The Bold and the Beautiful’s Steffy Forrester and Parenthood star Dax Shepard (host of podcast Armchair Expert) both began taking opioids after being in motorcycle accidents. While fictional Steffy is still battling her addiction, Shepard shares he’s making progress in his real-life battle to regain sobriety.
Dax. Shepard Reveals Struggle
“An episode I hoped I’d never have to record, but one I felt I owed to all the beautiful ‘Armcheries’ who have been on this ride with me for the last couple years,” Shepard said about doing an episode of his podcast Armchair Expert. In it, the Parenthood star spoke about recently using painkillers after years of being sober. He detailed how his behavior changed during this time.
While dealing with both his late father’s cancer diagnosis and recovering from an injury after a motorcycle accident on his way to work, Shepard reached out to his sponsor to say that he was in a “ton of pain” and that he had to work all day. The sponsor signed off on Shepard taking a few to get through the day, but that he’d have to go to a doctor for more and his wife Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) would dole out the prescription.
Shepard was put in charge of making sure his dying father took his own painkillers. During one visit to his pop, the actor hadn’t brought his own so he took some of his dad’s Percocet, “probably took twice of what my other prescription was.”
The actor ended up confessing to his wife, pregnant at the time with their daughter, Lincoln, that he was taking pills again. “She’s like, ‘You clearly need to call someone in AA…'”
Things got worse when Shepard got hurt again and continued taking pills, but at different times. “Maybe I don’t want to take them at night because I can’t sleep when I take them,” he mused, “so when I get my two at night I don’t actually eat them and I keep them for tomorrow morning so I can make it the dose I want to be.”
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Yet another motorcycle accident happened, prompting Shepard to take even more pills. He began lying to people about what was going on, but he also knew he needed to quit.
He came clean with what was going on to Bell and handed her the rest of his pills. He says being high while at the same time celebrating 16 years of sobriety was “the worst hour of my life.”
Now, the actor, who is off the pills, is feeling optimistic. He says he’s still “very proud” of his sobriety from alcohol and cocaine, but he has more work to do. “Kristen doesn’t deserve for the next six months for every f— interview [to be asked about my relapsing]…It doesn’t feel fair to anyone — it’s not. I’m sorry and embarrassed that I’ve put other people in this situation.”
Shepard did the podcast on September 21, which marked his seventh day of being sober. “I now feel again like my life’s going to get better,” he says. “I’m going to feel less sick from it, I’m going to be less sweaty [eventually] every night.”
If someone you know and/or you, yourself, are struggling with addiction, please contact the SAMHSA substance abuse helpline: 1-800-662-HELP.
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