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  • Inside Burt Reynolds' Addiction Struggles & Road To Recovery

    Inside Burt Reynolds' Addiction Struggles & Road To Recovery

    The late icon spoke openly about his battles with addiction throughout his life.

    When Burt Reynolds died on September 6 at the age of 82, many who worked with the iconic star expressed great sadness at his passing.

    With hit movies like Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper, Reynolds became one of the biggest sex symbols of the ‘70s, but his life and career became increasingly troubled in the following decades. (His career ended on a high note with the independent gem The Last Movie Star, and he was about to film a role in the latest Quentin Tarantino movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.)

    One of the tribulations of Reynolds’ life was his addiction to a controversial sleeping pill, which he spoke about openly. In the early nineties, Reynolds confessed he was addicted to Halcion, which he got hooked on when recovering from an injury he suffered during a movie shoot.

    “I broke my jaw and shattered my temporomandibular joint,” he recalled. “The pain was worse than a migraine. It is like having an army of people inside your head trying to get out through ears, eyes, your nose. It never stops.”

    Reynolds was hooked on Halcion for over four years. He told TV Guide he was taking up to 50 Halcion pills a day, and he went into a coma when he tried to stop cold turkey.

    “Doctors told me if I had taken one more pill I would have died.” (In 1992, Halcion came under scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration, and it was also banned in Great Britain.)

    Even after having a near-death experience, Reynolds didn’t enter rehab at the time. He told People, “It was very important to me not to be portrayed as a drug addict.”

    He wrote in his autobiography that he didn’t take another Halcion after he regained consciousness, but he fell into addiction again in 2009, becoming addicted to prescription pills after he had back surgery.

    Reynolds finally surrendered and checked into rehab that September.

    “I felt that in spite of the fact that I am supposedly a big tough guy, I couldn’t beat prescription drugs on my own. I’ve worked hard to get off of them and really hope other people will realize they need to seek professional help, rather than ignoring the problem or trying to get off of the prescriptions on their own.”

    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

  • Ben Affleck Heads Back To Rehab

    Ben Affleck Heads Back To Rehab

    Days after Affleck entered rehab, news broke that he and actress Jennifer Garner reached a settlement in their divorce.

    Justice League star Ben Affleck headed back to rehab last week in his ongoing battle with alcoholism, as he continues “working incredibly hard” to stay sober.

    “Addiction is not something that goes away,” a source close the actor told People. “Every day is a battle for recovering addicts, they are fighting for their sobriety and to lead healthy, balanced lives every day.”

    Over the past year, the Los Angeles-based actor had been in and out of rehab and spotted visiting various outpatient treatment centers. 

    “He has been attending countless meetings, has continued to work with sober coaches and does his best to follow through with the things that will help him maintain his health,” the source told People.

    It’s been a rough time for the Argo director; just days after he entered rehab, news broke that Affleck and his ex-wife Jennifer Garner reached a settlement in their divorce.

    The couple separated three years ago, and Garner filed for divorce last spring, according to Us Weekly. On Wednesday, she stepped in and drove Affleck to treatment, according to reports.

    Earlier this month, Affleck and Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus broke off their relationship, a move one source close to the couple attributed to Affleck’s downward spiral. 

    “It was very hard for her to break up with Ben, but she knew he wasn’t getting better and that it was time for her to step aside,” a source told People. “She was trying to stay as close to him as possible so that he would stay on the right path, but ultimately it just wasn’t possible. She knew she had to let him hit bottom.” 

    Affleck’s path to sobriety started in 2001, when Charlie Sheen drove him to a 30-day rehab program. Last spring, he went to treatment again, and later posted about it on Facebook.

    “I want to live life to the fullest and be the best father I can be,” he wrote. “I want my kids to know there is no shame in getting help when you need it, and to be a source of strength for anyone out there who needs help but is afraid to take the first step.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Mighty Ducks" Actor Shaun Weiss Arrested For Public Intoxication

    "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

  • Anthony Hopkins On Alcoholism: I Was Disgusted, Busted & Not To Be Trusted

    Anthony Hopkins On Alcoholism: I Was Disgusted, Busted & Not To Be Trusted

    “I still cannot believe that my life is what it is because I should have died in Wales, drunk or something like that.”

    It may be hard for some to imagine Anthony Hopkins as anything but a talented actor, but at a recent LEAP (Leadership, Excellence and Accelerating Your Potential) conference he shared how his alcoholism and lack of passion in acting could have left him a failure… or dead.

    He revealed to an audience of high school and college students that he is incredibly thankful he was able to stop drinking when he did. He explained why he started in the first place.

    “Because that’s what you do in theater, you drink,” he said. “I was very difficult to work with, as well, because I was usually hungover.”

    Hopkins described himself in this era as “disgusted, busted and not to be trusted.” But at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, a woman offered him what became life-changing advice: “Why don’t you put your trust in God?”

    After taking the words to heart, Hopkins said he lost all desire to drink. If not for these transforming words, Hopkins believes his life would have turned out drastically different.

    “I believe we are capable of so much,” he told the audience. “I still cannot believe that my life is what it is because I should have died in Wales, drunk or something like that.”

    He also revealed that he grew up an “uptight loner” who was bullied and “not all that bright” when it came to his studies. He even admitted he went into theater because “he had nothing better to do.”

    Despite all these struggles, he’s managed to become an Academy Award-winning actor. He posted about his life philosophy in a Twitter post that featured a photo of himself with Dr. Bill Dorfman, the founder of the LEAP Foundation: “Live life as if it’s impossible to fail.”

    This isn’t the first time Hopkins delivered this message to an audience. In a 2017 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he expounded the virtues of persistence.

    “Keep going, never give up,” he said on the show. “We get questions in our head and little voices that put us down when we were kids. Get over that. That’s what I had to do—get over whatever troubles.”

    He mentioned that he keeps a photo of himself as a young boy on his phone, telling it, “We did okay, kid.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Robin Williams' Daughter Zelda Pens Tribute For His Birthday

    Robin Williams' Daughter Zelda Pens Tribute For His Birthday

    In her Instagram tribute, Zelda encouraged fans of her father to volunteer at homeless shelters and spread kindness in his memory.

    July 21st marked what would have been the 67th birthday of comedy icon Robin Williams. His daughter Zelda Williams took to Instagram to pay tribute to her late father.

    Shortly before the actor’s birthday, Zelda wrote, “It’s that time of year again. Everyone who has dealt with loss knows the pain of certain anniversaries, moments full of memory that come around like clockwork and usurp all others, no matter how hard you may try to prepare for or avoid them.”

    When her father’s birthday comes around, Zelda revealed that she takes a break from social media because the outpouring of memories and sympathy on the net makes her father’s death harder to deal with.

    “These weeks are the hardest for me, and thus, you’ll see me a lot less, if at all,” she continued. “For all the internet’s good intentions in expressing to me their fondness for dad, it’s very overwhelming to have strangers need me to know how much they cared for him right now. It’s harder still to be expected to reach back. So while I’ve got the strength, consider this my one open armed response, before I go take my yearly me time to celebrate his and my birthdays in peace.”

    Zelda encouraged fans of her father to volunteer at homeless shelters in her father’s memory. “Look up how to make homeless aid backpacks. Give one in his name. He’d have loved that. Mostly, try to spread some laughter and kindness around. And creatively swear a lot. Every time you do, somewhere out there in our vast weird universe, he’s giggling with you… or giving a particularly fat bumblebee its wings.”

    Zelda ended her post by writing, “Miss you every day, but especially these ones.”

    The Hook actor died by suicide on August 11, 2014 at the age of 63.

    In the wake of her father’s passing, Zelda has said she’s become an “accidental advocate” for mental health.

    She told Women’s Health magazine, “Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not ruining someone’s life. There’s a realization that everyone is fighting a different battle and you can’t fight it for someone else, but you can try to understand. Part of the first step forward, even before acceptance, but just toward understanding, is actually listening and learning.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Dennis Quaid Revisits "White Light" Moment That Spurred His Recovery

    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

  • Jonathan Rhys Meyers Apologizes For Airline Incident: Alcohol Doesn't Suit Me

    Jonathan Rhys Meyers Apologizes For Airline Incident: Alcohol Doesn't Suit Me

    Meyers revealed that his recent, highly-publicized inflight trouble was the result of a lapse in his sobriety. 

    Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers issued a statement in the wake of a verbal altercation with his wife during a flight that appears to have been fueled by alcohol consumption.

    The Tudors actor, who has a history of substance-related issues, apologized for the incident, which culminated in his detainment by police at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on July 8, 2018.

    Meyers, who had allegedly been drinking prior to the incident with his wife, and according to media reports, attempted to smoke an e-cigarette in the plane’s bathroom, but was stopped by a flight attendant.

    Meyers’ wife, Mara, also issued a statement on Instagram in which she thanked the public for their “compassion on this ongoing battle with addiction we are in (sic).”

    According to TMZ, sources reported that Meyers had been drinking on the flight from Miami to Los Angeles, which prompted an argument with his wife that was allegedly “laced with profanities” and proved upsetting to other passengers.

    Meyers then left his seat for the plane’s bathroom while smoking the e-cigarette, which is a federal violation onboard a flight.

    Meyers reportedly stopped smoking after being asked by the flight attendant; upon landing, Meyers was detained by law enforcement, which also contacted the FBI over the vaping incident.

    Both the argument and the smoking issues appear to have been settled without charges against Meyers.

    Speaking on Larry King Now, Meyers took responsibility for the incident, which he said was prompted by a series of challenges including travel fatigue—Meyers and his wife had been aboard a flight from Peru prior to the departure from Miami, and were traveling with their one-year-old son, Wolf, who was teething.

    Meyers also claimed that the airline had “given away their tickets” prior to departure, which added to the stress.

    Upon boarding the American Airlines flight, Meyers said that he “very stupidly decided to order a drink,” which he said “doesn’t suit me and I had been sober for a long time.”

    The drink also sparked the argument with his wife, after which he said he “felt that mistake and got upset” before taking out the e-cigarette.

    Meyers added that he was upset by his behavior towards his wife and its impact on the other passengers, to whom he apologized. He also noted that the Los Angeles police had been “incredibly kind” to him during their conversation after the flight.

    In her Instagram post, Mara Meyers said that the incident was a result of “anger issues” that the couple had actually traveled to South America to address through holistic work. She said that the situation was “out of his character,” and that Meyers was feeling “sorry for any remote disrespect afforded to me, attendants, onlookers or officers.”

    She concluded by thanking readers for their compassion during what she called her husband’s “ongoing battle” with addiction.

    Meyers, whose credits include Velvet Goldmine, Match Point and an Emmy-nominated turn as Elvis Presley in the 2005 miniseries Elvis, has sought help through rehabilitation on several occasions since 2007, including a recent stint in 2017.

    View the original article at thefix.com