"If you or someone you know is struggling with any form of addiction: hope and joy are waiting if you want it, and are willing to work for it!" Rob Lowe shared.
Rob Lowe is celebrating an important milestone in his life: being 33 years sober! The 59-year-old actor who first started drinking as a young teenager is feeling grateful for having gotten so far. In an Instagram post, he shared an important message, "33 years ago today I found recovery and a tribe that has sustained me on my incredible, grateful journey. My life is full of love, family, God, opportunity, friends, work, dogs, and fun. If you or someone you know is struggling with any form of addiction: hope and joy are waiting if you want it, and are willing to work for it!"
Lowe is a father to 29-year-old Matthew Edward Lowe and 27-year-old son John Owen Lowe, who he shares with his wife, Sheryl Berkoff. His son, John, also commented on his dad's recent post joking, "Proud of your recovery, opposite feeling about this selfie."
The father-son duo previously confessed their struggles with alcoholism in their interview for the April cover story of Men's Health. "Many times I could have died. I really liked to push the limits of my body and numb out as much as I could," John Owen, who has now been sober for over 5 years, told the outlet.
His dad also struggled with drugs and alcohol himself before getting sober at age 26. While accepting the Spirit of Sobriety award at the 2015 Brent Shapiro Foundation Summer Spectacular, Lowe praised his wife, 61, for being the inspiration behind the start of his sobriety journey. At the time he was awarded for being clean for 25 years at The Brent Shapiro Foundation Summer Spectacular in Beverly Hills, California. "She inspired me to get sober," he explained while accepting the award per PEOPLE. "She's put up with my defects of character, as they call it. In sobriety, the lessons keep coming if you're lucky enough to be along as long as I have. She's stood by through all of that. And I love you very much."
“Being in recovery has given me everything of value that I have in my life,” Lowe told the crowd. “Integrity, honesty, fearlessness, faith, a relationship with God, and most of all gratitude. It’s given me a beautiful family and an amazing career. I’m under no illusions where I would be without the gift of alcoholism and the chance to recover from it.”
Being an addict is an incredibly hard journey not just for the person going through it but also for their loved ones. While everyone wants to do their best to help ultimately it is about the person wanting to make a change and wanted to make their life better. “Nothing can make you get sober except you wanting to do it,” the Parks and Recreation star told Variety. “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."
Learning about the science of addiction, how substance abuse can rewire the brain and therapy helped Lowe on his recovery journey. “All of my understanding about life has come from getting sober and being in recovery,” he shared. “The work that you do once you stop whatever it is you’ve been abusing — that’s when the real work begins. And that continues to this day. In many ways, it doesn’t get any easier but it does get more fulfilling.”
Lowe believes that a person has to realize that getting clean will help free them to live their best lives. "The reason that people don’t get sober 100 percent of the time when they go into programs is that people aren’t ready when they go to use the tools. One of the great gifts of recovery is that you start living your authentic life. You start living your actual values and living as who you truly are,” Lowe said.
References:
https://people.com/celebrity/rob-lowe-on-being-sober-and-an-alcoholic/
https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a43148565/rob-lowe-son-john-owen-unstable-interview/
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/rob-lowe-sobriety-recovery-1234899611/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Emma McIntyre
