The country star has been sober for nearly a decade, but it was a hard-fought road getting there. His addiction to alcohol and pain pills began soon after graduating from high school and didn’t abate when his career began to take off. Eminem was eventually hospitalised in December 2007 following a methadone overdose, with doctors telling him he had ingested the equivalent of four bags of heroin. In a recent interview for manager Paul Rosenberg’s podcast, he discussed having to relearn how to rap following the overdose. “Just after Proof died, I was in my house by myself, and I was just laying in bed and I couldn’t move and I just kept staring at the ceiling fan. I literally couldn’t walk for two days when that happened and eventually my drug use fuckin’ skyrocketed.

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“I literally couldn’t walk for two days when that happened and eventually my drug use f–kin’ skyrocketed,” Eminem recalled. “I had f–kin’ 10 drug dealers at one time that I’m getting my s–t from. Seventy-five to 80 Valiums a night, which is a lot. I don’t know how the f–k I’m still here.” Marshall Mathers’ story of drug addiction, overdose, and recovery can be similar to the struggles many victims experience. Entering a professional addiction treatment program can help you plan and commit to a straightforward, supervised path to recovery. Famous rapper and music icon Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem, struggled with drug abuse from 1999 to 2008.

  • Eminem acknowledges having what he calls an addict’s brain, so he thinks of it as having replaced one addiction with another, healthier one.
  • Marshall Mathers’ story of drug addiction, overdose, and recovery can be similar to the struggles many victims experience.
  • According to the rapper, if he made it to the hospital just two hours later, he would have died from the drug overdose.
  • Ultimately, Eminem got clean and sober, and he detailed this sobriety in the album “Recovery.” Read on to discover how Eminem achieved and maintained his sobriety.

We want to give recovering addicts the tools to return to the outside world completely substance-free and successful. A 2022 interview with XXL magazine stated that Eminem was celebrating 13 years of sobriety. In this interview, Mathers discussed how his wealth and fame from his early success funded his drug addiction problem. At his lowest point, he was taking between 75 to 80 Valium pills per night. Eminem went to rehab in 2005 to get treatment for his addiction to sleeping pills.

Through perseverance in rehab, clarity emerged after hits obscured by haze. Now celebrating over a decade sober, Eminem’s triumph over addiction stands as an anthem those still struggling can look towards. Get compassionate evidence-based virtual care for mental health and/or substance abuse. One of Eminem’s most prominent struggles has been his drug addiction, which he has battled throughout his career. 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. “Ryan has been battling from alcohol addiction for many years and unfortunately it has become a destructive pattern for him,” his rep told E!

  • The Valley star shared his decades-long battle with drugs in March 2025 after going to rehab.
  • As of April 2022, Slim Shady is 14 years sober and has opened up about his addiction to pain and anxiety medication.
  • After losing nearly everything, Eminem emerged clean but uncomfortable in sobriety.
  • His albums Relapse and Recovery focus on themes of Eminem’s reputation and battles with drug addiction.
  • “I was experimenting. I hadn’t found a drug of choice. Back then you went on tour and people were just giving you free drugs. I managed it for a little while. And then, it just became, I like this s–t too much and I don’t know how to stop.”

Eminem, who has been sober since 2008, previously shared that he had been addicted to Vicodin, Valium and alcohol. The “Lose Yourself” rapper has celebrated his sobriety over the years, including in 2020, which marked his 12th anniversary. “Clean dozen, in the books,” he captioned the snap of his coin at the time. Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, posted a photo on Instagram April 20 of his recovery coin with the inscription, “Unity, service and recovery.”

Careers

Eminem has been sober for 13 years, and has been in the rap game for even longer. In a new essay shared by XXL on Wednesday (Sept. 14), the rapper opens up about every step of his come-up, his struggle with addiction when he became famous and his future goals. He has previously admitted his addictions to Vicodin, Valium, Ambien and methadone started while he was filming the semi-autobiographical 2002 film 8 Mile. The rapper was fighting an addiction to prescription medication when he was hospitalised in December 2007 after overdosing on methadone before going to rehab. Every individual can find something that works for them and their needs. 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.

After losing nearly everything, Eminem emerged clean but uncomfortable in sobriety. He persevered, slowly relearning his signature verbal dexterity and confronting emotions long buried by drugs. However through it all Eminem remained committed, finding support from friends and family who understood his struggles.

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“He has acknowledged that he needs professional assistance to overcome his problem and will be getting help immediately.” The Parent Trap actor battled a cocaine addiction throughout the ’80s that sent him to rehab in 1990. As he later explained on Today, he grew up in the ’60s and ’70s when “there was a completely different attitude” towards the drug. In 2018, she recalled battling her addictions to sex and alcohol. “I have always been transparent about my journey with addiction,” she wrote on Instagram two weeks later.

Eminem: Addiction & Recovery

“Pissed me off to no end and embarrassed me. I’m a pretty strong-willed person but that was the one thing in my life that I couldn’t get to stick.” “I had what I call a white light experience where I saw myself either dead or losing everything that meant anything to me,” he continued. He had to sit down then-fiancée Meg Ryan and explain what was going on. When her sister visited her in the summer of 1998 and brought along prescribed painkillers for a rib injury, Curtis said she hit her rock bottom.

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He abused Valium, Vicodin, Ambien, and alcohol, sometimes taking tens of pills a night. At the height of his career, while he was producing award-winning albums, he was battling alcohol and drug addiction. But Eminem managed to get his life together and has successfully made his way through addiction recovery. The “heaviest” period of drug addiction spanned five years of his life, and he hit a rough patch after his D12 bandmate Proof died. “I had fuckin’ 10 drug dealers at one time that I’m getting my shit from. Seventy-five to 80 Valiums a night, which is a lot,” he added.

Eminem has opened up about his former struggles with drug addiction in a personal new essay. The “Slim Shady” rapper shared his experience with addiction at the height of his fame. Ark Behavioral Health offers 100% confidential substance abuse assessment and treatment placement tailored to your individual needs. Not everyone has to do it the same way, however, and no one has to do it alone. All the running eventually took a toll on his body and he tore his hip flexors. When he was better, the rapper tried to mix things up by incorporating Shaun T’s Insanity workout, P90X, and Body Beast into his routine.

Eventually, the “Phenomenal” rapper learned how to function sober with the help of running, even to the point where he began to injure himself. After publicly celebrating six years of sobriety on tour in 2018, the singer stunned fans later that same year with the release of the confessional single “Sober,” which revealed that she had relapsed. “Feeling thankful for the freedom that comes with breaking addictions and dependency on substance,” he added. “Sobriety, clarity, and spiritual connectedness feels real good.” The Princess Diaries alum shared in April 2024 that she is more than five years sober. As she told the New York Times, “That feels like a milestone to me.”

“I knew she had them in her suitcase in our guest room closet,” she told the publication, crying at the memory. 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 what was eminem addicted to prescription that changed her life. “For the last eight weeks maybe, I don’t really know…I’m on them all day,” he said on his Armchair Expert podcast.

After a short visit to rehab, a 2007 overdose and a relapse shortly after, the “Stan” rapper sought the guidance of a rehab counselor and has remained sober since 2008. Although it wasn’t easy, sobriety was a pivotal decision in Eminem’s life. “I was experimenting. I hadn’t found a drug of choice. Back then you went on tour and people were just giving you free drugs. I managed it for a little while. And then, it just became, I like this s–t too much and I don’t know how to stop.” And now, Eminem admitted that almost dying from the methadone overdose ‘kind of sucked’ and insisted that music ‘saved his life’ as he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, on Saturday. In 2006, the death of his best friend, DeShaun “Proof” Holton, because of a shooting incident caused him deeper trouble. In 2007, Eminem suffered a huge setback when he nearly died after overdosing on methadone (as well-documented in his song “Arose” from his recent album Revival and “Deja Vu” from 2009’s Relapse).