One of the most uncomfortable facts of life when it comes to celebrity culture is that the more we want to know about a famous person, the more likely we are to see them when they’re struggling the hardest.
When those struggles take place over a protracted period, it’s hard not to feel voyeuristic with every update on their behaviors. It’s also true that while the general public often seems to have a long memory for a given’s celebrity’s misdeeds, only their fans seem to follow-up on how they grow and address those past behaviors after the fact.
Still, one could also argue that this context makes it all the more exciting when the people we’re watching overcome their demons and all the more encouraging when they’re able to stay the course for years or even decades after the fact.
On May 10, actor Rob Lowe posted a statement on Instagram in which he celebrated his impressive 31st sobriety anniversary.
Accompanying this photo of him with a bike on the beach was a caption that read, “I want to give thanks to everyone walking this path with me, and welcome anyone thinking about joining us; the free and the happy. And a big hug to my family for putting up with me!!”
He also discussed this milestone with Variety and imparted that, “Nothing can make you get sober except you wanting to do it. The threat of losing a marriage, losing a job, incarceration — you name the threat, it will not be enough to do it. It’s got to be in you.”
And back in 1990, Lowe decided that he was ready to make a change when he missed a call from his mother.
As he told Variety , she had called to inform him that his beloved grandfather was in critical condition and she needed his help, but he said he didn’t pick up because he didn’t want her to know he was hungover.
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As he put it, “My thought process in that moment was ‘I need to drink a half a bottle of tequila right now so I can go to sleep so I can wake up so I can pick up this phone.’”
Since he immediately knew this wasn’t a healthy way of thinking, he found a business card of a drug and alcohol counsellor that a friend had given him a year prior and called this person the next day.
And while he said that the work and self-discovery that comes with sobriety has neither stopped nor necessarily become easier, it has been fulfilling for him.
Lowe also credited his desire to enter a serious relationship with his wife of 30 years as an early inspiration for getting sober, which has since blossomed into a family with two sons who are now in their 20s.
In his words, “I remember thinking if I couldn’t make it work with Sheryl, then I wasn’t going to be able to make it work with anybody. That was at least half the impetus for getting sober, because I knew I couldn’t be in a long-term relationship unless I was.”
h/t: Variety
