Actor Matthew Perry has opened up about his opioid addiction and shared new details about his time in the hospital in 2018. At the time, it was only disclosed that Perry had suffered a gastrointestinal perforation. In his forthcoming memoir, Friends, lovers and the big terrible thingPerry reveals that the situation was actually much more serious than that. Perry’s large intestine had even ruptured and almost caused death friends star, a result of the damage he had done to his body through opioid abuse.
Prior to the book’s release on November 1, Perry spoke more about the incident in a new interview with People. He spoke about his addiction issues and said he hopes his story will inspire others by making it clear in his memoir. Perry explained how he was in such bad shape that his survival is an unmitigated miracle, and he can’t help but feel that there must be a reason why he survived when so many others in that situation don’t.
“The doctors told my family I had a 2 percent chance of being alive. I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. Nobody survives that … Five people were put on an ECMO machine that night and the other four died and I survived. So the big question is why? Why was I the one? There must be some reason.”
Matthew Perry struggled for decades
Perry also delves deep into his addiction problems that he endured over the years, which came and went during his… friends run. Alcoholism began to affect his work, as Perry says the only year he was nominated for Best Actor was the season where he managed to stay sober. Though he thought this “should tell me something,” Perry says he still couldn’t stop, noting that things like this “get worse and worse as you get older.”
The good news is that Perry is doing much better these days. After 14 surgeries on his abdomen, he has permanent scars to remind him of what can happen if he thinks of a relapse. He just has to “look down”. Perry also feels he can learn from these struggles as he continues on his journey of sobriety, reiterating his hope that others who have a hard time reading his book will be motivated to find their own way back to clean. to become.
“It’s important, but losing your sobriety doesn’t mean you lose all that time and education. Your sober date changes, but that’s all that changes. You know everything you knew before, as long as you could fight your way back without dying you learn a lot I say in the book if I died it would shock people but it wouldn’t surprise anyone And that’s very scary to live with So my hope is that people come into contact with it and know that this disease is attacking everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re successful or not, it doesn’t matter the disease.”
Friends, lovers and the big terrible thing will be available in bookstores on November 1, 2022.