Peter Hedges Quotes

This disease of addiction has touched not just me but millions of Americans out there. Me being in the spotlight, I want to tell my story because there are a lot of misconceptions. I want to let people out there know that there's hope.

But my activities have been pretty much focused in the last almost 30 years on the recovery, of my own recovery, the understanding for my family of my recovery.

If I have a problem, stuff's going through my head, I feel like using, I usually go and talk to my dad... I decided to get sober a lot younger than he did. He first tried to get sober when he was like 32, I believe.

Now that I understand that I'm an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it.

I was really proactive in trying to heal my family. I wouldn't give up. My whole life was about trying to get my father healthier, and there were moments when he was healthier. Then someone would give him a drink. I always felt if he had one person in his life who supported his healthy side, he'd be on his way.

I was 14 years old when my dad went into rehab, and he stayed there for a long time - I don't know, 10 or 12 years maybe. He first was there as a resident, as someone trying to get sober, and it took a long time; and then he stayed on helping people get their GED.

If there's an addiction in the Clinton family, it's to problem solving.

I, myself, have not infrequently come across recovering addicts years later that I had given up on. It is like seeing a ghost come to life. The transformations can be astonishing.

Having this message of sobriety and recovery to blast out into the world is also very powerful and kind of the reason why I'm on this planet, I think; it's one of my purposes.

When Patrick finally broke his silence with 2008's 'Anthems For the Damned' - the first Filter album that he recorded sober - fans were decidedly lukewarm.

I have a lot of friends who are trying to clean up their act, or that are still making trouble for themselves, so I'm definitely well-versed on what goes on in the mind and the heart of a person who self-destructs as their coping mechanism, and also what they're like when you take their preferred substance away.

I didn't know my dad for a long time. My dad was on drugs and my dad was at the VA Hospital, my dad was off in his own world selling drugs or using them or there would be crack heads in the house or whatever it would be.

A lot of people think that addiction is a choice. A lot of people think it's a matter of will. That has not been my experience. I don't find it to have anything to do with strength.

What can I say that will make people that are in recovery want to stand up and support Recovery Month? A friend of mine said, 'You know, the fact that you did a really honest book and it changed people's lives, that's something to talk about.'

I had such a wonderful life before drugs and alcohol abuse. I've got that life back now and plan to keep it. Maybe I had to go through what I did to get to this point, to appreciate this life more.

I think I've definitely had my rock bottom and I think that was probably right before I went into treatment where I said, 'I definitely need help.'

I have other obligations now - the show, my family, my life... though I know that without my sobriety I wouldn't have any of those things.

If I were to try to identify a turning point I'd say that was it - getting clean.

I was the one that put myself in rehab. I was the one that went to my parents and said, you know, 'I have a problem and I need to take care of it.'

As an alcoholic, you have no appreciation for your wife or your children's feelings, but I'm making up for that now. I'm winning my children's trust back.

It's a journey, it's a fight everyday. There was a real effort to stay in the program... So far this has been a very successful rehab.

People ask me, what was your rock bottom? I say, pick.

Anybody that's not supportive of me staying sober obviously has to go. But on the other hand, there are not really a lot of people who don't want me to stay sober. I was a nightmare.

Trying to overcome addiction is one of the hardest things for a person to do. And the fact that I had to do it under the scrutiny of tabloid press at first made it seem even more difficult. But in fact, it oddly ended up being a plus. Because of the tabloid stuff, it wasn't like I could walk into a bar and order a drink.

Well, I'm still here. Didn't have to go to rehab, and I'm not broke.