Matthew Perry Shuts Down Journalist Regarding Addiction

While many remember him from his role on Friends, Matthew Perry is another one of the several celebrities who battled addiction, and luckily, he came out on top. In an issue of People magazine, Perry opened up in a big way, admitting to his struggles with alcohol and drugs during the sitcoms 10 year run. And he didn’t hold anything back in the interview, even recalling what triggered his addiction to prescription medication.

Perry’s addictions assisted one another with infiltrating his system and affecting his brain. In 1997, Perry was a not-so-functioning alcoholic, and when he was intoxicated on a jet ski and crashed, his injuries gave him access to pain killers. After his physician told him to take the first pill, Perry recalls, “I felt better than I ever felt in my entire life. I had a big problem with pills and alcohol and I couldn’t stop.”

Shutting Down the Stigmas of Addiction

Recently, Perry was featured on a UK show called Newsnight where he faced off against “journalist,” (we use that term loosely in this instance), Peter Hitchens regarding substance abuse and addiction being a disease. Now, addiction is labeled as a disease of the brain by the American Medical Association in 1976, but Hitchens thinks that addiction is nothing more than a fantasy. Within the clip, Hitchens states,

“You do choose. You have a choice. You have a choice over whether you drink or not or whether you smoke or not. You tell me what the objective diagnosis is to establish the existence of addiction in the human body.”

Perry quickly shut down Hitchens by saying it’s an allergy of the body and obsession of the mind and used his own life as an example. He touched on his own addiction, describing in detail what it’s like when he begins to think about alcohol and how he loses all his will power after he’s had one drink.  Now, upon watching the entire segment, it becomes clear there’s no changing Hitchens’ mind, and it’s somewhat terrifying that he has a book out with his ludicrous ideas in it, but unless you or someone you know has battled substance abuse, it’s a difficult concept to understand.

Need Help? Contact a Recovery Professional Today

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, gather information from treatment centers in your area to get them back on track to living a healthy and established life. The Florida Recovery Group can help assist with any locals or out of state visitors struggling with overcoming their substance abuse addictions.