Answer Addiction

Tag: celebs & sobriety

  • Kristen Bell Reveals She Smokes Weed Around Sober Dax Shepard

    Kristen Bell Reveals She Smokes Weed Around Sober Dax Shepard

    “I smoke around my husband and it doesn’t seem to bother him. Weed rules. Weed is my drug of choice, for sure.”

    Actress Kristen Bell recently posted a heartfelt tribute to her husband Dax Shepard on social media congratulating him on his 14th year of sobriety.

    However, that doesn’t mean The Good Place actress has to walk on eggshells to protect his sobriety, she revealed in a new episode of WTF with Marc Maron.

    “I like my vape pen quite a bit,” she said on the podcast. “I smoke around my husband and it doesn’t seem to bother him. Weed rules. Weed is my drug of choice, for sure.”

    “Once a week, if I am exhausted and we are about to sit down and watch 60 Minutes, why not?” she added.

    Shepard is candid about his past drug and alcohol use, which he admitted was one thing that contributed to the couple’s early relationship woes. “I just loved to get fucked up—drinking, cocaine, opiates, marijuana, diet pills, pain pills, everything,” he said in a past Playboy interview. “Mostly my love was Jack Daniel’s and cocaine. I lived for going down the rabbit hole of meeting weird people.”

    Shepard said he was lucky he didn’t land himself in jail. He is now fully invested in his recovery, which is why Bell can use cannabis around him. “He likes drugs and alcohol. He’s just aware that he lost his privilege with them because he can’t handle it,” said Bell. “His brain does not have the chemistry to handle it.”

    On September 1, Bell posted an open letter to the Without a Paddle star on Instagram in honor of his 14th sober anniversary. “I know how much you loved using. I know how much it got in your way. And I know, because I saw, how hard you worked to live without it,” she wrote.

    “I will forever be in awe of your dedication, and the level of fierce moral inventory you perform on yourself, like an emotional surgery, every single night.”

    “I’m so proud that you have never ben ashamed of your story, but instead shared it widely, with the hope it might inspire someone else to become the best version of themselves. You have certainly inspired me to do so,” she added.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ariana Grande’s Brother: Mac Miller Helped Me Get Sober

    Ariana Grande’s Brother: Mac Miller Helped Me Get Sober

    “He was the reason I went to the rehabilitation center where I was detoxed safely from all of the drugs alcohol and medications I was taking.”

    Frankie Grande paid tribute to Mac Miller in an Instagram post, stating it was thanks to the late rapper that Grande got sober.

    “I am beyond heartbroken over Malcolm’s death. He was a good friend and was wonderful to my sister,” Grande posed, referring to the relationship his sister, Ariana Grande, and Miller shared. “He was the reason I went to the rehabilitation center where I was detoxed safely from all of the drugs alcohol and medications I was taking, when I couldn’t imagine living without them. It was the place where I found the community of support that showed me that living life without drugs was a possibility and I would have never discovered that if it weren’t for Malcolm.”

    Grande went on to recount all the times Miller showed up to support Grande’s sobriety milestones before calling for sympathy for those who suffer from substance abuse disorders.

    “I am beyond heartbroken over Malcolm’s death. He was a good friend and was wonderful to my sister,” Grande wrote in the caption. “He was the reason I went to the rehabilitation center where I was detoxed safely from all of the drugs alcohol and medications I was taking, when I couldn’t imagine living without them. It was the place where I found the community of support that showed me that living life without drugs was a possibility and I would have never discovered that if it weren’t for Malcolm.”

    Grande recounted all of the times Miller showed up to celebrate his sobriety milestones, treating him with gifts and “words of encouragement.”

    “Addiction is a TERRIBLE disease… many people are suffering from addiction like I am and many many of them are losing,” he  wrote. “Those of us who are struggling with addiction must stay strong. We must continue to work HARD on ourselves every single day and help each other. Our disease is strong but WE ARE STRONGER and I vow to work every moment of my life to have myself sober so that i may be there for others.”

    Grande included several numbers to resources that anyone who may need help with substance abuse.

    “Malcolm my friend, you will be dearly missed,” he added. “And I know you will be looking down on me from heaven, proudAF for every day I live my life clean and sober… 453 days and counting… Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Andrew Zimmern Talks "Emotional Sobriety"

    Andrew Zimmern Talks "Emotional Sobriety"

    “I have found that it takes a very concentrated, focused effort in later years of sobriety to pursue a higher plane of wellness.”

    Celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern has tried some strange food and drink as the host of the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods, but one thing you won’t see him put to his lips is alcohol. 

    Although he now travels the world trying the local cuisine, Zimmern was once an “everything addict,” shooting heroin, pawning his grandmother’s jewelry and sleeping on the streets of New York City when his addiction was at its peak. Now, Zimmern has been sober for 27 years and still very much lives a life in recovery, something he is very vocal about.  

    “I think it’s a mistake for anyone to hide their choice to not drink,” Zimmern said in an in-depth interview with Quartzy about his sobriety. “We make choices all the time about food, beverages, and all sorts of things we put into our bodies. The silence reinforces the stigma and shame, and there’s a lot of stigma and shame associated with many personal choices.” 

    Being open about his history with addiction is also a way to protect himself, Zimmern said.  

    “I’ve found that if people don’t know you’re sober, then someone can very casually spin around and put a beer or a joint in your hand—things that might be very benign for most people, but for a recovering person can be very dangerous,” he said. “So not only for personal wellness, not only for the ease with which it helps you navigate sobriety, I recommend transparency. I think it has way more benefits than it has pejorative associations.”

    Zimmern said that many of his problems disappeared when he decided to get sober, and more were solved in the early years of his sobriety. However, after decades of sobriety, he still had a few core problems in his life that caused deep hurt, he said. 

    “I believe that for most people who have my kind of story, you stay sober a long time and a lot of shit gets better, but there are a couple little things that are still there,” he said. “I have found that it takes a very concentrated, focused effort in later years of sobriety to really target those things and pursue a higher plane of wellness.”

    For Zimmern, that meant doing therapy around trauma and intimacy. 

    “I’ve been abstinent from drugs and alcohol for 27 years. And I’ve now been abstinent from the problems and the consequences associated with my trauma and intimacy issues for a bunch of years,” he said. “I still have challenges in those departments, but no longer do I feel powerless. I now have a solution for how to deal with all of that—the same way I learned solutions to deal with my chemicals and booze. And I call this whole jumble of stuff emotional sobriety.”

    This is a lesson many people could benefit from, Zimmern believes. 

    “We’re living in very anxious, dangerous times. I think that there is a lot of fear and anxiety in the world,” he said. “Anyone who has a tendency toward something that makes them feel better is going to want to take their favorite medication, whether that’s food, gambling, drugs, alcohol, whatever.”

    Zimmern said that through therapy he has learned that there is strength in being vulnerable and kind, both personally and professionally.

    “My sponsor told me flat out, ‘You need to treat everybody in your life the same way that you would treat a newcomer in a 12-step meeting.’ I’ve never forgotten that.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Joe Manganiello On Recovery: Stigma Kept Me From Getting Help Sooner

    Joe Manganiello On Recovery: Stigma Kept Me From Getting Help Sooner

    “When I was growing up, when I thought of an alcoholic, I thought of some toothless guy in a trench coat in a basement somewhere. I just never thought that would apply to me.”

    Joe Manganiello, star of True Blood and Magic Mike XXL, has been sober for 16 years, and he recently spoke out about his sobriety, and how hard it was to initially get help.

    On September 7, Manganiello was honored at Summer Spectacular Event for the Brent Shapiro Foundation. Brent, the son of OJ attorney Robert Shapiro, died of an overdose at the age of 24.

    As Manganiello received the organization’s Spirit of Sobriety award, he told the audience, “Sixteen years ago, I crashed and washed ashore on the banks of sobriety. When I was growing up, when I thought of an alcoholic, I thought of some toothless guy in a trench coat in a basement somewhere. I just never thought that would apply to me. That type of stigma kept me from getting the help that I needed when I knew I needed it.”

    Manganiello has been open about his alcoholism in the past. He told The Huffington Post, “There was a period of about four years where I needed to quit drinking. And the drinking got in the way [of my career]. It was one of those obstacles that I had to get over and once again I needed to clear the road in order for these things to happen, so it really is an inside job. I had to clean up my act and figure that whole situation out. My life was ruined. I was homeless, careless and broke with no career, so yes, it was worth it [to get sober].”

    Manganiello told Men’s Health that his problems were “all internal…the drink just helped me to quell all the ill feelings I could remember having since I was a child. I was an addict before I ever picked up a drink.”  

    He also told GQ, “Had I not been able to [quit drinking], I’d be dead.”

    Manganiello added that when he got sober, he became “the man that I dreamed of being, and the result was I met the woman of my dreams,” namely Modern Family star Sofia Vergara.

    Robert Shapiro told US Weekly that with the Spirit of Sobriety Award, which is given out every year, “we honor someone that has been open and honest about their recovery because it serves as an inspiration to others.” 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Kristen Bell Writes Message To Dax Shepard On Sober Anniversary

    Kristen Bell Writes Message To Dax Shepard On Sober Anniversary

    “I know how much you loved using. I know how much it got in your way. And I know, because I saw, how hard you worked to live without it.”

    Actress Kristen Bell took to Instagram to write a message to her husband, Parenthood star Dax Shepard, to celebrate his 14 years of sobriety. 

    “I know how much you loved using. I know how much it got in your way. And I know, because I saw, how hard you worked to live without it,” Bell wrote on Instagram. 

    Shepard has been open about his addiction and how it could have led to more severe consequences. 

    “I just loved to get fucked up—drinking, cocaine, opiates, marijuana, diet pills, pain pills, everything. Mostly my love was Jack Daniel’s and cocaine,” he told Playboy in 2012. “I was famous for going out on Thursday night to have a couple of beers and that just led all the way to Saturday night… Of course, come Monday I would be tallying up all the different situations, and each one was progressively more dangerous. I got lucky in that I didn’t go to jail.”

    In her post, Bell talked about the ongoing, daily work that it takes Shepard to stay sober. “I will forever be in awe of your dedication, and the level of fierce moral inventory you perform on yourself, like an emotional surgery, every single night,” she wrote. 

    She pointed out how Shepard puts the tenants of recovery into action, as a husband and as a father to their daughters, who are 2 and 5. 

    “You never fail to make amends, or say sorry when it’s needed. You are always available to guide me, and all of our friends, with open ears and tough love when it’s needed most,” Bell wrote. “You have become the fertilizer in the garden of our life, encouraging everyone to grow.”

    In addition, Bell said that she has learned from how open Shepard is about his recovery.

    “I’m so proud that you have never been ashamed of your story, but instead shared it widely, with the hope it might inspire someone else to become the best version of themselves,” she wrote. “You have certainly inspired me to do so.”

    Bell has spoken in the past about how Shepard’s experience has changed her perception of addiction and people who abuse drugs, making her more empathetic toward those who need help.

    “Seeing the world through his eyes has really opened mine to knowing that it is a disease and nobody is choosing to drink more than others,” she told The New York Daily News in 2016. “They are doing it because of a variety of reasons and they deserve the attention of a mental health professional, and not the county jail or however else we’re choosing to pretend we’re fixing the problem.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • John Goodman Dishes on Sobriety, Roseanne Barr & Showbiz

    John Goodman Dishes on Sobriety, Roseanne Barr & Showbiz

    The 66-year old-character actor gave up alcohol in 2007 and still attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings almost every day.

    John Goodman, 66-year-old character actor and Roseanne star, shared details about his life, including his struggles with alcohol, in an interview with The Sunday Times.

    Goodman now lives in New Orleans with his wife, Annabeth. Despite an earlier prediction that his career would have dried up by now, he has roles on HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones and BBC2’s Black Earth Rising.

    However, his life may not be as idyllic if he had not gotten his alcoholism under control, he revealed.

    “I was an alcoholic parent. If I saw a bottle of vodka I had to have it, it was a compulsion,” he told The Times. “My wife had given up on me, I sometimes wondered if she was just waiting for me to die. She’d had enough.”

    Goodman gave up alcohol in 2007 and has been sober since then. He says he still goes to Alcoholics Anonymous almost every day. “You never beat it, it’s a daily thing,” he said.

    When the interviewer suggested that beating alcoholism must have taken a lot of willpower, Goodman declined to take credit.

    “It didn’t have anything to do with will. It just grew old,” he admitted. “I was unhealthy and I was hurting people and I tired of it.”

    Giving up alcohol also gave way to healthier living for Goodman. He began to eat less and exercise more, and despite two knee replacements is feeling the best he’s felt in years.

    “I do about 40 minutes on an elliptical machine every day. And I don’t eat as much as I used to. I was eating alcoholically—with both hands,” he said, adding that he does not follow any special diet plans. “I just eat smaller portions.”

    His career, and happiness, recently took a hit with the cancellation of the Roseanne revival due to a racist tweet by the show’s titular star, Roseanne Barr.

    “I was broken-hearted, but I thought, ‘OK, it’s just show business, I’m going to let it go.’ But I went through a period, about a month, where I was very depressed,” he revealed. “I’m a depressive anyway, so any excuse that I can get to lower myself, I will. But that had a great deal to do with it, more than I wanted to admit.”

    He did not expect the network, ABC, to react the way it did.

    “I was surprised. I’ll put it this way, I was surprised at the response. And that’s probably all I should say about it,” he said, pausing. “I know, I know, for a fact that she’s not a racist.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Actor Noah Centineo: Sobriety Is A "Really Beautiful Experience"

    Actor Noah Centineo: Sobriety Is A "Really Beautiful Experience"

    “When I got totally clean, I was able to take responsibility for all my laziness, or my incompetence or not being super honest with myself.”

    Actor Noah Centineo is just 22 years old, but he’s already extolling the virtues of recovery.

    “I’m completely sober,” he says in a video circulating the internet, in which he appears to be interacting with fans on Instagram Live. “I’ve been totally clean since May 8th of this year, on the day before my 21st birthday.”

    Centineo, who appears in the film To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before—released this month on Netflix—shared that he’d been “partying quite a bit” since he was 17 prior to his decision to cut out drugs and alcohol from his life.

    “I was like, wow, maybe I should take a break. So I stopped doing all that,” he said. “And I found that a lot of problems that I was having in my life slowly—they didn’t go away—they just became way more apparent to me.”

    The “teen” heartthrob, who also appears as Camila Cabello’s love interest in her music video for “Havana,” quit cigarettes, cannabis, alcohol, and even got off his anxiety medication. He said that for him, sobriety offered a sense of clarity that he hadn’t had before.

    “I could identify my problems and, more so, what’s causing my problems,” he said. “It was always me. When I got totally clean, I was able to take responsibility for all my laziness, or my incompetence or not being super honest with myself. So that was a really beautiful experience for me, and it still is.”

    From his experience, he learned that a clear mind can help people who are struggling with something within. “If you’re going through some really tough stuff, my advice to you is to get completely clean,” he suggested. “If you drink, stop drinking. If you smoke, stop smoking. Just try it for like two months.”

    He related back to his own recovery. “I made some poor decisions and hurt some people that I really loved, and I was like… do I really want to keep doing things that hurt people that I deeply care about? The answer is no, not at all.”

    He continued, “And if I could stop that, if I make decisions when I’m drunk that I would never make when I’m sober, why would I drink? Especially if those decisions and actions and choices are hurting people?”

    Instead, the health-conscious actor suggested replacing drugs and alcohol with healthy habits. “I replaced all my habits with working out, yoga, eating better, and spending time alone,” he said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino Celebrates Another Sober Milestone

    Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino Celebrates Another Sober Milestone

    Sorrentino announced his new sober milestone on Instagram and was showered with praise by his “Jersey Shore” castmates. 

    Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino has come a long way from his booze-fueled days on MTV’s Jersey Shore. The 36-year-old TV personality celebrated 33 months of sobriety on Saturday, announcing the milestone with a post on his Instagram account. “33 Months Clean & Sober #cleanchallenge,” he wrote. “Went from running into a wall to down on one knee. We do recover.”

    Sorrentino also tagged the Discovery Institute in his post, which he’s previously credited for helping him beat his addiction to alcohol and prescription painkillers.

    And despite having gone through a full year of treatment at Discovery (including both inpatient and outpatient counseling), he wasn’t initially sold on the idea.

    “I’ll be honest, I hated everything about [addiction treatment],” Sorrentino said. “But … I wanted better for myself and I was going to do whatever it takes to get there.” He noted that Discovery made him “humble” and that treatment forced him to understand that he didn’t have all the answers. “It costs zero dollars to be a kind person,” he added.

    Sorrentino’s Instagram post was applauded by several of his fellow Jersey Shore castmates, too. Former co-star Angelina Pivarnick commented “resilience,” while Snooki said “I am legit crying I’m so proud of you.” Sorrentino recently told E! News that he hopes to be a “good example” for the “recovery world” and demonstrate to others that it’s “possible to have fun and dance in the club without drinking.”

    That said, he admitted to People that shooting Jersey Shore Family Vacation in Miami Beach wasn’t without its problems. 

    “I had a very strong foundation for my recovery with over two years when I entered the house,” he said of the new show. “But I did have to challenge myself to go out and film a whole season of Jersey Shore and have fun without alcohol—to show the youth out there that it is possible.”

    He claimed that “it took a lot of hard work just to get there” as well as having to “challenge myself to do my job and be funny and be myself.”

    Following Jersey Shore’s cancellation in 2012, Sorrentino took to drugs and alcohol, eventually spending 60 days in rehab. “I had a year to settle down and find out who I was, and I wasn’t in the best shape,” Sorrentino told People. “I had to rebuild myself inside and out.”

    Unfortunately, after two years of sobriety, Sorrentino was indicted (along with his brother) with tax fraud on nearly $9 million of income. He was also prescribed painkillers (Sorrentino’s personal “drug of choice”) after cracking his ribs at the gym, which caused him to relapse.

    Now, with nearly three years of sobriety under his belt, Sorrentino appears to finally have his life in order: “I live my life today at peace. I try not to have any arguments,” he told E! News. “I mean, everything in my life has changed. I don’t speed. I don’t get into fights. I don’t get into arguments. I really feel awesome today.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Jenna Jameson Talks Struggle To Lose Weight In Sobriety

    Jenna Jameson Talks Struggle To Lose Weight In Sobriety

    “I kept telling myself if I could beat addiction and stay sober, I can easily lose the weight… and I did. The healthy way.”

    Jenna Jameson has made some major lifestyle changes — again. 

    According to People, the 44-year-old former adult film actress, who has been outspoken about her sobriety, struggled to lose weight after giving birth to her daughter in April 2017. But on Monday, Aug. 13, she shared a before and after photo on Instagram. 

    “Let’s talk about the mental aspect of losing weight and getting healthy,” she wrote. “I’m going to be honest with you, when I was heavy I hated leaving the house. I felt judged. I felt eyes on me everywhere. I could hear others internal monologue saying ‘damn, Jenna Jameson let herself go’ ugh…All of us do this, we worry so very much how we are perceived. But beyond that shallow thinking there was deeper shame. I was disappointed in myself.”

    Jameson also referenced her history of substance use disorder, stating that she wasn’t sure how she could lose weight while sober. 

    “I was worried I couldn’t lose the weight Sober,” she wrote. “I’m being real with you. When I was in my addiction it was easy to stay thin. Sobriety and being overweight was new to me. I kept telling myself if I could beat addiction and stay sober, I can easily lose the weight… and I did. The healthy way.”

    Prior to her recent post, Jameson also shared on Instagram that she has been on the ketogenic diet, which, according to Women’s Health, is a diet that involves decreased intake of carbohydrates and increasing fats. 

    “On the right I weight 187,” Jameson wrote on Instagram. “On the left I’m a strong 130. I was lethargic and struggled with the easiest of tasks like walking in the beach sand with Batelli. I felt slow mentally and physically. I took the pic on the right for a body positive post I was going to do and decided against it because I felt anything but fucking positive. I’m now a little under 4 months on the #ketodiet and it’s not only given me physical results, I feel happier, smarter, and much more confident.”

    Now, Jameson says, she feels better not only physically, but mentally as well.

    “And as of today I can say my mental game is STRONG,” she added on Instagram. “I feel I can do anything, I conquered abuse, addiction, PTSD and depression. Thank you for listening and please tell me your stories below, I read every comment.” 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Kelly Osbourne Discusses Relapse, Celebrating One Year Sober

    Kelly Osbourne Discusses Relapse, Celebrating One Year Sober

    “To cut a long story short things got really dark. I gave up on everything in my life but most of all I gave up on myself.”

    When Demi Lovato ended up hospitalized last month for an apparent overdose, one celebrity to speak out and support her was Kelly Osbourne. 

    Osbourne has been public in the past about her own battles with substance use, but she only recently spoke out about her own relapse and celebrating one year of sobriety in a post on Instagram.

    “To cut a long story short things got really dark,” she wrote. “I gave up on everything in my life but most of all I gave up on myself. Life on life’s terms became too much for me to handle. The only way I knew how to function was to self-medicate and go from project to project so I never had to focus on what was really going on with me.”

    Osbourne thanked her family for the role they have played in the past year of her sobriety. 

    “I want to take this time to thank my brother @jackosbourne who answered the phone to me one year ago today and picked me up from where I had fallen yet again without judgment,” she wrote. “He has held my hand throughout this whole process. Thank you to my Mum and Dad for never giving up on me.” 

    In 2009, Osbourne spoke to People about her battles, beginning at the age of 13. 

    “I had my tonsils taken out, and they gave me liquid Vicodin,” she told People. “I found, when I take this, people like me. I’m having fun, I’m not getting picked on. It became a confidence thing.” 

    In the next few years, Osbourne says she started seeking out pills from friends and doctors. In 2002, during filming of The Osbournes, she says she was self-medicating every day to manage her anxiety and “not be me.”

    In 2004, People reports, Osbourne’s parents sent her to Promises Treatment Center in Malibu. Then, in 2005, she went to treatment again. For the following three years she lived in London, with what she tells People were high and low points. 

    When she returned to Los Angeles in 2008, Osbourne says she hit an ultimate low and an intense relapse. When her friends and family stepped in and demanded she get help, she says she was relieved. 

    “I knew if I didn’t go, I would die,” she told People. “I thought, ‘Thank God someone’s going to make this pain go away.’”

    While it isn’t clear how long of a stretch of sobriety Osbourne had previous to this relapse, she says she is now content with where she is and where her sobriety stands.

    “I still don’t know who the fuck I am or what the fuck I want but I can wholeheartedly confess that I’m finally at peace with myself and truly starting to understand what true happiness is,” she concluded in her Instagram post. 

    View the original article at thefix.com