Thus, he turned to running, which gave him a natural high and helped him sleep at the same time. He knew he needed to lose weight and to find a way to function sober. Eminem got serious, worked with a rehab counselor and went through a difficult and painful detoxification. He began mixing pills, adding Valium, Ambien, and Xanax to the mix. The incident led him to seek other medication, including Vicodin, to help him relax at the end of the day and help him get some sleep.

• In 2018, the Halloween star got very candid about her 10-year addiction to opiates, which began in the late ’80s after a minor plastic surgery “for my hereditary puffy eyes.” The reslt was a prescription that changed her life.
• While the world knows about his successful music career, not many may be aware that he is an addict currently in recovery.
• The months following Proof’s death saw Eminem’s addiction morph into a $5,000-a-week habit involving eight simultaneous dealers.
• “That was the first time I ever realized I had a problem with drugs and alcohol⁠,” Cooper recalled during a 2022 appearance on the Smartless podcast.

Eminem Addiction Story and the Guide to a Sober Life

As the shooting for the film continued, he developed an addiction to prescription drugs, particularly Ambien. However, this bluntness has helped the singer raise awareness in people about the dangers of abusing drugs. Today, the rapper is known as an epitome of resilience and hope and a great example of how risky prescription drug abuse can be. During the peak of his career, Eminem continued to battle alcohol and drug addiction while producing award-winning songs.

It would be conversations, just having conversations with people or the TV.” “When I started to get it back, it was exciting. “I got into this vicious cycle of, ‘I’m depressed so I need more pills,’” Eminem said in the doc, per Us Weekly. Eminem’s ability to lose himself in his addiction prompted a major change.

What lessons can be learned from Eminem’s recovery?

• The birth of his daughter Hailie initially slowed his drug use, but the 2006 murder of his best friend Proof shattered this fragile balance.
• Just as Eminem transformed pain into platinum records, our specialists help clients rebuild lives through tailored coping strategies – because recovery, like rap, requires both raw honesty and meticulous craft.
• “There was times where I would stop doing it but then there were times where I’d go heavy on it.”
• When Eminem left rehab, he had gained a lot of weight, weighing up to 230 pounds.

According to addiction specialists, self-detox can be extremely dangerous, even if it works for some people. While Eminem succeeded in recovering from his addiction, his treatment involved self-detox, which experts do not recommend. However, he did not like the experience as people around him constantly asked him for autographs which distracted him from focusing on his recovery. According to sources, Eminem tried joining a rehab to overcome his addiction-related struggles. Overcoming addiction is possible, and maintaining sobriety is highly achievable in the long run.

Outpatient Mental Health Facility Address

In an interview with Vibe (via The Hindu), Eminem revealed that, at one point, he overdosed on methadone. In April 2020, Eminem took to Instagram to share that he had celebrated 12 years of sobriety. Eventually, Eminem lost 90 lbs and, per Billboard, he weighs 140 lbs today. So, to shed the pounds, he took up running — and as it turned out, he had replaced one addiction with another. “The coating on the Vicodin and the Valium I’d been taking for years leaves a hole in your stomach, so to avoid a stomachache, I was constantly eating — and eating badly,” he told Men’s Journal in 2015. It felt like a long time when it was happening, but looking back at it now, it wasn’t that long of a time for my problem to explode as it did.”

You could save up to 100% of your treatment using your Insurance. His fitness-based approach to sobriety has inspired many to seek alternative ways to heal. His lyrics document his near-death experience, withdrawal, and commitment to sobriety. He has spoken openly about the challenges of maintaining sobriety and how exercise and therapy have helped him stay clean. In 2007, Eminem overdosed on methadone, mistakenly consuming an amount equivalent to four bags of heroin.

The Parent Trap actor battled a cocaine addiction throughout the ’80s that sent him to rehab in 1990. “To the youth- Stop with these dumb ass drugs,” he began his series of tweets. 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. He got sober in 2021 and saw numerous positive benefits just one year later, including losing 32 pounds in seven months by cutting out alcohol and fast food. “My sort of addictions jump. They jump around. When I was younger, I definitely think I had a sex addiction of some kind, yes, that everything could be fixed by sex,” she said, before sharing about the time she realized she’d developed a troubling drinking problem.

Did Eminem do drugs during his early career?

The Princess Diaries alum shared in April 2024 that she is more than five years sober. “I discuss it every now and then when it makes sense. I’m 39 years sober. I got sober Feb. 23, 1985.” Since making the lifestyle change, Holland noticed he “could sleep better” and “handle problems better.”

Peso Pluma, Tito Double P Form a ‘Dinastía’ as They Announce Collab Album

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.” “And it was something that I realized just did not serve me in my life.” “He was incredulous that he’d never noticed,” Curtis said, adding that she’s been sober ever since. She attended her first meeting on Feb. 3, 1999, the same day she revealed her struggle to her filmmaker husband Christopher Guest. “I knew she had them in her suitcase in our guest room closet,” she told the publication, crying at the memory.

Stress Addiction

A well-meaning person gave him a pill that permitted him to get to sleep quickly and so make more efficient use of his time while on tour. His creative outputs contain brazen admissions and expletives that several people find as too much. 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. This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. You acknowledge that text messaging may involve risks, authorize the use of your Protected Health Information (PHI) for these communications, and understand you can opt-out of text messages at any time by replying “STOP”. You also consent to Asana Recovery contacting you by phone, text message, and email regarding your insurance benefits and treatment services.

Eminem reveals how depression led to a ‘vicious cycle’ of pill abuse and overdose. If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Congratulations to Eminem for celebrating so many years of sobriety! Regardless, he’s clean and sober now, which is a good thing. “My doctor told (me that) the amount of methadone (I’d) taken was equivalent to shooting up four bags of heroin,” he said. 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.

However, Eminem’s life example proves that no matter how hard the process is, recovery is always possible and can positively influence all aspects of life. The fear of experiencing psychological and physical pains related to withdrawals can scare many people from joining a rehab. Eminem even admitted that he took running to an extreme when he started running up to 17 miles per day on his treadmill. The singer acknowledged having an addict’s brain, so he simply recovered by replacing the harmful addiction with a healthier one.

Eminem has candidly revealed he almost died from an overdose and how the heartbreaking moment he woke up changed his life. “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. 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. “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. Although the Parenthood alum knows that “one of the things that you’re not supposed to do is get sober for somebody else,” his relationship with now-wife Melanie Lynskey was a major reason that led him to swearing off alcohol. As he later explained on Today, he grew up in the ’60s and ’70s when “there was a completely different attitude” towards the drug.

Beyond Celebrity: The Broader Implications for Mental Health

After an incident in Newport Beach where the Olympic swimmer tried to kick in his own hotel room door, Lochte made the decision to seek treatment in 2018. “I remember reaching a rock bottom that time I was in the house by myself and I had those two bottles of wine and was going for the third bottle,” she said. A month later, Lovato was hospitalized for a near-fatal overdose.

What impact did addiction have on Eminem’s music?

“I’m sticking this one out all the way,” he told People in July 2025. “It’s a daily thing. Read on for more stars who have gotten candid about their struggles with addiction. “I realized I’m not embarrassed anymore about sobriety.

Mental Health Matters: Why Substance Abuse Is A Symptom Of A Deeper Crisis

Eminem opened up about the way his what was eminem addicted to struggle with drug addiction was a constant, if unseen, presence throughout much of his early career in a new as-told-to in XXL. According to the rapper, if he made it to the hospital just two hours later, he would have died from the drug overdose. When people attempted to tell him he had a problem, he didn’t believe them because he was using legally procured drugs, not heroin, cocaine or crack. But Eminem managed to get his life together and has successfully made his way through addiction recovery.

His willingness to detail relapses, withdrawal horrors, and the daily grind of staying clean has reshaped conversations about addiction in hip-hop. While critics initially dismissed his graphic depictions of substance abuse as shock value, time revealed these narratives to be raw psychological portraits of a man drowning in fame, grief, and self-medication. Senior Editor, NewsJames is an award-winning investigative reporter known for real-time coverage of global events.