“My addiction didn’t start in my early days when I was coming up. We used to drink 40s (forty-ounces of liquor) on the porch and just battle rap each other,” the 49-year-old star recalled of creating The Slim Shady LP. Eminem entered his first rehab program in 2005, but his drug abuse habits continued after Proof’s death in 2006. Eminem’s methadone overdose occurred in 2007, after years of heavy multi-substance eminem reflects on harrowing moments of his battle with drug addiction abuse, rehab, and cases of relapse. Eminem’s full recovery occurred about 4 years after his first stint in rehab.
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To learn how our program could work for you or a loved one, please contact us today. The addiction persisted for some time and even led to a scary incident in 2007, as those who listened carefully to his album Revival would know. ‘I was so scatterbrained that the people around me thought that I might have given myself brain damage. Today, Mathers is over 13 years sober from drugs or alcohol. Articles and interviews suggest that Eminem committed to sobriety after his near-fatal overdose, motivated by the life-threatening experience and responsibility to his family. In 2006, Mathers’ former bandmate and friend Proof Mathers died from a shooting incident.
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“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. I was able to downplay my addiction and hide it for a while until it got really bad. And also, at that time, so much shit was happening with the whole 50 beef with Ja Rule. We started feuding, going back-and-forth, and I’m making all of these diss records and shit.
Coming up through the battle scene, that didn’t mean shit to me, you know? Obviously, if I ended up in jail, the album probably wouldn’t have come out and nothing with my rap career would’ve ever happened. So, it should have been one of the first signs to me, but I never thought that I had a problem.
He said, “A letter to you suckers, each and every one of you duck muthafuckas/Your girl puckers her lips, so I stuck her.” He just said a sentence, but five things rhymed in there. And to this day, I still get really fuckin’ weird and freaked out inside when I talk to LL Cool J. «‘He was regular, considering the circumstances,» a source, who was a fan of the rapper, told The Daily Mail. It later transpired that ODB was dealing with serious mental health issues which may have been exacerbated by his time in prison.
- Famous rapper and music icon Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem, struggled with drug abuse from 1999 to 2008.
- And again, it’s subjective, and every rapper, especially rappers in competitive rap, wants to be the best rapper.
- These traumatic experiences fueled later substance abuse issues and inner demons.
- And to this day, I still get really fuckin’ weird and freaked out inside when I talk to LL Cool J.
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NA is a global support group for individuals recovering from drug addiction. The program follows a 12-step model that emphasizes the importance of admitting one’s inability to control substance use, seeking support from others, and making positive changes in one’s life. Eminem asked, “Didn’t you ask the doctors when I started recording new shit, when I first started rapping again, and sent it to you, didn’t you say, ‘I just wanted to make sure he didn’t have brain damage? ‘” The podcast host confirmed that he was in fact concerned during the recovery process that there might be some “permanent problems” with his health.
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The country star has been sober for nearly a decade, but it was a hard-fought road getting there. Eminem recently celebrated 14 years free of a growing drug addiction that marked his early fame. As global success brought overwhelming stress, he turned to prescription pills like valium and opioids.
- I was realizing I’m getting addicted to these fuckin’ pills.
- Rapper remembers taking trips to Tijuana to buy pills, taking Ambien before performances, and his problem going “through the fuckin’ roof” after the death of his friend Proof.
- That’s when everyone around me knew, “He’s fucked up. Something’s wrong with him.”
So, Royce and I are having this conversation. There are a lot of building blocks and things that had to fall in place for things to go the way they did for me and if you take one of those pegs out, the whole fuckin’ thing would’ve fallen down. I never thought I would be anyone’s influence. When my first album came out, I was still staying wherever I could stay—mostly with Kim and her parents. I didn’t get my own house until the second album.
Eminem’s Addiction Recovery
Eminem’s struggles with addiction affected his music career. My writing process is different now than it was back in the day. It used to be, give me whatever piece of paper is laying around and I’m going to write some ideas down. Sometimes I wish I could have that freedom back. At the beginning of my career, I had this whole canvas that I could paint on. “I haven’t made a song about this, this, this. I can make a song about this.” The more you paint on that canvas, all of the sudden, you’ve made a song about every single thing you can fuckin’ possibly think of.
Profiles Of Addiction Recovery Eminem
If I had a choice between being the best rapper or making the best albums, I’d rather be the best rapper. Obviously, all of that is subjective, and everybody’s got their favorite rappers, but in my head, I would rather do that than just make good songs. Encore took a whole fuckin’ different trajectory because Encore was during my addiction.
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. I understood, at the same time, everybody’s perception of a White guy coming into hip-hop and all of a sudden things start happening for him. So, if XXL would’ve even had a conversation with me, maybe they would’ve understood me more. I had rappers left and right taking shots at me.
