Bradley Cooper Opens Up About His Addiction

(photo credit: Yahoo!) Actor Bradley Cooper, handsome and charming star of popular movies like The Hangover, Limitless, Wedding Crashers and The A-Team, is now coming clean about his battle with addiction. 37-year-old Bradley has been sober for nine years… but at 29, he was in the thick of physical and emotional self-destruction, drug abuse and self-inflicting pain.

Back when he was working his way up the Hollywood ladder, filming parts for various TV series and TV movies, Bradley was partying — hard. And, like so many addicts, he thought he was invincible, and immune to the dangers of drug addiction.

CBS News reports that he recently told The Hollywood Reporter, “‘I was at a party and deliberately bashed my head on the concrete floor — like, Hey, look how tough I am! And I came up, and blood dripped down. And then I did it again. I spent the night at St. Vincent’s Hospital with a sock of ice, waiting for them to stitch me up.”

Bradley, like so many addicts, was also suffering from denial. As his friends tried to open his eyes to his addictions, he says, “‘Part of me believed it, and part of me didn’t. But the proof was in the pudding: I’d always gotten up at the crack of dawn, and that was out the window. I remember looking at my life, my apartment, my dogs, and I thought, What’s happening?‘”

And, yet again, like so many addicts, a sudden epiphany was enough to kickstart his desire to get clean and sober.

“‘I realized I wasn’t going to live up to my potential, and that scared the hell out of me. I thought, Wow, I’m actually gonna ruin my life; I’m really gonna ruin it.'”

Today, Bradley is becoming a household name, and for a hotshot actor, his story is actually quite endearing. And it’s also one of hope — that someone who has become so successful and desired has dealt with the very same challenges and internal demons that so many of us face, and was able to pull through, make a name for himself and now share his recovery story with others.

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