Mathew is widely known for playing Chandler Bing on the popular TV show Friends. He is an award-winning American-Canadian actor. He has appeared in various TV shows and movies like The Odd Couple, The Whole Nine Yards, and Almost.
The actor has been struggling with alcohol and drug addiction. He has shed light on his struggles with drug addiction and how he overcame those challenges related to her addicted habit.
He faced an accident in 1997, for which he was prescribed painkillers, and eventually, Mathews became addicted to the painkillers. He revealed that his addiction reached the level where he was taking 55 painkillers a day during the shoot of his hit show, FRIENDS. He said, I didn't know how to stop.
Mathew has explained about her condition where he almost lost his life shortly before his 50th birthday. He said that he was admitted to the hospital with a perforated stomach and there was no hope of his survival. He revealed, I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that. There were five people put on an ECMO machine that night and the other four died and I survived.
Everyone is aware of the fact that drug addiction is a hard disease to beat. He further explained about his condition that he has been rehabbed 15 times and has undergone no more than 14 surgeries to mend the damage that he did to his stomach.
In his interview, he also talked about his FRIENDS cast member, who supported him. He said about them, understanding and patient.
The actor said he tried his best work while in recovery, Season 9 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.'
Despite Mathew's drug addiction challenges, he decided to share his journey, I say in the book that if I did die, it would shock people, but it wouldn't surprise anybody, he admitted, And that's a very scary thing to be living with. So I hope that people will relate to it, and know that this disease attacks everybody. It doesn't matter if you're successful or not, the disease doesn't care.
Mathews Perry's Present Thoughts
For Mathews the past traumatic events and the scars from his Surgery are the incentives to keep his sobriety, he said, That’s a lot of reminders to stay sober.
According to Mathew, Everything starts with sobriety. Because if you don't have sobriety, you're going to lose everything that you put in front of it, so my sobriety is right up there.
The actor Mathew emphasizes that his past vulnerable moments and health issues lead him towards how important the lessons he learned over the years are. Your sober date changes, but that's all that changes. You know everything you knew before, as long as you were able to fight your way back without dying, you learn a lot.