Rob Lowe
This past May, the actor Rob Lowe—most recently known for his role in the show Parks and Recreation—celebrated 31 years sober. Lowe first started drinking at age 13. He then began using drugs and getting heavier into drinking during the filming of the movie The Outsiders, during which he turned 18. For a year before […]
Dax Shepard
The actor Dax Shepard was sober for 16 years before relapsing in 2020. Relapse in celebrities often becomes fodder for jokes, which adds to stigma, but Shepard addressed his relapse candidly and directly. He and his wife, the actress Kristen Bell, were also candid with their daughters. They told them in an age-appropriate way that […]
Anthony Kiedis
Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers has been continuously sober since the year 2000. He’s struggled with cocaine, heroin, and alcohol use. The song “Under the Bridge,” one of the band’s most popular, is about a time Kiedis used drugs under a bridge in LA. One day during his first attempt at sobriety, […]
Florence Welch
Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence and the Machine, has been sober since 2014. In recent years, she’s opened up about her history of addiction and eating disorders. Welch says she grew up with a sense of terror that could only be quelled by music or self-destruction. “I learned ways to manage that terror—drink, drugs, […]
Sober Stories: Beth
What led you to get sober? I was 23 years old, and at that point I had been using and drinking for a decade. I was sitting at my kitchen table in my little mice-infested apartment, and I had this sudden awareness: if I didn’t stop, I would be dead within a year. My life […]
Danny Trejo
The actor Danny Trejo has been sober since August 23rd, 1968. He started attending AA meetings in prison, where he landed after trying to sell heroin to an undercover cop. Trejo first smoked weed at 8 years old, had his first drink by 12, and started shooting heroin at 14. He was in and out […]
French Montana
The rapper French Montana has been sober since November 2019. He got sober following a hospitalization a little over a week after his 35th birthday, when he collapsed from mixing Adderall, Percocet, and alcohol. Montana says his life was out of control, but he was the only one in his orbit who didn’t notice. “It’s […]
What Are Benzos?
Benzodiazepines, often referred to as “benzos,” are depressants that cause sedation. They are commonly prescribed to treat anxiety, insomnia, alcohol withdrawal, and seizures. However, people without prescriptions may obtain them in order to get high, and those with a prescription can also misuse them. Potential short-term effects of benzos include drowsiness, confusion, slurred speech, muscle […]
Kaveh Akbar
Poet Kaveh Akbar got sober in 2013. Since then, he’s released a chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic, and his first full-length poetry collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf. The latter—which draws from his experience as a Muslim Iranian-American in recovery—won several major awards, including a Pushcart Prize. Akbar says that he didn’t write with any […]
What Is LSD Abuse?
There is no question about the dangers of lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD. It is a powerful synthetic hallucinogen that is almost entirely unregulated, except in some cases where it is used in psychiatric treatments and research. People who take LSD experience visual and sensory hallucinations, changes in mood, and sometimes paranoia. Though […]