She attended her first meeting on Feb. 3, 1999, the same day she revealed her struggle to her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest. "I knew she had them in her suitcase in our guest room closet," she told the publication, crying at the memory. "I had a 10-year run, stealing, conniving," she told People. "And I'm allowed to be on them at some dosage because I have a prescription and then I'm also augmenting that." "For the last eight weeks maybe, I don't really know…I'm on them all day," he said on his Armchair Expert podcast. The Parenthood alum was sober for 16 years before relapsing in 2020 by taking Vicodin after a motorcycle accident.
- He openly admits to a “vicious cycle” of needing “more pills” to cope with underlying emotional struggles.
- Thus, he turned to running, which gave him a natural high and helped him sleep at the same time.
- "And I'm allowed to be on them at some dosage because I have a prescription and then I'm also augmenting that."
- "I think that anyone that has a beer everyday has probably got a little bit of a problem."
- When Eminem left rehab, he had gained a lot of weight, weighing up to 230 pounds.
- However, Eminem’s life example proves that no matter how hard the process is, recovery is always possible and can positively influence all aspects of life.
Eminem On Drug Addiction And Recovery
Eventually, the singer started mixing pills, including Xanax, Ambien, and Valium. Eminem’s successful addiction recovery proves just that. Eminem acknowledges having what he calls an addict’s brain, so he thinks of it as having replaced one addiction with another, healthier one.
Consequently, the rapper preferred to self-detox and work privately with a rehab counselor instead of seeking formal treatment. However, he did not like the experience as people around him constantly asked him for autographs which distracted him from focusing on his recovery. According to sources, Eminem tried joining a rehab to overcome his addiction-related struggles.
Flea Previews New Solo Album With 'A Plea'
In October 2018, the American Pie star announced he was one year sober in a celebratory and encouraging Instagram post. "I've discovered new verbiage, such as boundaries, never really had those," he continued. "I'm sticking this one out all the way,” he told People in July 2025. "It's a daily thing.
- It was his kids that inspired him and gave him the strength to triumph over his situation and successfully go through addiction recovery.
- In October 2025, the Migos member shared he was four years sober from codeine—an opioid used to make the soda-based drink sizzurp—after a "wake-up call" from his teenage son Jordan.
- While Eminem succeeded in recovering from his addiction, his treatment involved self-detox, which experts do not recommend.
- Eminem addiction first began when he started using drugs that many used to consider harmless since they were legally available.
- His creative outputs contain brazen admissions and expletives that several people find as too much.
- When people attempted to tell him he had a problem, he didn’t believe them because he was using legally procured drugs, not heroin, cocaine or crack.
Substance Abuse →
The 15-time Grammy winner, real name Marshall Mathers, got sober in April 2008 after a nearly decade-long battle with Vicodin, Valium, Ambien and Xanax resulted in an overdose, which he candidly speaks about in the new documentary, “Stans.” Eminem says he had to “relearn how to walk, talk and … rap again” after overdosing during his addiction to prescription pills. While the singer did use to drink alcohol heavily, he has been living a sober life for almost 13 years.
Alcoholic Hepatitis
Eminem opened up about the way his struggle with drug addiction was a constant, if unseen, presence throughout much of his early career in a new as-told-to in XXL. But he was also at the height of his drug addiction, as that's when he overdosed — and according to Billboard, he tipped the scales at 230 lbs when he was in the throes of his addiction. Get signed up today and discover how to unlock the grip of addiction and get back to living your best life.
She added, "It's so funny. When we reveal ourselves and our truths and the things we've worked so hard for, it's so liberating and vulnerable all at the same time." "And it was something that I realized just did not serve me in my life." "He was incredulous that he'd never noticed," Curtis said, adding that she's been sober ever since.
Levaquin and Alcohol
His addiction to alcohol and pain pills began soon after graduating from high school and didn't abate when his career began to take off. "Ryan has been battling from alcohol addiction for many years and unfortunately it has become a destructive pattern for him," his rep told E! She told The Guardian, "Nothing seemed to reach or satisfy me. I remember waking up one morning in those dark days thinking, ‘Maybe it's time for heroin, because nothing else is working.'" The Backstreet Boys member tried drugs for the first time before filming the music video for 2000's "The Call," telling Good Morning America years later that he "was off the walls" during the shoot.
Unaware that methadone’s effects compound over days, Eminem took what he considered a “moderate dose” after a week-long binge. His infamous 2007 methadone overdose wasn’t a deliberate suicide attempt but the culmination of pharmaceutical roulette. What are your thoughts on the role of public figures in destigmatizing mental health and addiction? Eminem’s journey isn’t just a personal triumph; it’s a testament to the power of resilience and a call to action for a more compassionate and effective approach to mental health and addiction. Looking ahead, several trends are poised to reshape the landscape of addiction recovery. However, it’s precisely this openness that can have a profound impact, normalizing conversations around mental health and addiction and encouraging others to seek help.
"My doctor told (me that) the amount of methadone (I'd) taken was equivalent to shooting up four bags of heroin," he said. A friend had given him the drug, which is used to wean heroin addicts off of the drug, and he would not have taken it had he known it was methadone. In an interview with Vibe (via The Hindu), Eminem revealed that, at one point, he overdosed on methadone. Ultimately, Eminem got clean and sober, and he detailed this sobriety in the album "Recovery." Read on to discover how Eminem achieved and maintained his sobriety. In 2013, MTV discussed how the rapper, born Marshall Mathers, explored the depths of his addiction in the film "How To Make Money Selling Drugs." "When I took my first Vicodin, it was like this feeling of 'Ahh.' Like everything was not only mellow, but I didn't feel any pain," he said in the film, according to the outlet.
‘The Next Wave in the Opioid Crisis’: A New Drug Stronger Than Fentanyl Is Taking Off
With time, Eminem successfully lowered his body weight to 149 pounds without harming his body. This intense schedule soon took a toll on his health, and he tore his hip flexors. He understood that he needed to shed this weight while finding another way to be sober. When Eminem left rehab, he had gained a lot of weight, weighing up to 230 pounds.
Demi Lovato and Sobriety
It felt like a long time when it was happening, but looking back at it now, it wasn’t that long of a time for my problem to explode as it did.” “That’s when the wheels started coming off. Em said one moment where his addiction spilled over to the public came during an appearance on BET’s 106 and Park with 50 Cent and G-Unit. Things really got bad in between 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP and 2002’s The Eminem Show, when he was taking a mix of Vicodin, Valium, and alcohol. As I started making a little money, I could buy more of them.” If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available.
The 2007 Turning Point: From Relapse to Recovery
“Stans” — which not only offers a look into Eminem’s life and career, what was eminem addicted to but some of the fans who are wholly obsessive with him — hit theaters on Thursday for a limited run. More recently, he released the song “Somebody Save Me,” which serves as a heartfelt apology to his kids for missing out on much of their childhoods, as well as a reflection on all the other moments he would have missed if addiction had taken his life. According to addiction specialists, self-detox can be extremely dangerous, even if it works for some people.
The ‘STAN’ Documentary and the Power of Vulnerability
The incident led him to seek other medication, including Vicodin, to help him relax at the end of the day and help him get some sleep. A well-meaning person gave him a pill that permitted him to get to sleep quickly and so make more efficient use of his time while on tour. His creative outputs contain brazen admissions and expletives that several people find as too much. Eminem—born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in St. Joseph, Missouri on October 17, 1972—is a rapper, music producer, songwriter, record executive, and actor who rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album The Slim Shady LP.
The "Lose Yourself" rapper reflected on his prior prescription pill abuse in his 2025 documentary Stans, noting an overdose and missing his daughter Hailie Jade's birthday party prompted a change. “I first tried to get sober over 5 years ago, when the weight of my obsession with booze and drugs became too heavy for me to handle,” he wrote at the time. In his new documentary Stans, the “Mockingbird” rapper reflected on his past habit of abusing prescription pills—including Vicodin, Valium, Ambien and Xanax—starting in the late ‘90s until around 2008, resulting in a dangerous health scare. “I started treating sobriety like a superpower and I took pride in the fact that I was able to quit,” said Eminem, who addressed his addiction in his 2009 album, “Relapse.” Upon later learning that he’d “missed” one of his daughter Hailie Jade’s birthdays due to his addiction, the “Without Me” rapper “kept saying to myself, ‘Do you want to f—ing miss this again?