Written by Amy Beecham
The Friends actor says he’s “grateful to be alive” after a near-death experience in 2018 caused by his opioid abuse.
Over the last three decades, the story of Matthew Perry’s battle with substance abuse has played out through tabloid front pages and trolling comments. Now, in a new memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Things, Perry is setting the record straight and revealing the terrifying depths of his opioid and alcohol addictions.
As he wrote when he announced the book on Instagram back in February: “So much has been written about me in the past. I thought it was time people heard from me. The highs were high, the lows were low. But I have lived to tell the tale, even though at times it looked like I wouldn’t. And it’s all in here.”
In an interview with People ahead of the release, the Friends actor revealed that he had waited until now to share the extreme depths of his addiction because he wanted to make sure he is “safe from going into the dark side of everything again”.
“I think [people reading the book] will be surprised at how bad it got at certain times and how close to dying I came,” he told the magazine. “I say in the book that if I did die, it would shock people, but it wouldn’t surprise anybody. And that’s a very scary thing to be living with. So my hope is that people will relate to it, and know that this disease attacks everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re successful or not successful, the disease doesn’t care.”
Indeed, the memoir opens with him recounting an incident in 2018 in which he was given a “2% chance to live” after his colon burst from opioid abuse. After being placed on a life-supporting ECMO machine, Perry spent two weeks in a coma and five months in hospital and had to use a colostomy bag for nine months.
Perry says that his addiction began to surface when he was first cast on Friends aged 24, and spiralled throughout the ten seasons of the hit show. At one point, he was taking 55 Vicodin painkillers a day and was down to just over nine stone in weight.
“I could handle it, kind of. But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble,” he admits. “But there were years that I was sober during that time. Season 9 was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor? I was like, ‘That should tell me something.’”
Speaking of the support he received from his fellow cast members, he said that they had been “understanding” and “patient” with him when he was going through difficult times.
“It’s like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up,” he shared. “They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
After 15 times in rehab and therapy sessions, Perry says he is now “pretty healthy” and motivated to help others struggling with addiction.
“There were five people put on an ECMO machine that night [in 2018] and the other four died and I survived,” he told People. “So the big question is why? Why was I the one? There has to be some kind of reason.”
“Everything starts with sobriety,” he insists. “Because if you don’t have sobriety, you’re going to lose everything that you put in front of it, so my sobriety is right up there. I’m an extremely grateful guy. I’m grateful to be alive, that’s for sure. And that gives me the possibility to do anything.”
To access support for addiction and dependency, including dedicated helplines you can call, you can visit the Mind website.
Images: Getty
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