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Drugs Caused Matthew Perry To Lose Three Years Of ‘Friends’ Memories

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 10:54 PST, Jan 27, 2016

Matthew Perry of Friends fame admits that three years of the series are a total blur, and that he can’t pick a least favorite episode because he wasn’t all there. Matthew Perry claims that he is a private person, but Perry is finally sharing about his drug problem.

The Sidney Morning Herald reports that there are big pockets of time that he doesn’t remember.

“I don’t remember three years of it, so none of those. I was a little out of it at the time… Somewhere between seasons three and six.”

Perry complains that it is hard to be a private person when you live in the public eye.

“You can’t have a drug problem for 30 years and then expect to have it be solved in 28 days,” he said in a video for Phoenix House, a California-based treatment center. “Getting sober is a really hard thing to do.”

It is unclear whether Perry is still struggling with his addiction to drugs and alcohol.

The Daily Beast says that Perry blames his memory loss on his addiction to Vicodin, and mixing it with amphetamines, methadone, and alcohol did not help. Dr. Aaron White reports that even alcohol alone can cause memory loss.

“Studies have shown that alcohol consumption can disrupt or damage the hippocampus, a region of the brain that aids in forming new long-term memories. As the amount of alcohol consumed increases,” he wrote, “so does the magnitude of the memory impairments.”

Perry claims that he drank a quart of vodka a day. Dr. White believes this can lead to worse medical impairments than forgetfulness.

“For example,” the Alzheimer’s Association notes, “individuals [with Korsakoff’s syndrome] may seem able to carry on a coherent conversation, but moments later be unable to recall that the conversation took place or to whom they spoke.”

Matthew Perry says he has turned his Malibu home into a rehab facility.

“It wasn’t a question of strength,” Perry recently told the BBC of his recovery. “It was a question of whether I wanted to live or die—that was the real decision. I’m happy to say that I chose life.”

The Sun claims that fans were shocked by the aged and weathered appearance of Perry on the Graham Norton Show.

Twitter user @abmorgaine67m said, “Something strange with Matthew’s face and the way he’s talking.”

@Rachael_Hodges asked, “What’s wrong with Matthew Perry’s voice? He sounds like Janice?!”

Fay Capstick said, “It is me or does Matthew Perry look/sound like’s suffered a stroke?”

Yikes! But some thought that Perry was simply uncomfortable answering more boring questions about Friends from Graham Norton.

@icebluemassage tweeted, “A bit like when we all asked: ‘what happened to Reneé Zelwegger’s face’, what happened to Matthew Perry’s voice?”

The Sun received no confirmation as to what was wrong with Perry.

“I adore Friends, but the cast must get sick of every interview being dominated by it. You can see the ‘ugh’ on Matthew Perry’s face,” reasoned @_ACassidy.

Us Magazine reports that Matthew Perry was mortified that his addiction and recovery were so public.

“When I was in big trouble, it was so public because I was on a TV show that 30 million people were watching,” the former Friends actor said. “The fact that I [am] on TV makes people listen a little bit more, so I take advantage of that from time to time.”

Perry explains that it was a natural evolution to open Perry House, a facility for men in Malibu.

“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life and a lot of wonderful accolades,” he told THR, “but the best thing about me is that if an alcoholic comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me stop drinking?’ I will say, ‘Yes. I know how to do that.'”

Do you think that Matthew Perry is suffering from some additional medical problem?

[Photo courtesy of Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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