”

    Before he became famous, Allen did nearly two and a half years in federal prison for cocaine possession. Allen told the Washington Times, “It was a watershed moment. It put me in a position of great humility and I was able to make amends to friends and family and refocus my life on setting and achieving goals.”

    Allen turned to comedy after getting out of jail in 1981. The Toy Story star called comedy his “coping mechanism. It always has been.”

    After Allen got busted for a DUI in 1997, he checked into rehab, and has been sober ever since. He told the Huffington Post, “For me, I was done! I was just done! And I didn’t know where to turn. A physician friend of mine told me a long time ago, you’ve just got to ask for help…if you need help, it’s the first thing you go to in the phone book, and it’s free. It’s a program that’s always got its doors open, there are no dues or fee.”

    Allen added, “It is a disease of the soul and the mind, and it will tear up the people around you. It’s a matter of hitting a personal bottom…I was tired of my excuses, I was tired of the shame and the guilt…so much energy to manage it. It was unmanageable. I sat there [and] I said to whatever God that was watching over me: ‘Help me! I will do what you want.’ I’m a guy who doesn’t like ‘organized’ anything but AA is just brilliant to me.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Artie Lange Gets Another Chance After Drug Court Violation Arrest

    Artie Lange Gets Another Chance After Drug Court Violation Arrest

    The comedian was arrested in May for being “non-compliant.”

    Comedian Artie Lange will be allowed to continue his drug court probation despite having been arrested for violating its terms.

    According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Lange has been held at the Superior Court in Newark, New Jersey and will be held there for a couple weeks before being transferred to another facility. Where to, exactly, is not clear.

    Lange was arrested on May 21 at Freedom House, the halfway house where he was staying. The Essex County Sheriff’s Office said that Lange was sober and “coherent” at the time of his arrest. The manner in which Lange violated his probation terms is not clear. Some reports stated that Lange was caught with heroin, but the sheriff’s office denied this.

    “Lange is non-compliant. Consequently, he will be taken into custody by officers from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office. He will be returned to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark,” officials said. “All the stories gave the impression he was doing great, but that is not the case.”

    Lange was originally arrested on heroin charges. He received four years’ probation, which he has violated twice before this arrest. As part of his probation, he was required to get a local job as part of his work release.

    “I gotta pump gas for 10 more days and then I’m satisfying the program I think. If this gets back to Howard, tell him I love him. I love him to death and I miss him,” Lange said in a video posted last month. “I gotta pump gas! I’ll be back onstage soon, though. I promise.”

    Lange worked on The Howard Stern Show for eight years before parting ways with the host, the titular Howard Stern, due to Lange’s excessive drug use. But according to Lange, there are absolutely no hard feelings:

    “There’s a million times Howard said to me, ‘Go to rehab, take as long as you want, and when you come back, you got a job.’ What else can you expect, and I shit all over that because I was a drug addict. Howard did me right. I love him.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lee Daniels Does Not Sugarcoat His Feelings About Sobriety

    Lee Daniels Does Not Sugarcoat His Feelings About Sobriety

    Daniels got candid about how much he hates being sober in a recent interview. 

    There’s apparently nothing magical about being sober for Lee Daniels. He said as much in a recent conversation with Vulture.

    “I’m angsty and I’m sober, so that is really weird to be going to the Met Ball and to other social activities not intoxicated,” said Daniels, co-creator, executive producer and director of the television series Empire. “I hate fucking being sober. It’s a bore. It’s a fucking snooze.”

    Daniels is nearing the end of Empire, which will end after its upcoming sixth season, and Star, a spinoff of Empire. But the Academy Award nominated, director, producer, and film and TV writer isn’t bothered. His most notable projects include Monster’s Ball (as producer), Precious and The Butler, which he directed—working with hit makers like Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Forest Whitaker, Halle Berry and more.

    When asked if he gave up drinking as well as hard drugs, he replied, “I don’t do anything. It’s really hard, but believe me, I’ve done enough for everybody.”

    Daniels recalled seeking comfort in alcohol as a young gay man in the 1970s. “I never really even liked to drink, but I drank because my father told me if he ever saw me with a man he would kill me,” he continued. “And until I was 22, I had to get drunk to actually go through with the process. And then the drug scene came. And then all your friends start dying of AIDS. Not one, not two, not three, I’m talking intimate friends that you’ve had sex with, you’ve had dreams with, hopes with, people that are better souls than you, gone. And you can’t figure out, Why the fuck am I still here? So then it was like me on drugs and drinking, not even knowing I was an addict but just erasing all the pain.”

    In a 2015 article by IndieWire, he said, “I don’t get it, I really don’t get it. So much so that I went out and did drugs to figure out why I didn’t get it. And then had a heart attack and kept going because I didn’t understand.”

    He breezed over a phone call he’d had with singer Patti LaBelle—“not a little high, a lot high”—and she asked, “Do you know Jesus?” Daniels said, “I said a prayer and I think that was the end of my drugs.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lisa Marie Presley Writes About Painkiller Addiction, Opioid Crisis

    Lisa Marie Presley Writes About Painkiller Addiction, Opioid Crisis

    The daughter of music legend Elvis Presley opened up about her struggles with opioids.

    Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, wrote about going public with her struggles with painkiller abuse in a foreword for the new book, The United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain by Harry Nelson.

    In the foreword, Presley tells the story of the first time she spoke publicly about her experiences with addiction.

    Last August, Presley was on Today to promote Where No One Stands Alone, a gospel compilation album featuring archival recordings of Elvis’ vocals with new instrumentals and mixing. When the interview took a turn towards the topic of addiction, Presley did not shy away.

    “I’m not perfect. My father wasn’t perfect, no one’s perfect. It’s what you do with it after you learn and then you try to help others with it,” said Presley, referring to her father’s famous substance abuse problems.

    On the show, she also revealed what life was like prior to finding recovery.

    “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.’”

    Presley chose to open up in hopes of helping others, she revealed in her foreword.

    “I had never openly spoken in public about my own addiction to opioids and painkillers,” she revealed. “I wasn’t sure that I was ready to share on such a personal topic.”

    Her own problems with painkillers began in 2008 when she was prescribed opioids while recovering from having her twin daughters, Vivienne and Finley. Her substance abuse problems began earlier than that, and she credits Scientology for getting her clean after a big, final 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.”

    She eventually found recovery and hopes that stigma will be abolished.

    “It is time for us to say goodbye to shame about addiction… Across America and the world, people are dying in mind-boggling numbers because of opioid and other drug overdoses,” wrote Presley in the foreword. “Many more people are suffering silently, addicted to opioids and other substances. I am writing this in the hope that I can play a small part in focusing attention on this terrible crisis.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Zachary Quinto Speaks Out About Getting Sober

    Zachary Quinto Speaks Out About Getting Sober

    Quinto recently went on Instagram to celebrate his sober milestone.

    Actor Zachary Quinto, known for playing Spock in the Star Trek reebot, opened up about his sobriety on Instagram and says he hopes that his honesty will encourage others to stay the course as well.

    Quinto announced on Instagram on May 24 that he has hit his three-year sober landmark. “I guess I wrote the right jumper for the occasion, when I think about how far I’ve come and how much I’ve grown and how much more I love myself…I’m really blown away.”

    Quinto, who is currently starring in the horror series NOS4A2, continued that he’s “very far from perfect – but perfectly flawed. And Working every day to honor and realize my full potential. Three years ago I had lost a connection to gratitude almost entirely. Today I am brimming with it. For this touchstone. For life’s abundance. For true friends. For support. For the sweet freedom of this journey. May it continue with compassion – curiosity – honesty and above all…LOVE.”

    As Quinto said on The Today Show, “I felt like there was… I was very proud of that accomplishment for myself. To share my experience and to encourage other people who are interested in that journey for themselves is something that I have a real privilege to be able to do. I felt like it was a moment where I wanted to take that opportunity, and just acknowledge that my experience in life is entirely different now than it was three years ago, and I couldn’t be more grateful and happier for that.”

    This year Quinto also appeared at a Q&A for the Rubin Museum with Dr. Judith Grisel called “The Power of Addiction.” Quinto lost his father when he was seven, but he had a fairly stable upbringing all things considered.

    “I didn’t have my first drink until I was 17 or 18,” he said. “And I didn’t smoke pot until I was around the same age… It wasn’t until I achieved a certain level of success that I began to drink problematically. Into my thirties, the things I had been fighting for, I got. I was at events with open bars all the time, drinking became a socially accepted way to navigate those rooms.”

    Quinto said, “I was just so miserable. I looked around at my life and said, ‘There’s no reason for me to be this unhappy.’ The most glaring component that was missing from my life was gratitude. I couldn’t be grateful, and I had so much for which to be grateful. I didn’t lose everything, I didn’t ruin relationships, I had what I think people refer to as a high bottom. There was one day when I was like, I can’t do this anymore.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ben Affleck To Star in New Addiction Drama

    Ben Affleck To Star in New Addiction Drama

    Affleck will play a former basketball star whose struggles with alcohol addiction led to the end of his marriage.

    Ben Affleck will produce and star in a new feature film about a former basketball star in recovery, slated for release during the 2019 awards season, Variety reports.

    Affleck, who is no stranger to recovery off-screen, will re-team with Gavin O’Connor, who directed him in the 2016 action film The Accountant. O’Connor co-wrote the film and will also direct. Warner Bros. has scheduled the drama, which is currently untitled, to debut in theaters on October 18, 2019.

    As Variety noted, Affleck will play a former basketball star whose struggles with alcohol addiction led to the end of his marriage. As part of his recovery, Affleck’s character takes a job as a coach for a high school basketball team at his alma mater. Affleck will star opposite Janina Gavankar (True Blood), comedian and former Daily Show correspondent Al Madrigal, and Australian actress Rachel Carpani.

    Affleck’s production company, Pearl Street, which he shares with fellow actor-writer Matt Damon, will oversee production of the drama, which was known at various times as Torrance and The Has-Been.

    People magazine reported in 2018 that the Oscar-winning actor began preparing for this film, which included daily training and meetings with a basketball coach while completing a 40-day stay in rehab for alcohol dependency. The highly publicized 2018 stint was his third go-around in treatment, following stays in 2001 and 2017.

    “Battling any addiction is a lifelong and difficult struggle,” Affleck wrote on social media after completing his treatment in 2018. “So many people have reached out on social media and spoken about their own journeys with addiction. To those people, I want to say thank you.”

    “With acceptance and humility, I continue to avail myself with the help of so many people, and I am grateful to all those who are there for me I hope down the road I can offer an example to others who are struggling.”

    Affleck, who can currently be seen in the Netflix action drama Triple Frontier, has won two Oscars—for Best Writing on Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote with Damon, and for Best Picture on Argo, which he directed and co-produced with George Clooney and Grant Heslov. He also won a Golden Globe for Best Director on the latter film.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Kelly Osbourne: Life Is Better Now That I’m Sober

    Kelly Osbourne: Life Is Better Now That I’m Sober

    “I let it get the better of me,” Osborne said about her addiction.

    Kelly Osbourne revealed that she’s nearly two years sober on the British TV show Lorraine Thursday, and according to the reality star and daughter of the legendary singer Ozzy Osbourne, it’s changed her life for the better.

    Before getting help, Kelly says she “didn’t think I could do anything if I wasn’t drunk or high, because I was scared of everything.”

    “I let it get the better of me,” she confessed.

    The young Osbourne is in London to host the 2019 British LGBT Awards on Friday. While she has been reluctant to take on a specific label, Kelly revealed that she is not only open to being with women, but is “open to loving anyone” during an interview with PrideSource. On Lorraine, she spoke on how important the LGBT+ community is to her after struggling to find acceptance as a sober individual.

    “It’s the only community where I feel like I am home,” she said. “They have accepted me for the good, the bad and the ugly and liked me at my best and loved me at my worst.”

    In an interview with People in 2018, Kelly spoke about being “ghosted” by a date after she admitted to being sober. People dedicated to sobriety often find it difficult to interact with a society in which so much of going out and having fun involves alcohol and/or drugs.

    According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the LGBT+ community has a higher rate of substance use disorders than the general population, so it makes sense that sobriety would be better understood and accepted within that community.

    Kelly Osbourne had her first experience with drugs at age 13 when she was prescribed liquid Vicodin, an opioid painkiller, after she had her tonsils out. She found that her issues with anxiety and fitting in, common problems for young teens, were alleviated by the drug. A couple years later, her persisting anxiety was treated with benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium.

    “I have crazy anxiety. I was walking around with a constant sweat moustache,” she told People. “So what’s the first thing you do? Go to a doctor. They give you Xanax, Klonopin, Valium. I’d start off taking them as prescribed. Then I’d be like, ‘These are magic pills! Take 10!’”

    After a difficult relapse, Kelly will be two years sober this August. She doesn’t miss the drama or the desire to be perfect that used to hound her.

    “Now seeing that I don’t need that, and my life is better,” she says “I don’t have any drama in my life. I have accepted the fact that — and I know I have said this throughout my whole life, but I really understand it now — that I am not perfect, and I am never going to be, and I don’t want to be.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lena Dunham Celebrates Birthday With Recovery House Fundraiser

    Lena Dunham Celebrates Birthday With Recovery House Fundraiser

    Dunham also took to Instagram to urge her followers to donate toward an LA-based recovery home for women.

    Lena Dunham — who opened up this year about her struggles with addiction — hosted a birthday party fundraiser for The Friendly House, a recovery home for women struggling with substance use disorder.

    “Today, rather than presents, I’d love for you to donate to Friendly House, which is dedicated to helping women navigate the journey through addiction to recovery. It’s a journey I know first hand can only be attempted with love and support, which is why I have started a scholarship fund for women who are determined to recover but don’t have the financial means to begin,” Dunham wrote on Instagram.

    She continued, “It brings me such joy to think of how together we can directly affect so many women who have forgotten that they matter.”

    Dunham said that in the past she has shied away from celebrating her birthday, but after achieving one year of sobriety in April she was ready to be in the spotlight.

    “I may own a birthday bitch hat, but IRL I’m no big birthday bitch. For someone who loves both attention and presents, I’ve sure cancelled a lotta bday parties at the last minute,” she wrote. “I used to think there was something a bit unseemly about an adult leaning into their birthday, until I realized I was actually just jealous of the confidence and self-love it takes to say ‘it’s my day, people!’ I often felt I was making up for some original sin and that the nicest thing I could do for others on my birthday was make myself as unobtrusive as possible (it never worked and I usually either barfed or cried.)”

    She went on, “But this year is different. This year I’m… wait for it… happy. And so grateful for where I am, who I am, and everyone who has helped me on my journey to health & sobriety. 32 was good to me, and for 33 I wanted to say a big old thank you.”

    Dunham spoke about her addiction to anxiety medications on Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert in November.

    “It stopped being, ‘I take one when I fly,’ and it started being like, ‘I take one when I’m awake,’” she said. She realized that her medications were no longer helping her, and that she had become dependent on them.

    “I still feel like my brain is recalibrating itself to experience anxiety,” she said at the time. “I just feel, literally, on my knees grateful every day.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Rob Lowe Reflects On 29 Years Of Sobriety

    Rob Lowe Reflects On 29 Years Of Sobriety

    The actor shared a message of positivity on Instagram as he celebrated the milestone.

    Actor Rob Lowe celebrated 29 years sober from drugs and alcohol in an Instagram post. In the caption of a photo of his younger self, he left some encouraging words to anyone who finds themselves on a similar path to his.

    “Today I celebrate 29 years of sobriety. Thank you to all those who have inspired me on this wonderful, challenging and life-changing journey,” he captioned the post. “If you, or someone you know, are struggling with alcohol or addiction, there CAN be a future of hope, health and happiness. And it comes one day at a time. #recovery #ItWorks.”

    His post was well-received by fans with over 82,000 likes, including support from big names like actress Demi Moore and supermodel Naomi Campbell. Lowe’s own brother, Chad, also pitched in: “Congratulations!!! Thanks for saving me a seat!!”

    Lowe’s son, Johnny, posted in support of his father. “So proud of you. Love you,” wrote Johnny.

    Lowe’s alcohol use led him to some dark places, including a 1988 sex tape of himself with a 16-year-old girl in Atlanta, where he was supposed to appear in support of Michael Dukakis at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. He says the incident helped him realize how far he had fallen.

    “It ends up being the greatest thing that ever happened to me,” he said in a 2011 interview with Oprah. “Because what it ends up doing is accelerating my alcohol [addiction] to where I finally get sober. I have been able to have the rest of my life that I’m so blessed with, which is now 20 years of sobriety.”

    The Parks and Recreation star has been open about his struggles, including how he problematically replaced his substance addictions with exercise.

    “It became an outlet for all of the tension, stresses, compulsivity,” said Lowe. “I funneled the addiction, frankly, into that.”

    Eventually Lowe was able to approach exercise with a healthier mentality, integrating it as a way to understand himself.

    “I don’t want to have the smoothie stand. I don’t want to look at beautiful women when I work out. I like the forced mental solitude of it,” said Lowe. “Inevitably, it will force you to start working through things you’re not going to if you’re listening to Jay-Z.”

    Most importantly, he was able to admit to himself that he exercised for the wrong reason—to look good.

    “Men deny having vanity—that’s the greatest vanity. Not me. I’m vain as fuck,” confessed Lowe.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Craig Ferguson Talks Sobriety, Alcoholism

    Craig Ferguson Talks Sobriety, Alcoholism

    “There were many points along the way where I could have gone off that awful train and I didn’t,” Ferguson told People Now.

    Former late-night host Craig Ferguson wants people with alcoholism to know they can stop drinking any time—they don’t need to wait for the big rock bottom moment.

    Ferguson, who has been sober for 27 years, said that he didn’t have one rock bottom situation, but a series of times when he realized he needed to change his relationship with alcohol, according to People.

    “There were many points along the way where I could have gone off that awful train and I didn’t,” he said. “If I would impart one message to the drinking alcoholics now… if you want to stop you can stop now. You don’t have to wait for it to get worse.”

    He continued, “‘Where’s my big moment?’ It’s here. If you’re worried about your drinking there’s probably a reason.”

    Ferguson, who is promoting his new book Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations, and Observations, also discussed sobriety with Daniel Asa Rose of The Washington Post.

    “You really were quite the accomplished drinker in your day, weren’t you? At one point, you mention that one of your acquaintances said you were the ‘alkiest alky’ she’d ever met. Are there moments when you really miss the sauce?” Rose asked.

    “No. Couldn’t have written this book. I’m glad I did it and glad it’s over,” Ferguson said.

    He continued, “Y’know, quitting was instrumental in my writing. The conversation in pubs I thought I’d miss was more than compensated for by the talk at [AA] meetings. That may be where I picked up my rambling manner.”

    Two years ago Ferguson went on Twitter to mark 25 years of sobriety. “I’m 25 years sober today and anyone who knew me back then would tell you how impossible that is. Thanks for the miracle,” he wrote.

    While Ferguson is normally no-holds-barred with the jokes, in 2007 he delivered a famous monologue urging people to be more kind to celebrities who are struggling with addiction or mental health issues.

    “At what price am I doing this stuff?” Ferguson said.

    At the time, he said that he wouldn’t be making fun of Britney Spears, who was clearly struggling. “What she’s going through—it reminds me of what I was doing. It reminds me of where I was 15 years ago,” he said.

    Ferguson said that he was uncomfortable making fun of people who obviously needed help.

    “I have found that the only way I can deal with [alcoholism] is to find other people who have similar experiences and talk to them. It doesn’t cost anything. And they’re very easy to find. They’re very near the front of the telephone book. Good luck,” Ferguson said, referring to AA.

    View the original article at thefix.com