Matthew Perry was one of Hollywood’s most successful young actors when he played Chandler Bing in the hit sitcom Friends. Behind the success, however, was a devastating battle with opioid use disorder and alcohol abuse that almost killed him. In his new memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing (Flatiron Publishers), the big terrible thing that Matthew Perry reveals is his decades-long battle with addiction.

The memoir opens with a jolt: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.” What is so heartening about the actor’s journey is how he connects his recovery to gratitude. In a harrowing story where he was close to death on multiple occasions, Matthew Perry understands that recovery is a gift you must never waste. Indeed, the key to his path is a spirituality of gratitude.

Matthew Perry and the Courage to Share

With a fifty-year history as a substance use disorder treatment services provider, Tarzana Treatment Centers (TTC) congratulates the actor on the courage to share his story. As the opioid epidemic continues to plague the nation, real-life stories from well-known public figures can help to inspire people to take the first step. Without a doubt, Matthew Perry’s memoir will save lives by providing access to the journey of one man’s recovery.

To begin with, Matthew Perry does not back away from the cold, hard truth of what happened to him. As The New York Times recounts before interviewing the actor: “His addiction led to a medical odyssey in 2018 that included pneumonia, an exploded colon, a brief stint on life support, two weeks in a coma, nine months with a colostomy bag, more than a dozen stomach surgeries, and the realization that, by the time he was 49, he had spent more than half of his life in treatment centers or sober living facilities.”

The Math of Addiction According to Matthew Perry

All this information is conveyed before the prologue of the memoir is completed. However, Matthew Perry never tries to make us feel sorry for him. He is not telling his story so that he will become a recovery hero. Instead, Matthew Perry tells his story so he can move beyond the horror of his addiction. Thus, he goes into the mechanics and specifics of what happened.

In the interview with The New York Times, Matthew Perry explains in detail the daily process of being an addict: “I had eight doctors going at the same time. I would wake up and have to get 55 Vicodin that day, and figure out how to do it. When you’re a drug addict, it’s all math. I go to this place, and I need to take three. And then I go to this place, and I’m going to take five because I’m going to be there longer. It’s exhausting but you have to do it or you get very, very sick. I wasn’t doing it to feel high or to feel good. I certainly wasn’t a partyer; I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin and watch a movie. That was heaven for me. It no longer is.”

Please remember the phrase “It no longer is.” For the treatment team at TTC, this is an important message for a person struggling with a substance use disorder (SUD). If your drug use has reached the point where the reality of hell has replaced the false narrative of heaven, it is time to get help.

Access Help and Find the Miracle of Recovery

Today, Matthew Perry is lucky to be alive, by his own account. He wants to share that miracle of recovery with you to inspire others to find the courage to stop. As he explains in the NY Times interview about writing the memoir, “Whenever I bumped into something that I didn’t really want to share, I would think of the people that I would be helping, and it would keep me going.”

Like Matthew Perry today, one of the main goals of TTC is to help people recover from substance use disorders. If you or a loved one needs help with a substance use disorder, do not wait. Instead, please contact us today at TTC to access a recovery treatment choice that will work for you.