Back in 2022, Eminem opened up about his past addiction and eventual recovery in an essay published by XXL. According to the “Lose Yourself” rapper, he started taking pills following the release of 1999’s The Slim Shady LP. Five years later, things took a turn for the worse after Em dropped another No. 1 album, 2002’s The Eminem Show, and had begun working on what would become 2004’s Encore.
- According to the rapper, if he made it to the hospital just two hours later, he would have died from the drug overdose.
- “I don’t discuss this a lot,” he said during a May 2024 podcast appearance.
- Eminem isn’t the only star to open up about their addiction and sobriety.
- She eventually sought help and noted that “it took some time to get on my own two feet.”
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When I first came out to L.A., me and some guys I was hanging out with used to go to Tijuana and we would buy drugs. I don’t know how many times we did it, but it was so easy to go back and forth to do it. The last time we went, we’re second in line and this dude in front of us starts arguing with the guy in Customs, and they fuckin’ throw him down on the ground and start pulling pills out his pockets and shit. “I don’t know at what point exactly it started to be a problem. I just remember liking it more and more,” Eminem says of his addiction to prescription medications in a clip from the documentary How to Make Money Selling Drugs.
Eminem is 11 years sober
That’s when everyone around me knew, “He’s fucked up. Something’s wrong with him.” That’s also when I was starting to battle addiction. People obviously didn’t know it yet, but I was starting to realize inside that it was happening, and I always tried to keep it on the low and keep it together as much as I could. Eminem recalled recording in Florida as he was still in withdrawal after his overdose and said he was taking “75-80 valium a night” while he began work on Relapse. Getting clean and staying sober is achievable. Eminem’s successful addiction recovery proves just that.
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So, it should have been one of the first signs to me, but I never thought that I had a problem. As I started making a little money, I could buy more of them. The article comes not long after Em shared his experience of a near-fatal drug overdose 15 years ago in an interview with Paul Rosenberg. ““It took a long time for my brain to start working again,” Em said of his accidental overdose on methadone. “It was like the first time I started having fun with music again, and re-learning how to rap, you remember that whole process,” Eminem added. “It took a long time for my brain to start working again.”
“It was the first album and the first time that I had fun recording in a long time.” 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). When people attempted what was eminem addicted to to tell him he had a problem, he didn’t believe them because he was using legally procured drugs, not heroin, cocaine or crack. Addiction recovery was very far from his mind.
With the dual releases of her fourth studio album No Shame and memoir My Thoughts Exactly, the singer spent much of 2018 getting brutally honest about the height of her addition problems. “Feeling thankful for the freedom that comes with breaking addictions and dependency on substance,” he added. “Sobriety, clarity, and spiritual connectedness feels real good.”
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. The reason behind this weight gain was two-fold. On Saturday, the Detroit rapper took to social media to celebrate the anniversary by sharing a picture of a new sobriety chip. Eventually, the “Phenomenal” rapper learned how to function sober with the help of running, even to the point where he began to injure himself.
The Detroit rapper has been public about his battle with prescription drug addiction. I couldn’t sit up here, say, “Man, I want to be the best rapper that ever was and ever will be, but I don’t listen to anybody else’s shit and I think that I’m untouchable.” No, because the minute you sleep, someone’s coming to take your head off. It’s always evolving, and to succeed you need to be constantly aware of that and keep up with it.
50 had to cover for me and answer every question. My addiction didn’t start in my early days when I was coming up. We used to drink 40s on the porch and just battle rap each other. My drug usage started at the beginning of that first album. I didn’t take anything hard until I got famous. Back then you went on tour and people were just giving you free drugs.