Drugs! Alcohol! 10 Celebrities Who Wound Up in Rehab Over Substance Abuse

Ben Affleck spent time in rehab several times due to his alcohol use.

Affleck's alcohol struggles started while he was rising to fame in Hollywood in the 1990s. However, he never sought help or tried to get sober until he initially stopped in 1997.

"I just wanted to stop. I started regretting some things I did when I was drunk," he said in one of his interviews. "It's funny to be obnoxious or out of control, but then it's like, 'I think I hurt that person's feelings, 'I made a fool of myself' or 'I didn't want to kiss that girl.' I have almost no inhibitions, so it's dangerous for me."

In 2001, the Dazed and Confused actor entered a rehabilitation facility for the first time. He extended his rehab stays in 2017 and 2018.

In 2008, Colin Farrell revealed that he quit drugs and alcohol after nearly two decades of struggling with the substances. He revealed during a virtual event at the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival in 2021 (via The Irish Times) that he pushed himself to sobriety while working on the film In Bruges with Martin McDonagh, Brendan Gleeson, and Clemence Poesy.

"To come home and not to have the buffer support of a few drinks just to calm the nerves, it was a really amazing thing," Farrell continued. "And I remember being more nervous, and being more uncomfortable initially at the film festival than any others because I didn't have any booze."

In his separate interview with Craig Ferguson, he revealed that his high tolerance for substances led his abuse to get out of control. By going to a rehab clinic that gave him mindfulness therapy, he was able to focus on getting better until his sobriety started.

Demi Lovato, who readopted she/her pronouns, struggled with bipolar and eating disorder that led her to enter a sober house in 2013, three years after marking her first rehab stint in 2010.

Although she showed she was having a smooth sailing journey, her 2018 track Sober revealed that she had a relapse following six years of sobriety. She was hospitalized a month later due to a near-fatal overdose that resulted in a two-week treatment and a three-month rehab stay.

In her YouTube Originals documentary series, Dancing With the Devil, the 31-year-old Cool for the Summer singer revealed that she had three strokes and a heart attack following the overdose. At that time, her doctors reportedly told her she only had five to 10 more minutes to live.

"I want to thank God for keeping me alive and well," she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post after the hospitalization. "To my fans, I am forever grateful for all of your love and support throughout this past week and beyond. Your positive thoughts and prayers have helped me navigate through this difficult time. I want to thank my family, my team, and the staff at Cedars-Sinai who have been by my side this entire time. Without them I wouldn't be here writing this letter to all of you."

Due to her troubled childhood stardom, Drew Barrymore fought her demons starting at an early age. The actress, who famously starred in Steven Spielberg's hit classic E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial when she was only seven, looked back at the lowest point in her life on the Netflix show Norm Macdonald Has a Show.

"It really is a recipe for disaster," she said. "But you know what's exciting? I got my s— over with at, like, 14. Like, midlife crisis, institutionalized, blacklisted, no family, like, got it done, and then got into the cycle of being my own parent, figuring it out."

The Charlie's Angels star also revealed in her interview on CBS This Morning that she gave up alcohol after decades of struggling with it, saying that she wanted to keep her sobriety journey private.

Jamie Lee Curtis' struggles started after undergoing a minor plastic surgery in 1989. In her interview with People and Variety, she disclosed that she was prescribed opiates following the procedure that focused on her puffy eyes.

"I was the wildly controlled drug addict and alcoholic," she admitted. "I never did it when I worked. I never took drugs before 5 p.m. I never, ever took painkillers at 10 in the morning. It was that sort of late afternoon and early evening—I like to refer to it as the warm-bath feeling of an opiate. It's like the way you naturally feel when your body is cool, and you step into a warm bath, and you sink into it."

The 64-year-old Halloween actress added that no one knew about her substance abuse struggles not until her sister discovered it in 1998.

Jon Hamm saw the dark side of his popularity and suffered from substance abuse for years.

During his interview with Mr. Porter's The Journal, Hamm opened up about his rehab stint in 2015 due to alcohol addiction. He has also been undergoing therapies since the 1990s.

"I find it very helpful," Hamm said. He started therapy after the death of his father. "So what do you do? Go and see a professional. I preach it from the mountaintops. I know it's a luxury and it's not something everyone can afford. But if you can, do it. It's like a mental gym."

The late Friends actor Matthew Perry struggled with substance abuse for a long time before his death.

The 17 Again actor entered rehab 15 times and spent $7 million on the visits before declaring his sobriety before his death. During his interview with Jess Cagle at New York City's Town Hall, he revealed what he wanted people to know as he shared his story with them.

"The kind of message that I guess I give out with this book is don't give up," Perry said. "There's help out there. I've been helped on a daily basis. If I didn't get help, I wouldn't be sitting here. It's all about finding somebody that knows more than you know about this stuff and listening."

Melanie Griffith sought treatment several times for her dependency on drugs and alcohol.

Her battle started following her rehab stay in 1988 for alcoholism, during which she developed a painkiller addiction. Her addiction came back in 2007 after a skiing accident as she continued taking her medicines even after the prescription expired.

Griffith, for the third time, entered rehab in 2009 and underwent a three-month treatment that included a 10-day withdrawal period.

Robert Downey Jr. developed substance addiction while he was making his way to Hollywood.

After his Chaplin performance in 1992, Downey Jr. suffered a glitch in his career when he was arrested for heroin and alcohol possession. He was also arrested several times for drug offenses in the years thereafter.

To get rid of his addiction, he went through a 12-step rehab program on top of the meditation and therapy sessions he committed himself to. He also tried Wing Chun Kung Fu to save himself from the downward spiral.

His wife, Susan Downey, ultimately saved him after she gave him an ultimatum.

"With someone with addiction you know it has nothing to do with someone else, they have to be ready," Susan said. "If you can be a small part of creating an alternative world for them that says, 'Hey I'm here if you're clean.'"

Zac Efron only opened up about his struggles years after entering rehab in 2013.

"It's a never-ending struggle," the High School Musical actor told The Hollywood Reporter. "I was drinking a lot, way too much."

He added that he depended himself on substances because of the "hole I couldn't really fill up."