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Tag: sober milestones

  • Ariana Grande Celebrates Brother's Sober Milestone

    Ariana Grande Celebrates Brother's Sober Milestone

    Ariana and Frankie Grande took to social media to celebrate his sober milestone.

    Ariana Grande tweeted out an emotional congratulations to her brother, Frankie Grande, helping him celebrate 20 months without drugs or alcohol. 

    Ariana said in a tweet that she struggled to find the words to acknowledge the milestone for her 36-year-old brother. 

    “man, i love u @FrankieJGrande. happy. twenty. months. been staring at this drafting n deleting bc everything i write makes me cry. jus know i think you’re a superhero and u make me v proud. everyone knows how hard this is and how strong you’ve been. congratulations and thank god.”

    Frankie has previously said that Ariana’s former boyfriend Mac Miller, who died of an overdose last September, helped him 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, when I couldn’t imagine living without them,” Frankie said. “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.”

    This week, Frankie took to Instagram to discuss the ways that sobriety has changed his life. 

    “i have 20 months sober. i am extremely proud,” he wrote in the post. “this hasn’t been easy. when you get sober… life still happens. you have to deal with all the same highs and lows as you did when you were using but now you don’t have the ability to numb yourself. you feel it. you feel everything. good and bad. but there is also beauty in that. over the past 20 months i have felt loss but i have also felt love. i felt joy but i also felt grief. but the bottom line is… i felt. and that is such a gift. 

    Today, Frankie said, he looks forward to the future with excitement, rather than the anxiety he experienced when he was using.

    “today, when i look in the mirror i see a completely different man than i did 20 months ago. i see a man who knows that everything is exactly as it is meant to be. a man liberated from the prison of being stuck in the past or obsessing over the future. a man grateful for his life… exactly as it is. a man excited for the next chapter… and ready to face it… no matter what…. sober.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Five Finger Death Punch Bassist Celebrates Sober Milestone

    Five Finger Death Punch Bassist Celebrates Sober Milestone

    Before getting sober, bassist Chris Kael used about an eightball of cocaine a week to help manage untreated mental health issues.

    Chris Kael, who plays bass in the heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch, has been sober for a year and took to Twitter to celebrate his milestone. 

    “May my hitting my first sober birthday yesterday give hope to those of you also struggling with addiction. It can be done. And, you will thank yourself when you too hit these milestones. Keep your chin up and those feet moving! #ShitYesSon #SoberAsFuck #SFG” Kael wrote on February 4, according to Blabbermouth. 

    Kael had previously said that he used about an eight-ball of cocaine each week to help manage his untreated mental health conditions. 

    “That got to be the biggest problem for me,” he said. “That and depression, the two things, were not good. I didn’t realize it until I got into rehab that I was self-medicating with cocaine to get my dopamine levels up to fight the depression. I never even thought about that. And then when you come off it, you crash hard.”

    Kael said that it was difficult to watch the band’s lead vocalist Ivan Moody struggle publicly with addiction, while Kael kept his substance use more private. 

    “Ivan was going through his thing, and me, no one really knew, I was the quiet one that was kind of doing things on the side. That was one of the things that was eating away at me too—my guy had a huge problem, and here I am, a quiet problem.”

    Although Moody missed some tours for treatment, Kael usually was at his worst when the touring ended, he said. 

    “It hit me hard when I got off the road. Going home was always hard anyway, ’cause you’ve got so much stimulation out on the road, and then you come home and you’re, like, ‘Wait a minute? I’ve gotta take out the trash? That’s the biggest part of my job now?’”

    Kael said on Twitter his wife helped him get into treatment and kickstart his sobriety.

    “Had she not busted me trying to restock after burning through $1300 in blow in two days in late January [2018], I truly believe that I would not be here today,” he said. “She has silently and bravely dealt with far more than what would have crushed any other woman. Her loyalty, patience, TRUE love and resolve are unmatched by any other woman I’ve ever known.”

    Although admitting he was powerless was difficult, Kael is glad that he did it. 

    “Throwing my hands to the universe and admitting I was at a fucking low and no longer able to do it myself was one of the most humbling and powerful things I’ve ever done in my life.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Comedian Rob Delaney Celebrates 17 Years Of Sobriety

    Comedian Rob Delaney Celebrates 17 Years Of Sobriety

    The Catastrophe actor took to Instagram to pen a somber note about his sober milestone and his late son.

    Rob Delaney, creator and star of the celebrated Amazon Prime show, Catastrophe, announced his 17th year of sobriety on February 4th. This milestone is all the more meaningful for the comedian, who nearly a year ago lost his toddler son, Henry, to cancer.

    On Monday, Delaney wrote about his sober anniversary and his son Henry in a reflective post. Henry died in January 2018 after struggling with brain cancer. Rob and wife Leah Delaney had three boys, and not long after Henry’s death, another son was born.

    Delaney wrote on Instagram:

    “As of today I’ve been sober 17 years. 17 years ago I was in jail in a wheelchair. Today I’m not. I am profoundly grateful to the alcoholics who shined a light on the path for me and helped equip me with the skills to live life well.”

    In his memoir Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. wrote about his drunk-driving accident that landed him in jail and rehab.

    “Twelve years ago I was in jail, in a wheelchair. The hospital gown I was in was covered in blood from my bleeding face. My top front right tooth was missing a piece. My right arm and my left wrist were broken. They were broken so badly they both required surgery. My knees had slammed into the dashboard of the car I was driving the night before and split open to the bone. They weren’t broken, but they’d been operated on and sewed shut in the emergency room of Cedars-Sinai hospital, just before I went to jail.”

    “This has been a brutal year for my family and me,” Delaney continued on Instagram. “Our first year without our son and brother Henry. Had I not been sober it would have been far worse. As it was, I squeaked by,” he confessed.

    “Sobriety allowed me to be a reasonably good dad, husband and worker though it all. (If you average it out. I think.) Sobriety allows me to grieve fully, and grief is an expression of love. Thank you to everyone who has helped me. I can’t do it alone.”

    Delaney announced on Facebook in February 2018 that his son Henry had died of cancer. Henry was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2016, and after treatment the cancer reoccured in fall 2017.

    “Henry was a joy. He was smart, funny, and mischievous and we had so many wonderful adventures together,” Delaney wrote at the time. “Thank you, beautiful Henry, for spending as much time with us as you did. We miss you so much.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Josh Brolin Shares Drunk Photo To Celebrate Sobriety

    Josh Brolin Shares Drunk Photo To Celebrate Sobriety

    The Avengers actor described a harrowing, alcohol-fueled night on Instagram to celebrate a major sober milestone.

    Actor Josh Brolin, who has starred in movies ranging from The Goonies to No Country for Old Men to Deadpool 2, took to Instagram this week to celebrate five years of sobriety in an unusual way: sharing a photo from a drunk night out. 

    Brolin posted the photo, along with a lengthy caption. 

    “Drunk: when you think you’re having a rip roaring time and the next morning you wake up and your brain has broken into a frenzied beehive and your body is shattered shards of sharp glass desperately searching for what fits where and your spirit is being eaten by worms with great white bloodied teeth and your heart has shriveled into a black prune churning your intestines to the point where dysentery feels attractive,” he wrote.

    Brolin continued, “And you can’t remember anything you did so you roll out of bed over last night’s urine and you dial your best friend’s phone number because you recall him lifting you over his head, your whole self, before you hit and broke through the drywall and, you think, a large aquarium and the phone on the other end rings and he picks it up, that clambering for a phone, the clumsiness of a hardline, and you say: ‘What did I do last night?!’ and he answers, after a great pause: ‘…Dude…’. #5years.” 

    Brolin quit drinking and smoking five years ago. He had just had enough, he told The New York Times last summer. 

    “There’s something that happens to me when I drink that all moral code disappears,” he said. “So it’s like if I were to take that drink . . . after about halfway through, I would start thinking about jumping out that window . . . not to kill myself, but just because there must be somebody down there to catch me, and I wonder if I can pull it off or if I could land on that van. It just seemed like fun.”

    Despite the fact that he is more in control now that he is sober, he still tries to channel some of the spontaneity and levity that drinking brought to him, he said. 

    “I want to live more drunk. I want to live drunkenly. I just don’t want to take the drink.”

    Brolin told the Times that in recovery he’s also trying to overcome the codependent patterns in his love life. His past relationships, he said, had an unhealthy focus, which he described: “I’m going to find out all your needs and all your insecurities, and all that, and then I’m going to play on that. Like, you need a daddy? I’ll be your daddy. I’ll be your hero.”

    His dynamic with his current wife, Kathryn, is much healthier, he said. 

    “She doesn’t need me. She never needed me.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Devon Sawa Is 12 Years Sober

    Devon Sawa Is 12 Years Sober

    Actor Devon Sawa took to Twitter to celebrate his sober milestone.

    Only someone in recovery would know exactly how many days are in 12 years: 4,380. That’s how many days Final Destination actor Devon Sawa has been in recovery, an accomplishment that he celebrated on Twitter this week. 

    “12 years sober, officially,” Sawa wrote. “This is one tweet in which I declare I’m fishing for compliments. I earned every 4,380 days and it wasn’t easy.”

    Sawa became famous in the 1990s for staring in movies including Casper and Final Destination. However, at just 25 he decided to say goodbye to Hollywood. It was during that hiatus that he got sober. 

    “At 25 years old I stepped away from the business for five years and most of the time didn’t know whether I was going to come back or not,” Sawa told US Weekly last year. “I had done a series of four or five indie movies that I wasn’t necessarily proud of. Some were horror movies. After Final Destination everybody wanted me to do horror movies and some weren’t as good as others. I was just burnt out.”

    He only returned by chance, he said. 

    “I was brought back into the business by accident. Somebody at my agency didn’t get the memo that I quit and sent me an audition and I put myself on tape and that was it,” Sawa said. “I didn’t get it… But I did really well and the casting director wanted to meet me and I did. I thought, ‘You know what, this is what I love. This is what I really want to do.’ So I don’t know why I stepped away in the first place.”

    More recently, Sawa stared alongside Paula Patton in Somewhere Between, an ABC drama. He said that he is glad that a fluke brought him back into the acting business. 

    “I think if somebody hadn’t had sent me that audition I think that I may still be out of it. I was happy what I was doing but I’m happier now. I’m happier back doing what I really love.”

    When asked his on-set must-haves, Sawa insists that he’s simple. 

    “I’m not that guy,” he said. “I just need a place that’s a little quiet before I go in and other than that I don’t have anything that I need. I’m not the Skittles with no red in a bowl or sparkling water kind of guy.”

    As for sobriety, Sawa said this week that his years of commitment have paid off. 

    “To anyone else on this journey just starting out, it’s worth it. My life today has ups and downs, but overall, I’m a lucky man.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • “The Situation” Celebrates Three Years of Sobriety

    “The Situation” Celebrates Three Years of Sobriety

    The Jersey Shore star is giving back to the community by co-sponsoring an addiction treatment scholarship and sharing his story with recovery groups.

    Reality television star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino marked his third year of sobriety by bringing holiday meals to individuals in recovery. The Jersey Shore mainstay issued the news via his Instagram page on December 22, where a photo of Sorrentino at Phoenix Recovery House in Eatontown, New Jersey was posted. 

    Despite an impending stay in prison for tax evasion, which will begin in January 2019, Sorrentino has emphasized the positive on his own social media as well as that of the Discovery Institute for Addictive Disorders, a treatment center with which he’s partnered to form a scholarship for individuals battling substance dependency.

    Sorrentino, who struggled with dependency on prescription medication in 2012 and 2015, underwent inpatient and outpatient stays at the Discovery Institute and has continued to work with the non-profit as a speaker at recovery groups. He is also the co-sponsor of Giving Tree, a scholarship program for individuals who lack the funds to go to treatment for drug or alcohol dependency.

    Sobriety was hard fought for Sorrentino at the height of his heyday on the MTV reality series. “I was known to be one of the bigger partiers on Jersey Shore,” he said on a video posted on Discovery Institute’s Instagram page.

    “I’ll be honest. I hated everything about addiction treatment,” he said at a support group meeting earlier this year. “But I wanted better for myself and I was going to be do whatever it takes to get there.”

    With the support of his wife, Lauren Pesce, whom he married in November 2018, Sorrentino has remained sober after his return to television with Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. “Being sober really taught me how to just be at peace,” he said in a 2017 E! News interview. “I live my life today at peace. . . . I mean, everything in my life has changed.” 

    Sorrentino will begin an eight-month prison sentence for tax evasion on $9 million in income on or after January 15, 2019; the sentence also comes with two years of supervised probation.

    After receiving the sentence in October 2018, Pesce addressed the issue in a post on her Instagram page. “Thank you for all of your messages of love and support,” she wrote. “We are happy to put an end to this chapter and excited to move forward in our future.” 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Charlie Sheen Is One Year Sober

    Charlie Sheen Is One Year Sober

    Charlie Sheen announced his sober milestone on Twitter this week.

    After one of the most well-publicized relapses in history, actor Charlie Sheen revealed this week that he has been sober for one year. 

    Sheen, 53, posted a picture of his one-year AA chip on Twitter, writing, “so, THIS happened yesterday! a fabulous moment, in my renewed journey. #TotallyFocused.”

    It’s an important step for Sheen, who has a long and complicated history with both substance abuse and recovery. In 2016, Sheen spoke with Dr. Mehmet Oz, who asked how many times the actor has tried to stop drinking. 

    “About 2,000,” Sheen said, according to People. “There was a stretch where I didn’t drink for 11 years. No cocaine, no booze for 11 years. So I know that I have that in me.”

    Sheen said he initially relapsed after receiving an HIV diagnosis in 2012. 

    “It was to suffocate the anxiety and what my life was going to become with this condition and getting so numb I didn’t think about it,” Sheen said. “It was the only tool I had at the time, so I believed that would quell a lot of that angst. A lot of that fear. And it only made it worse.”

    Sheen told Oz then that he is committed to helping find a cure for HIV and wants his children to see that he inspired others, despite his demons. 

    “They’re going to see that dad is a true hero. That he helped a lot of people and continues to help people who can’t help themselves,” Sheen said.

    He added that when he was using he was “hammered, fractured, crazy,” but in recovery he is “focused, sober, hopeful.”

    Sheen’s father, Martin Sheen, who is in long-term recovery himself, has spoken about supporting his son through the tough times but also knowing when there is nothing left to do. 

    “What he was going through, we were powerless to do much, except to pray for him and lift him up,” Martin said in 2015.

    However, once Sheen was ready for help, his father was able to draw on his recovery and AA experience to help his son. 

    “The best way to heal is to help healing someone else, and it takes one to know one, so you can appreciate what someone’s going through if you’ve gone there yourself,” Martin said in September of this year. 

    He added that getting sober in the spotlight adds another challenge to an already fraught situation. 

    “The bigger your celebrity, the more difficult it is to lead an honest life, because your past is always present,” Martin said. “I think today makes it that much harder for people because there’s no privacy. I think that the idea of anonymity is very important to the [recovery] program, and it has an energy all its own.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Steve-O Celebrates A Decade Of Sobriety In A Unique Way

    Steve-O Celebrates A Decade Of Sobriety In A Unique Way

    “I really can’t believe how far I’ve come on this journey of life,” the reality star tweeted.

    Steve-O celebrated his 10-year sober milestone by competing in his first triathlon.

    As Runner’s World reports, the Jackass alum participated in the 32nd annual Nautica Malibu Triathlon, which raises money for children’s cancer research. Alongside other stars like Joel McHale, Steve Howe and Jon Cryer, Steve-O (born Stephen Glover) did a half-mile swim, a four-mile beach run, and a 17-mile bike ride.

    Steve-O’s enthusiasm for the event was off the charts. “I really can’t believe how far I’ve come on this journey of life… I just got tenth place in my division at my first ever triathlon! Woohoo!!! (Full disclosure – my division was ‘men’s celebrity,’ but there were tons of celebrities, so I’m stoked!)” he tweeted after the race.

    Before getting sober years ago, Steve-O’s drugs of choice included cocaine, alcohol, ketamine, PCP and nitrous oxide.

    Earlier this year, Steve-O tweeted about his sobriety on the date his friends had him committed:

    “Hard to believe it’s been an entire decade since I’ve had a drink or a drug. I just can’t put into words how grateful I am for [Jackass star Johnny Knoxville] and the rest of the guys who locked me up in a psychiatric ward on March 9, 2008, where this journey began. Thank you, dudes, I love you.”

    Before he was committed, Steve-O sent out an alarming e-mail saying, “I’m ready to f—ing die.” He was then put on a 5150 hold on March 9, and later transferred to rehab. He vowed, “You can count on my staying nuts; it’s just the alcohol and drugs I’m trying to leave behind.”

    In his goodbye letter to drugs, he confessed, “It became frighteningly clear to me how lucky I am to still have any chance whatsoever at leading a happy, fulfilling and meaningful life. My luck will not last with continued use of alcohol and drugs that are not prescribed to me by doctors that are aware of my addictions.”

    In getting sober, Steve-O has embraced a much healthier lifestyle. He’s now a vegan, and on a mission to have his healthiest year in 2018.

    In a recent Instagram post, he wrote, “For my birthday this year, I decided to get in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I may be old, but I’m healthy as fuck!” 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Selma Blair Celebrates Two Years Of Sobriety

    Selma Blair Celebrates Two Years Of Sobriety

    “I prayed for a miracle at my lowest points. I am a living miracle. Thank you,” the actress wrote in an Instagram post.

    Actress Selma Blair had two reasons to celebrate this week: her 46th birthday as well as her second year of sobriety.

    Blair, who has starred in films including Hellboy and Legally Blonde, took to Instagram to announce her achievement.

    “2 years sober. 2 years feeling everything and nothing. 2 years of extreme gratitude and humility and grace,” she wrote in her post, which included a photograph of herself with a birthday cake. “I thank the lord and my friends. Thank you for the most special birthday week @fran.anania #amypines #arthursaintbleick.”

    Just last month, Blair admitted to having struggled with alcoholism, anxiety, and depression, but has been winning in her struggles as of late.

    “I prayed for a miracle at my lowest points. I am a living miracle. Thank you. Thank you. #birthdaygirl #almost46 #summersolstice #grace,” she wrote in her post.

    Blair hasn’t hid her struggles with depression and anxiety from fans. In a throwback post she wrote in May, she reflected on her career in Hollywood, including the highs and the lows.

    “For better or for worse. I want to have hope again. I want to thank you all for believing in me. I want to find the right work for me. And for me as a mom and as a woman who has come so far in personal ways,” she wrote in her May post. “I want to make us all proud. 21 years later. #heartonsleeve Opens a New Window. It’s a random Tuesday. Maybe miracles will happen.”

    The Cruel Intentions star once had a meltdown on an airplane flight, allegedly brought on by mixing medications with alcohol.

    “I made a big mistake yesterday,” said Blair after the incident. “After a lovely trip with my son and his dad, I mixed alcohol with medication, and that caused me to black out and led me to say and do things that I deeply regret.”

    A few months after the incident, Blair gained some new perspective on the incident.

    “Hopefully everyone on the plane is doing fine now too, because it was very destructive,” she said on The Talk. “I am someone who should never drink, and I rarely do, and I don’t drink anymore, but I was going through something. I had a glass of wine and someone gave me a pill that I thought was something that I’d taken before… it was something completely different… and I had a total psychotic blackout.”

    View the original article at thefix.com