Matthew Perry details drug addiction in new memoir: “I had a 2% chance to live”

Matthew Perry’s ongoing issues with drugs and alcohol have been the subject of tabloid headlines for years. But while his struggles were made public, he has remained private about them. He’s under no obligation to tell people about his addiction, yet in his new memoir, ‌Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing, he opens up about his alcoholism and staying sober because he “was pretty certain that it would help people.”

“I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again,” Perry told People. “I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober, and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction, to write it all down.”

Perry’s addiction began early. When he was 24, Perry had just been cast on Friends, and the actor thought he could “handle” his alcoholism. “But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble.” At one point during his tenure on Friends, he was 128 pounds and taking 55 Vicodin a day. “I didn’t know how to stop. 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.”

Thankfully, Perry had the support of his “understanding” and “patient” co-stars. “It’s like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up. They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”

The memoir is also the first time he publicly acknowledged that he almost died a few years ago. At age 49, Perry, now 53, suffered a gastrointestinal perforation. “The doctors told my family that I had a 2% chance to live,” he said. After his colon burst from opioid abuse, he spent two weeks in a coma and five months in the hospital. “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.”

The experience inspired him to write the book. “There were five people put on an ECMO machine that night and the other four died and I survived. So the big question is why? Why was I the one? There has to be some kind of reason.”

“My therapist said, ‘The next time you think about taking Oxycontin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life,’” Perry said. “And a little window opened and I crawled through it and I no longer want Oxycontin anymore.”

Perry’s memoir, ‌Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing, will be available in bookstores on November 1.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).