Matthew Perry (“Friends”) reveals that his addiction nearly killed him: “I had a 2% chance to live”

“The doctors told my family had a 2% chance of living”. Matthew Perry, an actor best known for playing Chandler on the popular “Friends” series, confirmed this to People magazine almost died in 2018. The cause? An opiate addiction that ended up causing serious colon problems. Two weeks in a coma and five weeks in the hospital fighting for his life completely changed the way this actor sees things. now it feels “thankful to be alive”.

Perry also reveals that his troubles began at the time of the aforementioned sitcom, when his fame rose, but that the alcohol addiction he was suffering from at the time, at the age of 24, was just starting to emerge. “I could handle it, more or less. But when I turned 34, that was when it really became a problem. there have been years where i was sober, in fact in season 9 i stayed sober all the time. And guess what season I was nominated for Best Actor? I thought: ‘This should tell me something'”. Along with the drink, this interpreter recounts the large number of painkillers he would consume: 55 Vicodin pills a day at the worst times when he simply “I didn’t know how to stop”. “If the police had come to my house to threaten me with jail if I didn’t stop drinking, I would have packed my bags. I couldn’t stop because the disease and addiction are progressive. It gets worse with age”.

Patient and understanding, his co-stars have tightened ranks around him. “Like penguins. When you are truly hurt, the other penguins surround you and hold you. They walk until that penguin can walk alone. This is what the cast of ‘Friends’ did for me.”recalls the actor who fortunately managed to recover. “I’m pretty healthy right now. I’m not even going to skip the gym because I don’t want to just play superheroes.”he says jokingly, “but I’m pretty healthy right now”.

grateful survivor

Perry explains that at the worst of his illness he was connected to an ECMO machine, a treatment that is very difficult to get out of. “Five people were connected to an ECMO machine that night. The other four died and I survived. So the big question is why? Why me? There must be some kind of reason. “.

Since then the actor has remained steadfast in terms of his health and now, with the aim of raising awareness and helping more drug addicts, he has published a book that chronicles his experiences. “I believe that [los lectores] you will be surprised at how bad I have been in certain moments, on the verge of dying. I say in the book that if he died, he would shock people but he wouldn’t surprise anyone. And living with it is very scary. So I hope people relate to it and know that this disease attacks everyone. It doesn’t matter if you succeed or not, the disease doesn’t care. “.