bob123

Anthony Hopkins -actor

carolm

This is a great thread! Let me think.

carolm

Hi Beyond,

I am a recovering alcoholic and addict and have been clean for 14 years, with the exception of some pain killers when I had back surgery. I don't consider that a relapse because I took them as perscribed and didn't get high.

However, for more than fourteen years I have suffered from clinical depression, more so after I cleaned up. It seems to be the route for many alcoholics and addicts. My first suggestion would be to discuss this with your doctor and see if he thinks an antidepressant might help. I went to a psychiatrist because I believe they know more than an MD about the mind, but that's just me. Antidepressant therapy can suck because one might work with one person and not with another. Also, they take four to six weeks to get into your system. It can be a long and discouraging haul.

I was taking zoloft for a few years and it seemed to work ok. Nothing has ever worked to totally relieve my depression, but at least I could function and work. Now I seem to have built up a tolerance for zoloft and have started taking effexor. So far so good.

There are many other ways to combat depression. Exercise, meditation, and a good diet are all helpful.

I'm not advocating med. Only you know how severe your depression is.
My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Keep me posted.

Carol

NEEDTOBESOBER

Caroline Knapp - journalist, she wrote a book called Drinking-A Love Story, very good book about her own alcoholism and recovery- I have read some of it and it is a very good book.

Elaine Stitch(I think thatis her last name)-she was a comedian/performer who in her 50's had to quit due to health problems I believe she developed diabetes but not sure

deax

James Hetfield (Metallica) is a pretty inspiring guy.

mishelly

Stevie Ray Vaughn

BeamMeUpScotty

I hope people don't mind if I go a bit the other way with this. While I think if someone has a famous person as an inspiration to quit drinking and to stay stopped, more power to him/her. I also think it is appropriate and admirable for celebrities to use their fame to help others.

However, we tend to have a cult of personality in this world, which I think can be dangerous. As a professor of mine used to say, when you have heroes, you diminish yourself. All the famous people are only human too, no more or less worthy of happiness and health in this life than you or I.

I think we should look for inspirations from people from our own lives so we can directly relate to them. Right now, mine is an old colleague of mine who quit and is now raising his two sons by himself (his wife died of cancer). While I'm still not in touch, I find him such an inspiration. I think of him when I'm feeling weak, and I'm going to try to find out if I can contact him after I write this.

Thank you for posting this.

tryingtolive

Comedian Jim Gaffigan and Jay Leno.

Also, star wide out Chad Johnson says if he goes out to the club he only drinks water. So he is sober.

juniperskye

Gerard Way, Lead singer of the band My Chemical Romance. The band made a video diary and in it it shows how he realised that he was an alcoholic and got help and got sober.

curlylocks

kristen davis (charlotte from "sex and the city")

donald trump - never had a drink or drug he says (and all his kids don't drink i've heard)

scaredykat

Ron Wood- Rolling Stones
Tom sizemore- actor and on VH-1 "Shooting Sizemore"

Jersey Nonny

I remember in my early recovery seeing one of the stars of a tv show (last name Travanti) quoting parts of the steps...never actually identified himself as an alcoholic; but, I knew immediately he was "one of my people"...a member of the Fellowship of AA. I see him now on tv commercials, and hope that he's still sober.

At one of my first AA meetings, I saw a very well known actor...nudged my nephew and said, "Do you know who that is!?!" Nephew responded, "Sshhh"...an instant anonymity reminder.

I was told early on that one of the reasons well-known people were reluctant to "publicize" their alcoholism was in case of relapse...it would reflect badly on AA. I personally believe it only shows that, in spite of their fame, they are simply alcoholics, and just one drink away from a drunk...the same as all the rest of us.

janeeyre

Keith Urban

180

Glenn Beck-A strong believer of AA.

wondersanew

Hey thanks to the bedlam guy who requested this info. Sure we're missing a few, but it's inspirational how many of us struggle, are not alone, have hope and can take our next step with courage, as evidenced by these...

Talented People doing something about alcohol; not drinking, never drinking, attempted or attempting recovery, AA or other:
Sarah Silverman, Actress/Comediann
Samual L. Jackson, Actor
Stephen King, Author
Doyle Von Frankenstien, Musician
Colin Quinn, Comedian
John Spencer, Actor
Phillip Seymore Hoffman, Actor
Kevin Smith, Director
Mel Gibson, Actor/Director
Marian Keyes, Author
Anthony Kiedis, Red Hot Chilli Peppers Singer
Robbie Williams, Singer
Mary J Blige, Singer
Elton John, Singer
Melanie Griffith, Actor
Kitty Dukakis, Politician
Patty Duke, Actress
Demi Moore, Actress
Mary Tyler Moore, Actress
Ali McGraw
Lynda Carter, Wonder Woman
Tom Arnold, Actor
Ann-Margaret
Dick Van Dyke, Actor
Dylan Thomas
Eric Clapton, Musician
Betty Ford, First Lady
Robin Williams, Actor/Comedian
William Shatner, Actor
Elizabeth Taylor, Actress
Samuel Coldridge
George W. Bush
Aerosmith
Doc Severenson
Grace Slick
Ben Affleck
Tim Allen, Actor
Kelsey Grammar, Actor
Christopher Lawford Kennedy, Author
John Laroquette
Craig Nelson
Jason Mews
Nicki Six, Motley Crue
Billy Joel, admittedly quit on his own
Alice Cooper, says he is "no longer" an alcoholic
Metallica, formerly know as "alcoholica"
CC Deville, Poison
Joe Walsh, The Eagles
George Carlin, might still need prayers
Carrie Fisher, Actress
Drew Barrymore, Actress
Bea Arthur, Actress, One of the Golden Girls
Michael Barrymore, Comedian
Al Pacino, Actor, has suffered from alcoholism
Anthony Hopkins, my favorite Actor
Caroline Knapp, Journalist
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Jim Gaffigan, Comedian
Jay Leno
Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance, lead singer
Kristen Davis, Actress, Sex in the City
Donald Trump, absolutely dry
Ron Wood, Rolling Stones
Tom sizemore, Actor, VH-1 "Shooting Sizemore"
Keith Urban
Glenn Beck

Cheers to you all! And bedlam, let me know if you are still looking for help with depression. I may be able to compile some good resources! God love ya! -wondergirl

LaDita

What a GREAT topic! I have thought of this also myself as I find it inspiring to see how many other famous people did it. I would like to add just one though, who wrote a book about his recovery also.

Craig Ferguson of the Late Late Show.

sfgirl

Somebody who has never drank: Kathy Griffin

People in recovery (got these ones out of the new book by Christopher Kennedy Lawford called Moments of Clarity which is compilation of many peoples stories— writing names I recognize):

Tom Arnold
Jaime Lee Curtis
Greg Behrendt (I think he was the guy behind the book "He's just not that into you")
Richard Lewis
Alec Baldwin
Richard Dreyfuss
Steve Earle, Country Singer

NewBeginning010

WOW, I didn't know that he was an alcoholic. I did notice the puffy red drinking face a couple of episodes. I did a quick search to see what I could find and... this man has suffered a lot of losses & has had multiple family members murdered. I feel sorry for him :praying


"Kelsey Grammer was born February 21, 1955, in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. His parents divorced when Grammer was very young, and he was raised by his mother and grandfather in New Jersey and then Florida. Tragedy followed Grammer's family: his father was murdered when Grammer was just thirteen years old; seven years later, his sister was raped and murdered after leaving a restaurant in Colorado, and his two half-brothers were killed in a freak scuba-diving accident five years after that. Grammer developed a substance abuse problem, and eventually ended up in the Betty Ford Center, for both alcohol and drug abuse."

NewBeginning010

EDIT: I am adding to this & hope its ok:

Here are are the Transcripts that were taken regarding his alcohol in a Larry King interview (I edited to show the parts related to his drinking)

CNN Transcript - Larry King Live: The Unsinkable Kelsey Grammer - March 16, 2001

KING: When did the problem with alcohol come in?

GRAMMER: Oh, "Cheers".

KING: While doing "Cheers"?

GRAMMER: Yeah, pretty much.

KING: You had not had a problem before?

GRAMMER: Well, you know, I would drink sometimes when I was younger, but I really couldn't afford it. So, money has a lot to do with that, I guess.

(EDITED)

KING: And did you like that right away? Was "Cheers" -- in what year when you came into it?

GRAMMER: It was in its -- it was going into its third season, 1984.

KING: And how many years did you do it?

GRAMMER: Nine years.

KING: Nine years?

GRAMMER: Yeah.

KING: Do you know why? Well, I guess it's impossible to answer -- Richard Dreyfuss -- why you drank?

GRAMMER: Oh, gosh, well, there's the clinical answer, and there is the real one.

KING: How do you explain...

GRAMMER: The real answer is, I liked it. I liked the way it made me feel. Maybe it was because I was running away from the feelings that weren't, you know, as comfortable as I wanted them to do be, and maybe I do have a self-destructive part of me.

I mean I -- I have always established challenges for myself that, you know, to prove to me that I'm tough. So if I can drink my... KING: Proved that?

GRAMMER: I think so, actually.

KING: Did it affect your work?

GRAMMER: You know, probably toward the end of "Cheers," it started to. And then, I did do -- go into rehab, actually, I think it was in the year of 1990.

KING: Betty Ford?

GRAMMER: No, it was -- hospital here in -- a 10-day program.

KING: Did it help?

GRAMMER: Well, it kind of introduced me to the idea of the fact that addiction was something you could actually, you know, deal with, rather than, you know, control. But I had made up my mind, I wanted to quit at the time, I thought, you know, I will dry out here a little bit, and get back on track.

I got to take -- I did a physical for the first time in years, and found out that, you know, maybe I should start working out a little bit, so I -- it helped me sort of -- sort of a point along the way, to at least track the idea that I had to kind of take care of myself.

But the minute I got out, I went home and did a lot of cocaine, and then...

KING: Why cocaine too?

KING: Cocaine -- it jacks you up. Turns you on.

KING: Something must be good about it, because somebody must like it. What did it do for you?

GRAMMER: I think just -- it took me to the place where I felt like I was at the edge. And I like living there, and that's the place where I like to be.

KING: Did you ever work while drunk or on a high?

GRAMMER: I did do a stage -- I was on stage once drunk, with Christopher Plummer doing "Othello," where -- it was really very funny, I had a couple of extra drinks, I went to my high school reunion that year, because I happened to be in Fort Lauderdale...

KING: Were you on "Cheers" at the time?

GRAMMER: No, no, no, this was before, this was before. We were at the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale...

KING: Know it well. GRAMMER: We were on the road, and I go to my reunion, I have a couple of Mai Tais, or whatever, and I head over to the theater. And I get on stage and I think, I'm a little tipsy here.

KING: How did you handle it?

GRAMMER: Well, I kind of got through it, but I slurred a word or two, and Christopher comes over to me, and he stinks of booze himself, so you know, I thought, all right, this is great. And he said, are you OK? I said, I don't know, how are you?

But, you know, a part of the romance of that is you hear these stories all the time, you think I'm drunk, wait until you see the King of England, it is part of, I guess, the mystique or the legend...

KING: How long have you been -- dry as the say.

GRAMMER: I've been dry for five years.

KING: We'll be right back with more of Kelsey Grammer. He stars in "15 Minutes", a movie with Robert De Niro and Eddie Burns that's terrific. Don't go away.

(EDIT)

KING: Now, were you drinking at the time?

GRAMMER: Actually, no. At the time of "Cheers," it was after I had cleaned up. At least for the first time.

KING: So you were approaching "Frasier"...

GRAMMER: The last two years on "Cheers," I was in, actually, pretty good shape.

(EDIT)

GRAMMER: Oh, certainly, but it was bittersweet. I was definitely excited, and I think even the other cast members would say the same thing, that it was, you know, the right time to say good-bye. And that it was, let's see what we can do now.

KING: Was that the show where Jay Leno went and did it live with you?

GRAMMER: Yes.

KING: Embarrassing? GRAMMER: You know, I wasn't -- I was not cognizant of that. It didn't register for me.

KING: You were not drinking then?

GRAMMER: I wasn't drinking that night.

KING: You mean the one guy not drinking was you.

GRAMMER: Yeah, right.

KING: Everyone else was plastered.

GRAMMER: It was very funny, I know.

KING: "Frasier" then becomes...

GRAMMER: You know what they were doing to them? This was what's funny. People said that, right, and I heard -- what I got from it was a sense of drunkenness from everyone that was -- letting off steam, it was a playfulness. They hadn't actually been drinking that much. They were enjoying the idea that maybe they were being crazy, and that they were saying good-bye in a rowdy way. I mean, I thought it was a delightful evening.

(EDIT)

KING: We're back with Kelsey Grammer. Do you feel a kind of camaraderie when you hear stories about Robert Downey Jr. and the like?

GRAMMER: Oh, well you know, I -- there is a little phrase in the Alcoholics Anonymous, you know, you say a prayer for the alcoholic who's still suffering. And a lot of guys say there but for the grace of God, you know, go -- I've been through my time. I can never get so confident that I think I just defeated the beast, or whatever. But the truth is I've ripened to a place in my life where I no longer need that, and I don't want it. And that the "natural," as they say, is the greatest high.

To those who still go out, you know, I hope they work it out for themselves, but I really have no position in their addiction.

KING: Do you feel that jail is wrong?

GRAMMER: As a rule, yeah. Yeah, yes, I do. I guess there is something to be said for the impact of losing your freedom. But...

KING: How did you finally beat it?

GRAMMER: Well, as I said, the readiness is all -- I got to a place where it no longer worked for me. My life was crumbling around me. All the things that they talk about, did happen. But...

KING: Kept on doing the show, though.

GRAMMER: Yes, I kept on doing the show. And the realization that you are powerless over alcohol or drugs is probably the first integer, and the desire to change it. And I wanted to change it.

KING: And that affected your life a great deal. You met a woman that is now your...

GRAMMER: I met an extraordinary woman, Camille, in New York...

KING: You have a child.

GRAMMER: Well, we don't have a child together but we're -- we're working on it.

(CROSSTALK)

GRAMMER: I have a terrific 17-year-old daughter that actually, as a result -- by virtue of the fact that I've been clean now for so many years, there is a closeness there, sort of a reclamation of a relationship that I didn't really have.

KING: You're so open, Kelsey, so it can be asked. Do you ever fear going back?

GRAMMER: Going back? No. But what I do -- what I like doing is recognizing once in a while, you know, the Kelsey that says: "Boy, it'd be great do a line right now."

KING: You really...

GRAMMER: Oh, sure, once in a while. There's a really bad day or a tough, tough situation.

KING: And what stops you?

GRAMMER: Well, just the knowledge that it's not going to do me any good. That it will make me less capable to deal with it.

KING: What is it like...

GRAMMER: Basically, you know, what happens in drug addiction, is basically, you forestall having to deal with all the things you've been handed.

KING: You put it off.

GRAMMER: Yeah. And it's a convenient way of shutting down, dealing with life.

KING: What's success been like for you?

GRAMMER: Success has been terrific ride.

(EDIT)

GRAMMER: At first did -- you know, well, gosh, I think the real reason that I was featured so much was because the character I play is so opposite to the human that I am. And the story of my life as a person and the story of my character's life were so disparate that it didn't seem to compute for people that I could be this straight-laced, uptight retentive twit, and also be this wild debauched drunken madman.

Thanks for joining us. For Kelsey Grammer, yours truly, Larry King in Los Angeles, good night.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com"

CNN Transcript - Larry King Live: The Unsinkable Kelsey Grammer - March 16, 2001

NewBeginning010

Interesting... Its feels like a huge commitment telling one or

two people that you are an alcoholic or quitting, imagine if you felt that you were comitting to millions