Matthew Perry’s candid admissions about addiction and how he helped others before death

Before his tragic death aged 54, Friends star Matthew Perry candidly spoke about his struggles with addiction and overcoming it as well as how he helped others.

The actor, who was found dead in his jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home on Saturday, 28 October, released memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing last year where he wrote about the challenges he'd faced in his life.

In an interview with Tom Power at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Ontario, he discussed the book and revealed he'd had his first drink when he was aged 14.

The actor, who struggled with addiction throughout his time on Friends, admitted that he found writing his memoir and reading it back hard but that he'd written it to help others.

"It's been about helping people and I've already heard five stories of people who read the book and checked in to treatment.

"Wonderful things happened in my life and I'm incredibly grateful for them. But the ticket for me is helping people on a large scale", he said.

Matthew explained that addiction is a disease that people aren't aware that they have and others often try to oversimplify what they are going through in a bid to get them to stop.

Speaking to Tom about Friends, he revealed that he never drank or did drugs while he was working on screen with Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston but that he was often very hungover.

He said: "I had a rule that I would never drink or do drugs while I was working because I had too much respect for the five people I was working with.

"I was never wasted while I was working. But I did work extremely hungover. At one point I was shaking so much I'd have to put my hand on the table so I didn't shake, it got that bad."

It was also during his time in Friends that Matthew had to go to rehab and magazines and newspapers shared pictures of him.

"At the time I thought anonymity was important but I was the first high-level celebrity to go to rehab. They were very interested in that and it made everything harder.

"But it also made things easier because I couldn't go to a bar and get a martini as I was on the cover of everything," he said.

Fame was often a struggle for Matthew because he had to deal with his addiction in the public eye. "It's fine when you're doing fine but when you're not doing fine it's one of the most awful things in the world.

"You have to lie and pretend that you're doing well and you don't even understand why you have to do that. Fame does some great things but it doesn't always make you happy – you want an on-off button."

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