Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Relapse

Written By

Dominic Nicosia

May 27, 2015

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is back on the wagon. The Tudors actor, who has struggled with substance abuse for years, opened up about a “minor relapse” he recently had via Instagram on Tuesday, May 26.

The post read:

Mara and I are thankful for your support and kindness during this time. I apologize for having a minor relapse and hope that people don’t think too badly of me. I stopped drinking immediately and it is no reflection on Damascus Cover as I was not meant to attend Cannes this year and I apologize to fans and colleagues. I am on the mend and thank well-wishers and sorry for my disheveled appearance as I was on my way home from a friends and had not changed I feel I made a mistake and feel quite embarrassed but this was just a blip in my recovery otherwise I’m living a healthy life. 
Love and blessings. 
#Rebel #Angel

Meyers is an incredibly talented actor and has been incredibly prolific on TV and film for the past 20 years.  Meyers has reportedly been in rehab four times for alcohol abuse, most recently in 2011, when he spent 10 days in a London clinic. He also entered inpatient treatment in 2010 after launching an obscene tirade at United Airlines staff because they felt he was too drunk to fly.

According to him:

“I was wild, I was as wild as you can get. “When you are on the front of newspapers for stupidity, getting drunk at airports, fighting with cops and stuff like that, you wake up the next day and you can hardly *bleep* remember it. Responsibility gets diminished.”

“As you get older, you see the stupid things you have done. It is not the consequences for yourself but your family get hurt, your friends get hurt,” he told Ross.

“At some point, you come to a place – and I was lucky because some of my friends have never got to that place – where I saw it as something that was separate from me. It is kind of insanity to do it to that level. I was able to come to that realization and I look for different things in life now.”

What is Relapse?

Sometimes people quit their drug use for a while, but start using again no matter how hard they try. This return to drug use is called a relapse. People recovering from addiction often have one or more relapses along the way.

Recovery from addiction means you have to stop using drugs AND learn new ways of thinking, feeling, and dealing with problems. Drug addiction makes it hard to function in daily life. It affects how you act with your family, at work, and in the community. It is hard to change so many things at once and not fall back into old habits.

Recovery from addiction is a lifelong effort.

Contact Us for help in recovery.

Dominic Nicosia

The Senior Content Writer here at Recovery Unplugged, Dominic Nicosia oversees the maintenance of our online blog while also handling and overseeing all written communications within Marketing. He also writes articles, thought leadership pieces, and basically everything written regarding web content. Dominic has over seven years of writing experience in the addiction care field and a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing from the University of Arts in Philadelphia. Dominic has been writing and playing music for years and is the proud owner of a Jack Russell/Pitbull mix named Jack. His favorite books are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.