Christopher Lloyd is opening up about his decades-long struggle with alcohol and drug addiction, revealing how substance abuse became "entrenched" in his life before he ultimately sought treatment and found sobriety.
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he → open → sobriety
The 88-year-old actor detailed his battle in his new memoir, "In My Own Time," and discussed his recovery during a recent interview with his "Back to the Future" co-star, Michael J. Fox.
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actor → detail → star
In the book, Lloyd recalled that his cocaine abuse began after a woman approached him at a Los Angeles nightclub and asked if he wanted to "do a snort.
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he → recall → snort
"She meant cocaine, which at that point I had never tried," Lloyd wrote.
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Lloyd → mean → point
"I hadn’t been out looking for it, but I said all right.
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I → look → it
We went out to her car and did a couple of lines.
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We → go → lines
That was all it took.
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it → take → ?
I was hooked almost immediately.
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I → hook → ?
I loved it, and that was where my cocaine abuse began."
"Within a couple of years of my arrival in Los Angeles, cocaine, alcohol, and pot had become woven into my life in a serious way," he continued.
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he → love → way
It got entrenched."
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It → entrench → ?
Lloyd explained that he made a point of staying sober while working, but his substance use intensified once filming ended.
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filming → explain → point
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you → compensate → links
"I never went onstage or in front of a camera high or drunk, because I knew I would lose control of myself," he wrote.
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he → go → myself
"But once the curtain came down or the director said, ‘That’s a wrap,’ all bets were off."
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bets → come → ?
"I just knew I liked it, and before long it had a hold on me," he added.
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he → know → me
Another substance that had a hold on him was alcohol.
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that → have → him
Lloyd recalled being confronted about his drinking during a routine medical appointment.
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Lloyd → recall → appointment
When a nurse asked how many drinks he had each day, he answered, "Two or three."
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he → ask → Two
"She said, ‘You’re an alcoholic,’" Lloyd wrote.
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Lloyd → say → ?
"It stunned me, because I didn’t think what I was doing was a problem.
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doing → stun → what
But he quickly noticed that his substance abuse eventually began affecting his life on screen and off.
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abuse → notice → screen
"I was recognizing that I had a problem, and if I couldn’t yet appreciate that I was putting my life at stake, I could at least see that it was endangering my career," he wrote.
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he → recognize → career
"I had gotten into these things pretty seriously and I needed help to get under control and get out of it."
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I → get → it
"At some point, it became clear that I needed treatment," Lloyd continued.
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Lloyd → become → treatment
In 1993, Lloyd’s psychologist arranged for him to enter treatment in Arizona.
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him → arrange → Arizona
He recalled being "completely wasted" when he boarded a plane to a treatment facility, where he refused to stay and ran into a barbed-wire fence after leaving.
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he → recall → fence
"I refused to stay," he wrote.
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he → refuse → ?
"I bolted out of the place and, drunk and disoriented, ran straight into a barbed-wire fence that tore up my face and left me a bloody mess."
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that → bolt → face
He was eventually admitted to Sierra Tucson, where he remained for five weeks.
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he → admit → weeks
"That was the beginning, but not the end of it," Lloyd wrote.
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Lloyd → write → it
"I relapsed a few times after that."
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I → relapse → that
Lloyd said he continued attending a private 12-step meeting for high-profile men, where he felt comfortable speaking openly about his addiction.
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he → say → addiction
"Some years later, on April 1, I got sober for what turned out to be the last time," he wrote.
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he → get → April
During a conversation with Michael J. Fox for Interview Magazine, Lloyd acknowledged that his struggles with alcohol were not immediately apparent to those around him.
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struggles → acknowledge → him
"You accounted in the book that you had alcohol problems," Fox said.
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Fox → account → problems
"Yeah, I did," Lloyd replied.
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Lloyd → do → ?
Fox then asked whether Lloyd was drinking while playing his "Taxi" character, Reverend Jim.
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Lloyd → ask → character
"Sometimes," Lloyd said.
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Lloyd → say → ?
"It hadn’t gotten to be a big problem yet."
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It → get → ?
Fox, who has also spoken publicly about his own recovery, asked Lloyd whether it was difficult to share his addiction in the memoir.
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it → speak → memoir
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
