Matthew Perry Speaks Out About His Addiction
The "Friends" actor and self-described "private person" is helping others.
— -- Matthew Perry has long been open about his struggle with prescription pill and alcohol addiction.
Now, he's speaking out in support of the Phoenix House, a rehab center in California.
"You can't have a drug problem for 30 years and then expect it to have it be solved in 28 days," he said in a video obtained by Hollywood Reporter. "Phoenix House — I was very moved by the hope that I saw there, which is what this is all about. Getting sober is a really hard thing to do."
Perry, 46, first sought professional help for addiction in 1997, when he was starring in "Friends." Two other stints would eventually follow.
"I'm a pretty private person but I was on a TV show that 30 million people were watching, so people knew" he noted. "It was so public, what was happening to me."
Now the actor, who praised treatment centers for creating safe spaces for addicts to escape environments in which they're using, is using his fame as a platform to speak out about addiction. Helping others, he said, is "the most important thing."
"I've had a lot of ups and downs in my life. I've learned a lot from my failures," he said. "But the best thing about me is that if an alcoholic comes up to me and says, 'Can you help me stop drinking?' I can say, 'Yes.'"
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