Having Set Alcohol Aside, Gerard Butler Celebrates the Gifts of Not Drinking
As a movie star, Gerard Butler has taken on iconic roles like Dracula in Dracula 2000 (2000), the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera (2004), and the voice of Stoick the Vast in the How to Train Your Dragon animated franchise (2010 –1019). However, when people think of Gerard Butler, they picture King Leonidas in Zach Snyder’s historical action epic, 300.
As King Leonidas, beyond roaring his catchphrase, “This is SPARTA!!!” at the Persian messenger before kicking him into a bottomless well, he is famous for many more proclamations. Before the ultimate battle, the King of Sparta tells his men, “Give them nothing! But take from them everything!”
Such a quotation is a perfect way of describing what alcohol use disorder does to a human being. Indeed, abusing alcohol gives you nothing but takes everything from you if you do not stop. As a provider of alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment services, Tarzana Treatment Centers knows how this disease ravages a human’s body, mind, and soul.
If a human being is caught in the vise of alcohol abuse, drinking takes everything from them and gives them nothing. Hence, they are left broken and defeated like an obliterated army. Thus, the only way to stop such an onslaught is to surrender, stop drinking, and join the winning side of recovery.
Gerard Butler and the Winning Side of Recovery
Before taking the world stage as a famous movie actor, Gerard Butler grew up in the central lowlands of Scotland in a Catholic family of Irish descent. Coming from a broken family, he grew up with his mother and drank as a young man to deal with feelings of abandonment. After his father left the family, he reflects on the hole in his life. Although he went to law school, Gerard Butler left before his final year and came to California.
During this time, he drank heavily and was arrested for alcohol-related disorderly conduct. Gerard Butler describes his behavior during that year: “For a while, I was living in Venice Beach… with three Irish guys who drank every day. It was perfect. We just got smashed… I was out of control, and justifying it with this idea that I’m young, this is life. This is me just being boisterous.”
Realizing the danger of that path, Gerard Butler returned to Scotland and finished Law School. Not wanting to be a lawyer, he moved to Los Angeles to become an actor. Struggling, he decides to put down the bottle for good. Hence, Gerard Butler tells The Red Bulletin, “I had gone from a 16-year-old who couldn’t wait to grasp life to a 22-year-old who didn’t care if he died in his sleep… I used to drink until I couldn’t remember anything. I was just mad for it and on a death wish. It was madness.”
Realizing that drinking was a dead-end road, Gerard Butler put down the bottle and joined the winning side of recovery. The actor explains, “One or two drinks was never enough for me. I was a foot-on-the-floor-all-the-way drinker, so it had to go. I don’t miss it. Now it’s as if I never had a drink in my life. At one point, I could never have conceived of going out and not drinking, but as time goes on, you lose the urge and the insecurity that often makes people drink in the first place.”
The Freedom of Not Drinking = A Successful Life
Celebrating his success, Gerard Butler believes his excellent streak began when he put down the bottle. Dedicating himself to his craft, the actor focuses on improving every day. Then it happens, and his life changes. Also, he believes it can happen to anyone who works hard. Indeed, he revels in the joy of the moment he gets his big break. Gerard Butler smiles, “Walking home was probably the happiest moment of my life when there’s an energy in you that can’t be put down. I’d gone from handing out pages to getting the lead role.”
Indeed, the journey of Gerard Butler from being dominated by alcohol to dominating the acting world is possible for anyone. There is no promise you will become a movie star, but the freedom of sobriety and the subsequent gifts are within your reach. To access the help you or a loved one needs, please contact Tarzana Treatment Centers today. Indeed, the freedom of recovery and the joy Gerard Butler experiences is only one call away.