Just days after celebrating his 16th year of sobriety, actor Dax Shepard is opening up about his recent relapse. During the most recent episode of his podcast, Armchair Expert, Sheperd shared how the last eight years resulted in a relapse that came on the heels of a recent accident.
During the very candid episode, Shepard told his co-host Monica Padman, “It would be unfair to say this all started with my recent surgeries, which is really hard to say.” That’s when Shepard went into great detail about the last eight years.
The husband and father of two admitted that while his first eight years of sobriety had no gray areas, his last eight years had quite a few of them. From injuries to losing his father, painkillers had become a part of his life and for the most part, he was using the prescribed medications as he should, until he wasn’t.
Shepard told his listeners that things started to get really bad about six months ago. “I’ve not ever yet bought [painkillers],” he said. “And then I do…For the last eight weeks maybe, I don’t really know…I’m on them all day.”
“I’m allowed to be on them at some dosage because I have a prescription. And then I’m also augmenting that. And then all the prescriptions run out and I’m now just taking 30 mil Oxys that I’ve bought whenever I decide I can do [it].”
At first, Shepard believed he had it under control until their friend and his podcast co-host, Monica, confronted him and he lied to her about it. Eventually, the lies and secret got to be too much.
Eventually, he came clean to both Monica and his wife, Kristen Bell. Now he’s starting over. “I’m sweating bullets; I’m jerky; my back kills. It’s terrible. I’ve never detoxed from opiates, and I have so much compassion for these junkies who have, like, f**king cycled through this 20, 30 times.”
Dax Shepard Thanks Fans for Their Support After Revealing Relapse
Several days after publishing his podcast, Shepard thanked people for their kindness and support. “Just quickly, I want to say thanks to all the people that have been so unbelievably lovely to us in response to ‘Day 7.'”
After Monica asked if he “felt loved and supported,” she said that she hopes his fears about opening up were “abated.” “My fears were the opposite of what the result was, yeah,” Shepard admitted. “But yeah, struggling with some fraudulent feelings of receiving love based on a f**kup. But, at any rate, I am really, really grateful, and there are so many beautiful, nice people.”
Shepard also responded to some of the people who responded to a recent Instagram video of him shaving one side of his head to twin with one of his daughters who has a similar hairstyle. “A lot of people said, ‘I could see you were high as a kite.’ I actually was not. I was having a metamorphosis, transitional—I wanted to make a physical statement that I was shedding something.”
RELATED: Gross! Kristen Bell Records Dax Shepard Performing ‘Surgery’ on Himself
Equally, despite his addiction to opiates, Shepard made it clear that he is still 16 years sober from alcohol and cocaine. If you or someone you know is also dealing with addiction, the SAMHSA National Helpline is there to help at 1-800-662-4357.
Bell has not yet spoken out about her husband’s relapse and subsequent sobriety. Nonetheless, we hope that together as a family, Dax Shepard can continue on this path.
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