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National Recovery Month: Eminem celebrated 12 years of sobriety in 2020 after being 'deep into addiction'

The rapper-record producer was open about his drug problem and failed on two different occasions post a rehab stint until finally deciding that he didn't want to lose himself to drugs in 2008

Eminem celebrated 12 years of sobriety in April 2020 and the legendary rapper commemorated the occasion by posting a picture of his sobriety coin on his Twitter and Instagram pages. "Clean dozen, in the books! I'm not afraid!" the rapper wrote.  

Eminem went to rehab in 2005 to seek treatment for an addiction to sleeping pills. He got better but then spiraled once again two years later. 2007 was the year he got hospitalized after passing out cold on the bathroom floor following a methadone overdose, a month after which he had already started using again. But the realization that he did not want to lose himself to drugs only came in 2008. 

The rapper hasn't ever shied away from talking about his journey with substance abuse and also has spoken about it in his media interviews, a number of times. In 2009, while talking about his not-so-secret drug problem to Vibe Magazine, he said, "If I was to give you a number of Vicodin I would actually take in a day? Anywhere between 10 to 20. Valium, Ambien, the numbers got so high I don't even know what I was taking."

Speaking to the New York Times that same year he called himself "the worst kind of addict, a functioning addict." He also candidly spoke about how dependent he'd become on some or the other kind of drug. "I was so deep into my addiction at one point that I couldn’t picture myself being able to do anything without some kind of drug." He had started the full 12-step program of a recovering addict, one step of which also included him watching videos of himself on stage and in interviews from his drug-addled days, the ones where he found difficulty responding to even the most simple questions. "I want to see what I looked like when I was on drugs, so I never go back to it," Eminem told the outlet. He'd also admitted that his struggle with addiction also started showing in his work that took a beating for a good 4-5 years. "The deeper I got into my addiction, the tighter the lid got on my creativity," Eminem had told the outlet. He added, "When I got sober the lid just came off. In seven months I accomplished more than I could accomplish in three or four years doing drugs."

September 2020 marks the 31st year of National Recovery Month and with this column, we aim to tell the share the experiences of public figures and celebrities with mental disorders and substance abuse, to raise awareness and normalize asking for help.