We often act like we know everything about celebrities and while we do know a lot, Brad Pitt is a perfect example of someone who’s struggling with something most of us can’t comprehend. In fact, he has recently opened up about his hidden struggles in an interview with GQ Magazine.
For years, people pegged Brad Pitt as an ‘egotistical’ and ‘conceited’ individual who only really cared about himself. And why? Because he would often get approached by people he had already met before, but would never seem to remember them – people took it the wrong way.
In reality, Brad Pitt believes he is living with prosopagnosia, a rare neurological disorder that results in extreme difficulty remembering and recognizing faces. Also known as face blindness, it usually leads to social anxiety disorder as patients feel guilty or ashamed for not remembering.
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Brad Pitt Isn’t the Only Celebrity Opening Up About Their Disorder
While he has yet to be diagnosed with prosopagnosia, it’s clear that Brad Pitt has a hard time remembering faces and people. With his recent interview, it’s also now clear that it’s 100% unintentional and he feels terrible anytime it happens – maybe he’s not that bad of a guy after all!
“Nobody believes me!” said Brad Pitt in the GQ interview. “So many people hate me because they think I’m disrespecting them … But it’s a mystery to me, man. I can’t grasp a face and yet I come from such a design/aesthetic point of view.” It seems to put him in a difficult situation.
There is no treatment for prosopagnosia, but there are ways to cope with the symptoms to avoid anxiety in social situations – which we hope Brad Pitt receives help with. In the meantime, let’s take a look at 20 other celebrities who have been open about their own disorders and conditions.
20. Selma Blair – Multiple Sclerosis
Selma Blair is an American actress who has appeared in dozens of films and television shows – including Brown’s Requiem, Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde, The Sweetest Thing, Hellboy, and others. She was nominated for a Grammy in 2011 and won a Best Kiss award in 2000.
In August of 2018, Blair was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, noting symptoms such as falling often, dropping things frequently, experiencing foggy memory, and more. She published a memoir titled Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up recently this year, opening up about her MS.
19. Pink – Asthma
Pink, sometimes stylized as P!nk, is an American singer and songwriter who started her solo career in 1995 after being a member of Choice. Between 2000 and 2019, she released eight studio albums and has even appeared in numerous films – as herself and as a character.
Although she was rather healthy at birth, Pink would eventually develop asthma during her childhood. While she didn’t need her inhaler for nearly 30 years, it became a necessity in 2020 when she was working her way through COVID-19 – suffering an asthma attack as a result.
18. Wendy Williams – Graves’ Disease
Wendy Williams is best known as the host of The Wendy Williams Show, which aired between 2008 and 2022. Before that, she was the host of a radio show as she gained notoriety for her feuds with other celebs. She has also written several books and has other business interests.
In February 2018, Williams announced her 20-year long struggle with Graves’ disease – an immune system disorder that results in an overactive thyroid gland. She also experiences increases in eye pressure, which sometimes make her eyes appear larger than normal.
17. Daisy Ridley – Endometriosis
Daisy Ridley is an English actress who received her first role in 2013, but has since rose to prominence after being cast as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy – The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker. She has several films slated for 2023 and beyond.
In 2016, Ridley opened up about being diagnosed with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome – two things she has lived with since the age of 15. As a result, she has undergone a series of laparoscopic surgery procedures and has also experienced poor mental health.
16. Sarah Hyland – Kidney Dysplasia
Sarah Hyland is an American actress and singer, best known for her role as Haley Dunphy in Modern Family between 2009 and 2020. She has also appeared in Annie, Blind Date, Private Parts, Scary Movie 5, XOXO, Dirty Dancing, The Wedding Year, and Struck By Lightning.
Here’s something you maybe didn’t know about Hyland – she underwent two kidney transplants after being diagnosed with kidney dysplasia as a child. The first transplant came from her father, but the kidney failed after a few years. The second transplant came from her younger brother.
15. Sia – Graves’ Disease
Sia Kate Isobelle Furler, who most people know as Sia, is an extremely popular Australian singer who has released nine studio albums since 1997 – her most recent one, Music, being released in 2021. She has been on three tours and has received nine Grammy nominations.
Throughout her life, Sia has struggled with mental and physical health issues. In addition to depression and addiction, she is diagnosed with Graves’ disease, complex post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and Ehlers–Danlos syndrome – which she is being treated for.
14. Cara Delevingne – Psoriasis
Cara Delevingne is an English model, actress, and singer. She began her modeling career in the early-2000’s before earning her first acting role in 2012. Some of her most prominent films include Paper Towns, Suicide Squad, and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
Delevingne has a history of opening up about being diagnosed with psoriasis, a skin disease that results in rashes. In fact, the 29-year-old actress put it on full display at the 2022 Met Gala, noting that her symptoms generally worsen when under a lot of stress, pressure, or worry.
13. Pete Davidson – Crohn’s Disease
Pete Davidson is an American comedian and actor who is best known for his funny sketches on Saturday Night Live between 2014 and 2022 – though he recently shocked the world when he got in a relationship with Kim Kardashian. He has released two stand-up comedy specials.
By the age of 18, Davidson was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. He smoked marijuana for years to help cope with the symptoms, but eventually decided to quit marijuana in 2017. He was also diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and is currently receiving treatment for it.
12. Anthony Anderson – Diabetes
Anthony Anderson is an American comedian and actor who has been making us laugh since 1995. He’s best known for his roles in Kangaroo Jack, Me, Myself, & Irene, K-Ville, Law & Order, The Shield, The Departed, Agent Cody Banks 2, Scream 4, and Transformers.
Anderson has been affected by diabetes his entire life. Not only is he diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes, but his mother also has it and he has lost his father to the disease. He’s very active in diabetes awareness and is always doing whatever possible to help others in their battle.
11. Gigi Hadid – Hashimoto’s Disease
Gigi Hadid is an American model who began her career in 1997 at the age of two. Since then, she has become one of the most popular models in the entire world, winning International Model of the Year in 2016. She enjoyed an impressive four-year span that included 35 Vogue covers.
Back in 2014, when her modeling career was really picking up steam, Hadid opened up about being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that attacks the thyroid gland as if it were an enemy to the body. Hadid has revealed that the disease changed her body.
10. Jimmy Kimmel – Narcolepsy
Jimmy Kimmel is an American comedian and television host who is best known for hosting ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003. He has also hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards three times (2012, 2016, and 2020), as well as the Academy Awards twice (2017 and 2018).
Through the years, Kimmel has opened up about his struggle with narcolepsy, a sleep disorder that results in sudden attacks of sleep and excessive fatigue during the day. His diagnosis has directly impacted his career and his ability to live a normal life, but he doesn’t let it get in the way.
9. Selena Gomez – Lupus
Selena Gomez is an American singer, producer, and actress who was best known for her role as Alex Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place. She has released three albums with her former band, as well as three solo studio albums – all while continuing her success on the big screen.
By 2014, at the height of her career, she was diagnosed with lupus, which causes the immune system to attack its host body, tissues, and organs. In 2017, she took a hiatus from making public appearances after receiving a kidney transplant from fellow actress Francia Raisa.
8. Tionne Watkins – Sickle Cell Anemia
Tionne Watkins is an American actress and singer who is best known as T-Boz – one of the legendary members of TLC (the girl group). After receiving four Grammy Awards during her time with the group, she embarked on several film, television, and other media opportunities.
In 1996, Watkins opened up about being diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, a rare disease that results in abnormally-shaped red blood cells – causing blood cells to die early. She has been in and out of the hospital as a result of this disease ever since being diagnosed with it as a child.
7. Winnie Harlow – Vitiligo
Chantelle Whitney Brown-Young, better known as Winnie Harlow, is a Jamaican-Canadian model who started making a name for herself on the 21st season of America’s Next Top Model. She has also appeared in several television shows and music videos throughout her career.
Harlow was diagnosed with vitiligo, a skin condition that results in patches of skin color loss, at the age of four. Now that she is on an international stage, she uses it to spread awareness about her condition and show others that they’re beautiful in their own skin – even those with vitiligo.
6. Venus Williams – Sjögren’s Syndrome
Venus Williams is an American tennis player and widely regarded as one of the greatest of all-time – she’s the older sister of Serena Williams. During her 30-year career, Williams has won over $42 million in prize earnings – including an impressive 21 total Grand Slam victories.
In 2011, Venus was competing in the US Open. After advancing to the second round, she was forced to withdraw from the major after being diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome – a disease that causes fatigue and pain. She later said it took doctors a long time before diagnosing it.
5. Gaten Matarazzo – Cleidocranial Dysplasia
Gaten Matarazzo is an American actor who rose to prominence with his role as Dustin Henderson in the Netflix series Stranger Things. He also has an impressive career on Broadway – including taking the stage in Les Misérables and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Matarazzo was born with cleidocranial dysplasia, also known as CCD. It’s a birth defect that affects the formation of teeth and bones (skull, face, spine, collarbones and legs). To help spread awareness, Matarazzo’s character in Stranger Things has the condition as well.
4. Nick Jonas – Type 1 Diabetes
Nick Jonas is an American singer, songwriter, and occasional actor. He actually started his career on Broadway before forming Jonas Brothers with his two brothers – Joe and Kevin. The group split in 2013, which led to Nick Jonas going solo for a while, before a reunion in 2019.
Jonas was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 13 and has worn an insulin pump ever since. He opened up about his diagnosis in 2008, becoming the brand ambassador for Bayer Diabetes Care. He also opened the Change for the Children Foundation for diabetes research.
3. Jada Pinkett Smith – Alopecia Areata
Jada Pinkett Smith is an American actress who is best known for her roles in A Different World, Menace II Society, The Nutty Professor, Scream 2, Set It Off, the Matrix movies, and the Madagascar films. She has been married to Will Smith since 1997 and they have two children.
In 2018, Pinkett Smith announced that she had been diagnosed with alopecia areata, a condition that’s characterized by hair loss. As a result, she shaved her head and has since embraced her diagnosis – though it isn’t always easy. At least she continues to raise awareness for alopecia.
2. Lady Gaga – Fibromyalgia
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, who most of us know as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Since 2008, she has released five studio albums, headlined six tours, co-headlined another tour with Tony Bennett, and held two residencies in NY and Vegas.
“I get so irritated with people who don’t believe fibromyalgia is real,” she said. “For me and I think for many others, it’s really a cyclone of anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, and panic disorder, all of which sends the nervous system into overdrive, and then you have nerve pain as a result.”
1. Michael J. Fox – Parkinson’s Disease
Michael J. Fox is a former Canadian-American actor who is best known for his roles in Family Ties, the Back to the Future trilogy, Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success, Doc Hollywood, and The Frighteners. He has been married to Tracy Pollan since 1988 and they have four children.
While filming Doc Hollywood in 1991, Fox started to experience symptoms of early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Not long after, doctors diagnosed him with the disease and he continues to battle the condition to this day – though there was once a hoax that stated he passed away.
How Does Brad Pitt Cope With His Disorder?
It must be hard for someone like Brad Pitt to be struggling with something that many people misinterpret as him being aloof or self-absorbed. He even admitted that he frequently tries to avoid social settings – knowing that if someone approaches him, he might not recognize them.
During the GQ interview, he seemed desperate to meet and talk with someone who has actually been diagnosed with the disorder. Not just so he doesn’t feel alone, but to learn about how others deal with the disorder and how to cope with the symptoms – because he doesn’t know how.
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Either way, it’s good to know that he’s finally ready to open up about his battle with what he believes to be prosopagnosia. It helps bring awareness to a disorder that I didn’t even know existed before hearing his story. And now that I know it exists, I can begin to understand it.
If you liked this list, continue reading for celebrities who have opened up about their struggles with addiction and getting sober.
Let’s Take a Look at the Celebrity Drug Addicts Who Have Shared Their Story.
Eva Mendes
After a 2008 trip to Utah’s Cirque Lodge rehab facility, Eva Mendes spoke with Interview magazine about how Hollywood actors are overly scrutinized, lambasting the idea that going to rehab is seen as a trope of celebrity drug addicts when seeking help is exactly the best thing to do.
“People have died, and I’ve lost friends too-even recently. So I can be a little sensitive on the subject,” Mendes told the outlet about alcoholism.
“Because celebrities’ lives are so visible, I think it makes it look lighter than it is. I have a really good sense of humor, I’m just very sensitive. The other day I was reading an article. I don’t even remember who the actress was, but she’s been around for a long time. She said something like, ‘I’m proud that I’ve had a whole career without making it to rehab.’ I thought, That’s such a negative twist on it. I’m proud of people who have the determination and the fearlessness to actually go and face their demons and get better.”
Ye West
Ye West AKA Kanye West has been very open about his struggles with alcohol. He is one of the celebrity drug addicts who admits to taking it one day at a time.
“I haven’t had a drink since I realized I needed to take it day by day, but I never owned up, or was even told, ‘Hey, you’re a functioning alcoholic,’” West said in a recent interview with GQ. “People have called me a crazy person, people have called me everything—but not a functioning alcoholic. And I would be drinking orange juice and Grey Goose in the morning.”
Keith Urban
When Keith Urban was just getting started in the music industry, he struggled with addiction. In 2016, the country singer described to Rolling Stone that cocaine and ecstasy were “my thing.”
“Sh*t started to really go awry. I stepped up my drinking. I started doing more drugs. Yeah, man. The whole back end of the Nineties were just awful,” he told the magazine.
“I had plenty of stuff. I didn’t seem able to stop. There was no stopping this time. I’d go to sleep, wake up a couple of hours later, go at it again, drinking to take the edge off. I remember thinking, ‘I’m probably not going to make it until tomorrow.’ And then I thought, ‘F*ck it. I really don’t care. It’ll be a relief to not have to. I’ll take an Ambien and at some point I’ll pass.’”
Urban credits Nicole Kidman with helping him to get fully sober by staging an intervention in 2006.
Ben Affleck
One of the most high-profile celebrity drug addicts, Ben Affleck initially went to rehab in 2001 but has continued to struggle with alcohol and gambling.
“I just wanted to stop,” he told a Fox News reporter in 1998. “I started regretting some things I did when I was drunk. It’s funny to be obnoxious or out of control, but then it’s like, ‘I think I hurt that person’s feelings,’ ‘I made a fool of myself’ or ‘I didn’t want to kiss that girl.’ I have almost no inhibitions, so it’s dangerous for me.”
He would later return to rehab for a 40-day stay in 2018. In 2020, he opened up to the NYT about his “compulsive behavior.” He said that that certain patterns of behavior became “a vicious cycle you can’t break. That’s at least what happened to me.”
Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson has been clean since 2017. She undertook a sobriety journey after years of struggling with alcohol and substance abuse. In her 2020 memoir Open Book, Simpson talks about overcoming her addiction struggles and finally starting to heal from childhood trauma. She is another one of the celebrity drug addicts to admit that her addiction would have killed her had it gone unchecked.
“I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills,” Simpson shared in the memoir. “I need to stop. Something’s got to stop. And if it’s the alcohol that’s doing this, and making things worse, then I quit,” She told her friends in 2017.
Demi Moore
Demi Moore has struggled with addiction off and on for decades. Before her own struggles, she saw her parents struggle with substance abuse from a young age. The star has gone to rehab several times, once in the ’80s and again in 2012. She is another one of the celebrity drug addicts to be very candid about her struggles. In her 2019 memoir Inside Out, she went into detail about the topic.
Talking about the first time she got sober, when she was cast in 1985 hit St. Elmo’s Fire, Moore said the following: “If I had needed to do it just for myself, I didn’t value myself enough. But the fact that they stood by me, still allowed me to step in to do the film was truly divine intervention that gave me something that meant more to me, which was to do the film, and allowed me to start to begin to find some value for myself.”
Dax Shepard
Dax Shepard is one of the celebrity drug addicts to relapse in recent years. However, he has been extremely open about his journey often speaking of it on his popular podcast Armchair Expert. Before his relapse, Shepard had been 16 years sober.
In a 2019 episode of the podcast, he talked about addiction as an ongoing sickness. “You’ve got to acknowledge you are an addict every day, first thing, right when you wake up,” he told guest Gwyneth Paltrow. “I wrote a page in my journal every single morning because I had this thought that if I can’t commit 20 minutes to remember I’m an addict each morning, I’m going to end up blowing nine hours a day as an addict. I have to be able to say, minimally this is your commitment.”
Brad Pitt
In 2016, Brad Pitt separated from Angelina Jolie after a fight about Pitt’s drinking. After the fight, Pitt had enough. As he put it, “I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.” The breakup marked the beginning of Pitt’s time in Alcoholics Anonymous, SheKnows reported.
“You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard,” he said of AA. “It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself.”
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato is another one of the celebrity drug addicts who has struggled for years to keep their drug addiction at bay. In 2018, Lovato suffered an overdose that resulted in multiple strokes and a heart attack. The severity of the overdose landed them in the hospital.
They released the following statement after they recovered: “What I’ve learned is that this illness is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet.”
Lady Gaga
Superstar Lady Gaga is another one of the celebrity drug addicts who got caught up in the moment and turned to cocaine. In a 2010 biography, Lady Gaga: Just Dance, she shared her past struggles with the substance.
“My cocaine soundtrack was always The Cure. I would lock myself in my room and listen to ‘Never Enough’ on repeat while I did bags and bags of cocaine. It was about being an artist,” she admits in the biography. “I wasn’t a lazy addict. I would make demo tapes and send them around. At the time I didn’t think there was anything wrong with me, until my friends said, ‘Are you doing this alone?’ Um, yes. Me and my mirror.”
Keep Reading to Learn More About Celebrity Drug Addicts Who Have Turned Things Around.
Ewan McGregor
In 2005, Ewan McGregor became another one of the celebrity drug addicts to open up about his struggles with alcohol in Playboy magazine. “Originally I was a happy drunk. But later I was miserable because it’s a depressant…I was just ashamed of myself, really.”
“None of my directors ever said, ‘You know, I’d rather you didn’t drink at work.’ None of them. And they must have known,” he said in the interview. “I was reeking of (alcohol)…I knew I was lucky, and somehow I knew that if I didn’t stop, everything would go tits up – my career, my family, my everything.”
Lisa Marie Presley
Lisa Marie Presley‘s life has been touched by the opioid crisis as is true for many other celebrity drug addicts. In a 2019 book, The United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain, Presley wrote about how she became addicted to the powerful drugs.
“I was recovering after the [2008] birth of my daughters, Vivienne and Finley when a doctor prescribed me opioids for pain,” she shared. “It only took a short-term prescription of opioids in the hospital for me to feel the need to keep taking them.”
“[I’m] grateful to be alive today,” she wrote, “and to have four beautiful children who have given me a sense of purpose that has carried me through dark times.”
John Mayer
John Mayer is another one of the celebrity drug addicts to struggle with alcohol. In a 2018 Complex Magazine interview, the singer revealed that he’d been two years sober.
“I have the most amazing last-night-of-my-life-drinking story. It was Drake’s 30th birthday party, and I made quite a fool of myself. It took me weeks to stop doing this every morning I woke up. And then I had a conversation with myself,” he said.
“I remember where I was. I was in my sixth day of the hangover. That’s how big the hangover was. I looked out the window and I went, ‘OK, John, what percentage of your potential would you like to have? Because if you say you’d like 60, and you’d like to spend the other 40 having fun, that’s fine. But what percentage of what is available to you would you like to make happen? There’s no wrong answer. What is it?’ I went, ‘100.’”
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith has been to rehab three times. She is one of the celebrity drug addicts to struggle with cocaine and alcohol.
“I’m lucky to be alive,” she said. “I was never as bad as some people I knew, shooting heroin and stuff. But I did do a lot of drinking and cocaine. I just thought I was having a good time.”
In 2009, she readmitted herself to rehab to firm up her commitment to staying sober.
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Oprah Winfrey
One of the celebrity drug addicts to dramatically turn things around is Oprah Winfrey. Yes, the iconic media mogul and television host spontaneously admitted to being addicted to crack cocaine earlier in her career. In a 1995 broadcast of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Winfrey admitted to mothers who were struggling with addiction that she too had substance abuse issues in her past.
Oprah made a spontaneous admission to mothers battling drug addiction that she had also used drugs,” a spokeswoman for the show said at the time. “Oprah’s words on the show are the best expression of how she feels.”
Dylan McDermott
One of the celebrity drug addicts who has stayed sober for many, many years is Dylan McDermott. In 2019, the actor celebrated 35 years of sobriety. He celebrated the occasion with a post on Instagram. He captioned it:
“Today is my Sober Birthday. 35 years! Staying sober has been my greatest accomplishment,” the actor wrote. “I say that because I was able to show up for myself in every way possible. In the most turbulent and best of times I had the rock of the 12 steps to guide me. I was able to be a father, son, brother and friend. Proud of this day because many in my family including my birth mother and father struggled with addiction. It was brutal to witness. I’ve also seen many who didn’t make it and that truly breaks my heart. If you’re hurting please get help.”
Zac Efron
Zac Efron entered rehab in 2013 for alcohol abuse. He’s one of the many celebrity drug addicts to find help through treatment.
“It’s a never-ending struggle,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. “I was drinking a lot, way too much.”
Fergie
Performing with the group Wild Orchid, Fergie developed an addiction to ecstasy which later escalated to crystal meth. She stated that quitting meth was the struggle of a lifetime.
“I was [suffering from] chemically-induced psychosis and dementia,” Fergie explained to iNews in December 2017. “I was hallucinating on a daily basis. It took a year after getting off that drug for the chemicals in my brain to settle so that I stopped seeing things. I’d just be sitting there, seeing a random bee or bunny.”
Nicole Richie
Nicole Richie is one of the celebrity drug addicts who has been candid about their addiction. Before becoming a mom, Richie described being addicted to cocaine and heroin.
“At 18, I had just been doing a lot of cocaine,” she said on 20/20 in 2007. “I, again, made the decision for myself, this is something I have to do. I have to get off drugs. This isn’t the life… this was heroin.”
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe revealed to The Guardian that he voluntarily gave up alcohol in 2010 because he recognized his drinking had become “unhealthy and damaging.”
“I was living in constant fear of who I’d meet, what I might have said to them, what I might have done with them, so I’d stay in my apartment for days and drink alone,” he explained to ShortList magazine in 2012. “I was a recluse at 20. It was pathetic — it wasn’t me. I’m a fun, polite person, and it turned me into a rude bore.”
Elton John
Sir Elton John is another celebrity drug addict who admits that sobriety saved their life. He said if he had not kicked his cocaine habit in the 1990s that he’d likely be dead today.
“By all rights I shouldn’t be here today,” he said during a speech at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC. “I should be dead — 6 foot under in a wooden box. I should have contracted HIV in the 1980s and died in the 1990s, just like Freddie Mercury, just like Rock Hudson. Every day I wonder, how did I survive?”
Drew Barrymore
One of the celebrity drug addicts you’re likely aware of is Drew Barrymore. As a child actor, she developed an addiction to cocaine. She was admitted to rehab for the first time at 14-years-old.
“Once I really asked myself, ‘What are you angry with?’ I dropped the anger,” she told The Guardian in 2015. “If you search deep down in me, it’s like, why am I so angry, man? And it’s like, OK, ’cause my parents weren’t there, who gives a sh*t? Lots of people don’t have parents. They were gone, they couldn’t handle any of it, and I get it… My life was not normal. I was not a kid in school with normal circumstances. There was something very abnormal, and I needed some severe shift.”
Eminem
Eminem told Rolling Stone in 2011 that he overdosed on prescription medication in 2009. He is one of the celebrity addicts who had been abusing pills. He admits to heavy use of Vicodin and Valium. His addiction finally led him to seek treatment at a rehab facility.
“I was taking so many pills that I wasn’t even taking them to get high anymore,” he told the magazine. “I was taking them to feel normal. Not that I didn’t get high. I just had to take a ridiculous amount. I want to say in a day I could consume anywhere from 40 to 60 Valium. And Vicodin… maybe 20, 30? I don’t know. I was taking a lot of shit.”
Kim Richards
Kim Richards was a former child star becoming a part of the Real Housewives franchise. She is one of the celebrity drug addicts who has been very vocal about their addiction to prescription pills over the years.
“I know I’ve put a huge dent in the work that I’ve worked so hard to build over the past few years,” Richards explained to Dr. Phil in 2015. “I just want to do the right thing and I want to be the strongest I can be. I know that me sober, I can handle almost anything.”
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Matthew Perry
Matthew Perry is another one of the high-profile celebrity drug addicts to turn things around. He’s been open about his alcohol and Vicodin addiction which occurred at the height of his fame from starring in Friends.
“It wasn’t my intention to have a problem with it,” PageSix reported the actor saying of the Vicodin he was prescribed for a jet ski accident. “But from the start, I liked how it made me feel, and I wanted to get more…I was out of control and very unhealthy.”
“It was scary. I didn’t want to die,” Perry later shared with People. “But I’m grateful for how bad it got. It only made me more adamant about trying to get better.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, we encourage you to contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): 1-800-662-HELP. They can connect you with resources in your area. As you’ve seen on this list of celebrity drug addicts, addiction can touch anyone. There’s no shame in admitting that you’re struggling and could use some help.
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