Matthew Perry Opened Up About His Near-Death Experience Due to Opioid Addiction

glamour.com:

Friends star Matthew Perry is getting candid about his opioid addiction, which resulted in a near-death experience just a few years ago.In an interview with ahead of the November 1 release of his new memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, revealed that his alcohol addiction was just starting when he joined the cast of as Chandler Bing in 1994, when he was 24 years old. “I could handle it, kind of,” he said. “But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble.

But there were years that I was sober during that time. Season nine was the year that I was sober the whole way through. And guess which season I got nominated for best actor?

I was like, ‘That should tell me something.’” Perry was nominated for an Emmy for best actor in a comedy series for his performance in season nine, which aired during the 2002–2003 season.Perry added that, at one point during his time on Friends, he was taking 55 Vicodin a day and was down to 128 pounds. “I didn't know how to stop,” he said. “If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we're going to take you to jail,’ I'd start packing.

I couldn't stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older.”When Perry was 49 (the actor is now 53), his colon burst from opioid overuse.