Legendary singer Elton John just opened up to his fans like never before when he took to Instagram to celebrate 29 years of sobriety.
In the post, John was open about the fact that when he was younger, he used drugs and alcohol to cope with anxiety and shyness. It was only when he turned to Alcoholics Anonymous that the “Rocket Man” singer was able to get his life back on track.
“29 years ago today, I was a broken man. I finally summoned up the courage to say 3 words that would change my life: “I need help,” he wrote in the post. “Thank-you to all the selfless people who have helped me on my journey through sobriety. I am eternally grateful.”
Though Elton has been sober for almost thirty years, he still is plagued by nightmares in which he relapses.
“I still dream, twice a week at least, that I’ve taken cocaine and I have it up my nose,” Elton said. “And it’s very vivid and it’s very upsetting, but at least it’s a wake-up call.”
This is understandable given how bad his addiction got, as he nearly lost his life to it.
“I would have an epileptic seizure and turn blue, and people would find me on the floor and put me to bed, and then 40 minutes later I’d be snorting another line,” Elton once told journalist Piers Morgan. “This is how bleak it was, I’d stay up, I’d smoke joints, I’d drink a bottle of Johnnie Walker and then I’d stay up for three days.”
On top of that, Elton was struggling with eating disorders, sometimes not eating for days and then binging on bacon sandwiches and ice cream.
His struggles with addiction and eating disorders were chronicled in the recent movie Rocketman, as Elton wanted the movie to be as accurate as possible.
“This is how my life was, and I didn’t want to cover it and gloss it over,” Elton said. “And it’s difficult to watch because I thought, ‘God, I don’t want to go back there, thank god I came out of it.’ Success was fantastic, and then I couldn’t cope with it. And you can’t leave out the bad.”
We would like to congratulate Elton John on thirty years of sobriety. Keep up the good work, Elton!
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