Steve-O, who rose to fame for his appearances in stunt videos and his willingness to do the most insane things to his body, has an interesting insight when it comes to his alcoholism and addiction struggles.
Steve-O is the type of guy who goes all-in. If he’s doing a stunt, he’s going to make it as insane as possible. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as he tells it), this same all-or-nothing attitude has cause him some issues when it comes to his addictive personality and alcoholism.
In the following interview with Graham Bensinger, Steve-O discusses why he’s grateful that his alcoholism was as severe as it was. Steve-O had huge battles and struggles with alcohol and other substances, to the point that it almost ended his life. He was able to overcome it, and here’s what he attributes that to…
Steve-O’s thought process is that his alcoholism was so severe that he had no other choice but to get help. For some people, they’re able to be what’s considered a “functional alcoholic“, where they can drink everyday but keep things just enough in control.
If Steve-O’s alcoholism wasn’t as bad, it’s possible that he would still be drinking today, still causing harm to himself and hurting those around him, but it wouldn’t quite be at the point where he had no other choice but to get help.
He could have kept kicking the can down the road for even longer.
Granted, these types of things can go both ways. It’s possible that someone with such severe alcoholism won’t be able to escape the point of no return, and they’ll lose to the disease and their life will be over before they reach the point of return that Steve-O was able to find.
Don’t take this as an endorsement of getting to as bad of a place as possible before turning things around, it’s easier to make the changes (physically, for sure) before things get worse.
Is This True For Everyone?
For most people, they might prefer to have less severe alcoholism, since it will be easier to overcome once they’ve made that choice. It’s hard to say.
In Steve-O’s case, his alcoholism was very, very serious and he didn’t have a choice but to change it.
If you’re struggling with alcohol, make the right choice and seek help today.
The more severe your addiction is, the more channeling it will be to overcome, but that just means it’s more crucial that you make those changes, get support, and turn your life around.
You can do it.
If Steve-O, a celebrity with infinite resources and people around him who would enable him, whose whole career was tied-in with a wild, extreme, party lifestyle was able to make these changes – you can do it, too.
