When Friends star Matthew Perry opened up on ‘surrendering’ himself to seek help for his addiction struggle

Friends is one sitcom that has brought happiness to the lives of several fans and the connection that they formed with the lead cast of the show has been special. Over the years, fans have watched their favourite stars from the show including Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc go through everything from heartbreaks and divorces to other serious things. 

Matthew Perry who became famous for playing Chandler Bing on the show struggled with addiction while being a part of the sitcom. The actor has been open about his addiction to prescription pain killers after a jet-ski accident in 1997. Perry during a 2004 interview with Oprah Winfrey along with the cast of the show spoke about taking the decision to seek help for his addiction after realising that the “Matthew Perry plan sucked.”

Speaking about the courage required to do the same, the actor revealed how he reached the decision to pull himself together and said, “What saved me was finally getting a little bit of clarity in my life and realizing that this was it. If I keep living my life this way, there isn’t going to be any life. So you ultimately, I think the key word is ‘surrender.'” He further added, “And you realize you need help, so you finally ask for it. And you realize the Matthew Perry plan sucks… For anybody out there struggling, you need to realize that it’s time to do something about it.”

When asked if it was hard to see a friend and co-star struggling, David Schwimmer who famously played Ross Geller on Friends admitted that it was “really hard” to see Matthew deal with addiction. Perry’s longtime struggle to get sober involved him checking himself into rehab twice during his time on Friends, firstly in 1997 to treat his addiction to prescription pills. He then returned in 2001 to deal with Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol addictions.

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