Actor Russell Brand’s Struggle with Drugs and Sex Addiction
British actor and comedian Russell Brand, who hosted the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards and gained notoriety in the US for his role as a womanizing rock star in the film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” is best known for his often outlandish behavior, including pulling his pants down in public, dressing up as Osama bin Laden on September 12, 2001, and, most recently, a controversial on-air phone prank that got him booted from his position as host of a BBC radio show.
When speaking to Terry Gross of NPR, Brand admitted that his past antics were often a result of his drug use. Having been sober for seven years, much of that is behind him. But he still finds himself in inappropriate situations, such as a recent incident where he presented actress Helen Mirren with a pair of his dirty underwear.
And now he adds author to his resume, having published his memoir My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up, where he chronicles his struggles with addiction to sex and drugs. The book begins with Brand undergoing treatment for sexual addiction in a treatment center in Philadelphia. Brand told NPR that although his treatment provided him with “invaluable” comedic fodder, sexual addiction is a real problem, and one that he sees as a byproduct of modern society.
“One of the consequences of consumerism has been the commodification not only of commercial durables and consumer items, but also of our own emotions and desires,” Brand says. “Sex isn’t presented to us as a necessity, but more as a lifestyle. The commercialization of these needs can lead to obsessive-compulsive behaviors.”
He addresses this in his book: “Many people are skeptical about the idea of what I like to call ‘sexy addiction,’ thinking it a spurious notion, invented primarily to help Hollywood film stars evade responsibility for their unrestrained priapic excesses. But I reckon there is such a thing.
“Addiction, by definition, is a compulsive behavior that you cannot control or relinquish, in spite of its destructive consequences. And if the story I am about to recount proves nothing else, it demonstrates that this formula can be applied to sex just as easily as it can be to drugs or alcohol.”
He explains that at one point he had a “harem” of about ten women through whom he would rotate, in addition to one-night stands and random encounters. “But shagging—incessant as it was—no longer seemed to have the required calming effect.” He recalled: “As my sexual appetite grew, I found myself engaged in an increasingly desperate quest to satisfy it. I became so open to suggestion that when someone asked me if I’d like to go to an orgy, I didn’t think twice before accepting the invitation.”
The only child of a single mother who suffered from three bouts of cancer before he was 17, Brand lived with various relatives and describes his childhood as “tumultuous.” He only saw his father sporadically; on one of these occasional visits, his father took him to visit prostitutes in Asia. “Of course, that’s not a particularly healthy endeavor for father and son to pursue together,” Brand says. He explains, “When I came back from Asia, I was much more comfortable around women, and my sexuality had morphed forever from bewildered innocence into something more complex and rapacious.”
His first role as an actor was during a school performance of Bugsy Malone, where he says he felt “salvation” on stage. He says the performance taught him that “life doesn’t have to be the maudlin trudge through misery…it can be a right laugh. Being able to make people laugh—even idiomatically—imbues you with power.”
But the acting and comedic success that followed weren’t enough to make up for his depression, so he turned to heroin. “One feels enshrouded and comforted by substance abuse, but then you realize that it wasn’t making you any better at what you did, it just makes you care less about being rubbish,” he says.
In the book, Brand explains how he found help through the support of friends, intensive counseling, and determination. Although Brand states that he has been able to remain drug and alcohol free for the last seven years, he also says he struggles with addiction every day.
As he told the Telegraph: “Part of the mentality of recovery is one day at a time. I don’t have to not take drugs for the rest of my life. I only have to not take drugs today. Also those feelings of love (for heroin) come at a price because heroin itself is demanding. It won’t let you just have a little bit. If you want heroin you have to give up everything else. First it will take your job, then your girlfriend, then your house, then the clothes you are in, then it will take your skin. And when there is nothing left to take it will take your life.”
Source: NPR, A Comedian’s Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up, March 14, 2009
