Jackass’s Steve-O says it took 100 clean days to begin to get sober. That’s why early “sobriety” is so tenuous. They don’t yet think they’re addicts.
Quote of the month:
Steve-O, whose real name is Stephen Glover and best known for the extreme stunts he’s performed as part of the crew of MTV’s “Jackass” describes his road to sobriety in an interview with Nicki Gostin at www.popeater.com: “I was out of control. People were starting to say I was going to be dead soon, and they were probably right….Most of the crew of ‘Jackass’…came to my apartment and forced me into a psych ward. …They locked me up…and while I was in there it kind of dawned on me that it was time to do something.
“California has a 51/50 law, where if people are deemed to be harmful to themselves or others you can lock them up for 72 hours in the psych ward. They did that to me. When I got to the hospital and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to explain that it was all a big misunderstanding [i.e., bullshit his way out of there], I became really belligerent and [began] throwing chairs, so they changed my status to 52-50, which means a two week hold. I had two weeks to think about my situation. It only took seven days for me to come to terms with the idea of getting help.
“[Still,] I can’t say I even really hit my bottom until I’d already been sober for 100 days. After 100 days the fog really cleared enough for me to realize it was me [and not everyone around me] who needed [help].”
Steve-O has been sober for two-and-a-half years. Whenever someone tells you an addict needs to hit bottom before they get sober—implying we can’t help them to that bottom—tell them about Steve-O. When a codependent thinks everything will be hunky-dory after a couple of months and life will be back to normal, tell them about Steve-O. I’d say, “Tell them about any addict,” but they haven’t all told their story in the way Steve-O has—even if all the stories are the same.