Marshall Mathers: Prescription drug abuse almost killed him, he says
“Had I got to the hospital about two hours later, I would have died," Eminem says of his lowest point.
Eminem is opening up about his drug addiction in the new documentary "How To Make Money Selling Drugs."
The 40-year-old rapper says he initially didn't think he had a problem because he was taking prescription pills prescribed to him by a doctor.
“When I took my first Vicodin, it was like this feeling of ‘Ahh.’ Like everything was not only mellow, but [I] didn’t feel any pain,” he recalls.
But after adding Xanax and Valium to the mix, things quickly began to unravel.
“I don’t know at what point exactly it started to be a problem. I just remember liking it more and more," he admits. "People tried to tell me that I had a problem.”
"I would say ‘Get that [expletive] person outta here,’” Eminem recounts in the film. “I can’t believe they said that [expletive] to me. I’m not out there shooting heroin. I’m not [expletive] out there putting coke up my nose. I’m not smoking crack.”
Ultimately, Eminem was hospitalized and on the brink of death.
“Had I got to the hospital about two hours later, I would have died," he says. "My organs were shutting down. My liver, kidneys, everything. They were gonna have to put me on dialysis. They didn’t think I was gonna make it. My bottom was gonna be death.”
"I'm looking at my kids and [realizing] 'I need to be here for this,'" he says in the film.
After a relapse and eventual detox, Eminem finally got his habit under control.
“I had to regain motor skills, I had to regain talking skills. It’s been a learning process, I’m growing," reveals the rapper. "I couldn’t believe that anybody could be naturally happy without being on something. So I would say to anybody, ‘It does get better.'
"My name is Marshall. I am an addict."
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