“Back to the Future” star Christopher Lloyd has opened up about battling drug and alcohol addiction in his new memoir.
The actor, 88, wrote in his book, “In My Own Time: A Memoir,” that he tried cocaine for the first time after taking a “snort” of the drug outside a Los Angeles comedy club in the ’70s, according to Page Six.
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Lloyd wrote that he went to the car of a woman he had just met and “did a couple of lines” of cocaine with her during the outing. He said the experience was “all it took” for him to become “hooked almost immediately.”
“I loved it, and that was where my cocaine abuse began,” he added.
The “Addams Family” alum got candid about how he rapidly became “entrenched” into his cocaine, alcohol and marijuana use. He clarified to his readers that he never acted in any of his roles under the influence during his career.
“I wasn’t asking myself what it meant or what it was doing for me,” Lloyd said of his addiction. “I just knew I liked it, and before long it had a hold on me.”
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Lloyd went on to recall a disagreement he had with his then-girlfriend while under the influence after his sitcom “Taxi” was canceled after five seasons. The sitcom had run from 1978 to 1983.
Lloyd writes that he spent the night at his nephew’s LA home and returned to discover his partner had locked him out. He reacted by punching the windows.
“The next thing I remember, I was lying on the floor of my kitchen, bleeding out, and paramedics were attending to me,” he wrote. “I later learned that I had lost so much blood that they had to give me plasma.”
Lloyd ultimately had to undergo surgery and physical therapy to make sure he’d be “able to spread [his] fingers correctly” after the incident.
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Lloyd was later able to overcome his addiction after working with a psychologist and spending five weeks in rehab in 1993.
“That was the beginning, but not the end of it,” Lloyd recounted. “I relapsed a few times after that…Some years later on April 1, I got sober for what turned out to be the last time.”
HuffPost has reached out to Lloyd’s reps for comment.
Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.
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