By the time he left rehab, Eminem weight had ballooned to 230 pounds. He knew he needed to lose weight and to find a way to function sober. Thus, he turned to running, which gave him a natural high and helped him sleep at the same time. Eminem—born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in St. Joseph, Missouri on October 17, 1972—is a rapper, music producer, songwriter, record executive, and actor who rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album The Slim Shady LP. Eminem actively gives back by showing the true reality of addiction – a disease he barely survived at the height of fame. He aims to uplift those still battling through public honesty about his struggles.

For years, he confronted demons threatening his renewed passion for music. In late 2011, he was hospitalized with pancreatitis and was told that if he didn’t stop drinking, he wouldn’t see his next birthday. “I still put it off and was trying to slow down on my own, like, ‘All right I’m only gonna let myself take two pills today. I’m only gonna drink this much of my bottle and make a mark on the bottle,'” he recalled. “And it would work a couple days—and then somebody throws a party.” “It was easier for me to say that I’m doing it for her because, at that time, I didn’t feel like I was sort of worth much,” he recalled of the early days of their relationship. “I didn’t care as much about hurting myself as I did about hurting her. So, initially it was easier for me to say, ‘I’m doing this for her.’ And now, I’m doing it for myself.”

“And when I say we had the motherlode. Our pants were frickin’ stuffed with pills. I don’t know how many we had.” Eminem, also known as Marshall Mathers, is a well-known rapper known for his lyrical prowess and ability to express his struggles through his music. He has been open with one of his most prominent struggles, drug addiction, which he has battled throughout his career. In a candid new interview, rap superstar Eminem reveals he suffered from a devastating drug addiction that led to him downing as many as 20 Vicodin, Ambien and Valium in a day.

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She added, “It’s so funny. When we reveal ourselves and our truths and the things we’ve worked so hard for, it’s so liberating and vulnerable all at the same time.” She attended her first meeting on Feb. 3, 1999, the same day she revealed her struggle to her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest. “He was incredulous that he’d never noticed,” Curtis said, adding that she’s been sober ever since. “My personal experience with it is that everything is better,” she continued. “And it just felt so extreme to have to say, ‘But none?’ But none. If you’re allergic to something or have an anaphylactic reaction to something, you don’t argue with it. So I stopped arguing with it.”

  • For years, he confronted demons threatening his renewed passion for music.
  • After the sudden death of Mac Miller, the rapper—born Shad Moss—took to Twitter to let his fans know that he’d once struggled with a cough syrup addiction.
  • A friend had given him the drug, which is used to wean heroin addicts off of the drug, and he would not have taken it had he known it was methadone.
  • These problematic experiences profoundly impacted Eminem’s mental health and shaped his music as he used it as a catharsis to cope with his struggles.
  • “Drinking caused weight gain,” he told Today in September 2022, “but it also weighed down my mental state.”
  • In this interview, Mathers discussed how his wealth and fame from his early success funded his drug addiction problem.

“I remember just being, like, really happy and everything was f–king new to me again.” Eminem has opened up about his struggles with addiction and fame in a new essay. After the overdose, The Real Slim Shady artist went back to using again, but he was scared by the near-death experience and entered rehab, and finally got sober in April 2008. It was his kids that inspired him and gave him the strength to triumph over his situation and successfully go through addiction recovery.

But now the 149-pound musician can finally do the videos without pausing. Early in his career, he said him and some friends frequently went to Tijuana, Mexico to purchase drugs such as Vicodin. “I don’t know how many times we did it, but it was so easy to go back and forth to do it,” he said. The last time he went to Tijuana to pick up, they witnessed the vehicle in front of them getting pulled over and searched.

How To Stay Sober This Cinco De Mayo

Crediting Arnett as “the reason” he went sober, Cooper added, “He took that risk of having a hard conversation with me that put me on a path of deciding to change my life.” The A Star Is Born actor struggled with a cocaine addiction during the early aughts before friend Will Arnett stepped in and confronted him out about his behavior. She eventually sought help and noted that “it took some time to get on my own two feet.”

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  • Shifting his attention to where he sees himself in the world of hip-hop these days, he said he simply strives to “always try to be the best rapper.” “I can’t do that until I listen to what the fuck J.
  • “And then you would just reach that moment where you’re like ‘Wow, I shouldn’t have had that last beer,'” the actor continued.
  • Eminem entered his first rehab program in 2005, but his drug abuse habits continued after Proof’s death in 2006.
  • We are dedicated to transforming the despair of addiction into a purposeful life of confidence, self-respect and happiness.
  • Her commitment to promoting mental health awareness and providing support to those in need is at the core of her work.

The star of Hunt for Red October does not often speak to his sobriety journey, which began almost forty years ago. Since making the lifestyle change, Holland noticed he “could sleep better” and “handle problems better.” Loved ones couldn’t help but share their excitement about the what was eminem addicted to occasion, with longtime manager Paul Rosenberg writing, “Sweet 16. So proud of you.” Younger brother Nathan Mathers commented, “Greatest Influence and Mentor.”

Eminem talks about drugs and his 2007 overdose as he is inducted into Rock n Roll Hall of Fame

Encore was received poorly compared to The Marshall Mathers LP, and he relapsed multiple times before and after his methadone overdose. These problematic experiences profoundly impacted Eminem’s mental health and shaped his music as he used it as a catharsis to cope with his struggles. His childhood experiences also contributed to his later struggles with drug addiction and made his recovery journey all the more challenging. Now, Eminem is celebrating over a decade of sobriety after long struggles with drug addiction, stemming back to when he created his first album. Growing up in Detroit, experiences with poverty, bullying, and family instability profoundly impacted his mental health and childhood. “My addiction didn’t start in my early days when I was coming up,” he explained in a personal essay for XXL in September 2022.

After the success of his 1999 album The Slim Shady LP, he was wealthier and could buy any drugs he was interested in. He developed a preference for Vicodin, Valium, alcohol, and Ambien, admitting later he was unable to control his drug use. “I had f—in’ 10 drug dealers at one time that I’m getting my s— from. Seventy-five to 80 Valiums a night, which is a lot.” The song emphasises the rapper’s struggle to cope with fame after being discovered by Dr Dre in 1997.

“I don’t know how the fuck I’m still here. I was numbing myself.” He has been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and has credited the program with helping him overcome his substance abuse issues. He has also been involved in various philanthropic endeavors that support addiction recovery, including the Marshall Mathers Foundation, which provides resources and support to at-risk youth.

Through consistency, hard work, and the desire not to relapse, Eminem got down to 149 pounds without destroying his body. His creative outputs contain brazen admissions and expletives that several people find as too much. But this bluntness has helped raise awareness of the real dangers of prescription drugs. Eminem opened up about the way his struggle with drug addiction was a constant, if unseen, presence throughout much of his early career in a new as-told-to in XXL. But he was also at the height of his drug addiction, as that’s when he overdosed — and according to Billboard, he tipped the scales at 230 lbs when he was in the throes of his addiction.

But in 2007, he spiraled out of control again and was hospitalized for a methadone overdose. He started with Shaun T’s Insanity videos, switched to P90x and then moved to Body Beast videos. When he first started the at-home routines, Eminem said he couldn’t move for two days.

“And unable to keep my head up or keep my eyes open, because I was so far gone.” “I feel like there’s a defining moments in our lives that shape who we are and the direction we go and early in my career, I was spiraling down a path of real self-destruction and no matter what successes I had, I just never felt good enough,” the star recalled. “I had absolutely no value for myself and this self-destructive path, it very quickly brought me to a real crisis point and it wasn’t clear at the time the reason. Maybe it was divine intervention.” “I am coming out that I’m an addict,” Jax shared during the March 4 episode of Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast. “I have substance issues, primarily with cocaine. It’s hard to say out loud.” In the piece penned for XXL, Em discusses the way that “everything changed” after he signed with Interscope and released his second studio album, 1999’s ‘The Slim Shady LP’.