Matthew Perry Shares Details About His Near-Death Experience From Addiction, Reveals How Many Vicodin He Once Took Per Day

Matthew Perry is opening up about his struggles with addiction and alcoholism in his new memoir.

The 53-year-old Friends actor also shared about his near-death experience from opioid overuse.

Click inside to read more…

“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead,” he writes in his new memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir.”

“I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again,” he told People. “I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people.”

Matthew suffered from a gastrointestinal perforation at age 49 when his colon burst from opioid overuse. He spent two weeks in a coma and five months in the hospital, and had to use a colostomy bag for nine months.

“The doctors told my family that I had a two percent chance to live,” Matthew said. “I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that.”

“There were five people put on an ECMO machine that night and the other four died and I survived,” he continued. “So the big question is why? Why was I the one? There has to be some kind of reason.”

Matthew said he was taking 55 Vicodin a day and was down to 128 pounds. “I didn’t know how to stop.If the police came over to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’re going to take you to jail,’ I’d start packing. I couldn’t stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older,” he shared.

Last year, his Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston said she didn’t understand the level of anxiety and self-torture that was put on Matthew while filming the show.

“Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir” will be released on November 1.