Drug addiction can completely overwhelm your life and you may feel powerless in your struggles. Fortunately, there are many quality drug treatment options that are available to you that will give you the tools you need to break the vicious cycle of drug addiction once and for all. During this time, he was once found unconscious and unresponsive by his neighbor and had to be resuscitated at USC medical center. The next day, he was court-ordered to attend a 24-hour drug rehabilitation program but escaped the facility and hitchhiked home.

As result, he was sent to the Los Angeles County jail for four months, and the mainstream media joined the massive tabloid coverage in chronicling Downey’s free fall. After his release, Downey’s drug use was undiminished and he continued to have brushes with the law. The next one came in 1999, when he missed another mandatory drug test and was again arrested.

Robert Downey Jr. Talks About Addiction and Passing It to His Son

The content on Rehabs.com is brought to you by American Addiction Centers , a nationwide network of leading substance abuse and behavioral treatment facilities. We make it easy to find the best treatment centers in the nation. Oscar-winning actor Ben Affleck has been open about his issues with alcohol. Affleck admits that he was always a drinker but over the years, the alcohol became less and less a social activity and more a part of his daily routine. Cooper first revealed that he was sober in 2012, confessing that he quit doing drugs and drinking alcohol at the age of 29 “I don’t drink or do drugs at all anymore,” he admitted. He was fired from Ally McBealafter he was once again arrested for being under the influence of drugs.

He then subsequently appeared in Restoration , Richard III , Home for the Holidays , Two Girls and a Guy , as Special Agent John Royce in U.S. Downey violated his probation three times by failing to submit to drug testing, according to court records. In a symbolic attempt to bury his decadent 1980s Brat Pack image and begin a new phase of his life and career after filming Chaplin in 1991, he buried the clothes that he wore in Less Than Zero in the backyard of his house.

I feel so sorry that a child must experience something like that. It’s such a pity his parents weren’t more https://soberhome.net/ conscious about their child. I’m so glad he asked for help and was able to get out of that spiral.

• Robert’s original family name was Elias which was changed by his father to enlist in the Army.
• From the young age of six, Downey Jr. was introduced to marijuana by his father, who also battled substance abuse.
• One of the most popular superhero franchises, “The Avengers”, features a hero on- and off-screen.
• He was confronted about his drug abuse and they demanded that he seek treatment.

Kept a great deal of the authentic vintage clothing he wore in the movie Chaplin . Downey’s attorneys advised the judge that they could not reach a plea bargain in his November 2000 drug arrest. He got into fight with another inmate at the Los Angeles County Jail, where he was serving time for a probation violation, and was treated for a cut over his nose. Susan Levin wasn’t really interested when she met Robert on the set of the 2003 film Gothika, she told Harper’s Bazaar.

Improving Life Without Drugs and Alcohol

After this arrest, Downey Jr. had become unemployable and went from being a millionaire to being on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. It was also revealed during this low period that Downey had also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After Gothika, Downey continued with a handful of movies and even a music album before landing the role of Iron Man in 2008; and the rest is history. Robert Downey Jr had no shortage of opposition from people who loved him, but not his drug habits. His first manager, who had previously lied when directors and producers asked if he was clean, begged him to go to rehab in 1987, and Downey eventually did.

We discussed the word “peripatetic,” which we agreed was perfect. He likened himself to an army brat, only his father’s war was to get green-lighted, start casting. In New York and Los Angeles, Jr. was at some of the greatest parties of the 70s. It accelerated him, one incident at a time, toward knowledge, adulthood, the most famous being the night he shared a joint with his old man. In this way, Downey was introduced to showbiz as the child of a mobster would be introduced to The Life.

Robert Downey Jr., True Superhero

In 2008, Downey Jr. played the role of Iron Man in the first Marvel comics movie that introduced the world to what’s now known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Downey Jr. has been sober for almost 16 years and attributes his recovery to his wife, Susan, kung fu and continuing to work the 12-step program. Recovery from alcohol and drug addiction is possible, for you or a loved one. In 2001, while on parole, Downey was found barefoot, wandering around Culver City, California, and was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence.

He was a convict, or, to quote Hank Williams, a number, not a name. After a succession of arrests , he’d been sent to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, in Corcoran, California. Join our online community to learn more about addiction and treatment.

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Starred briefly with his first wife Deborah Falconer in the Robert Altman movie Short Cuts . Dropped out of Santa Monica High School at age 17 and moved to New York to become an actor. First jobs in the city included bussing tables at Central Falls restaurant, working in a shoe store, and performing as “living art” at SohHo’s notorious underground club Area. As a result of his father’s work (Robert Downey Sr. was an independent filmmaker), Downey the younger spent a great deal of his childhood on the move. He lived at various points in Connecticut, New York, California, London, Paris and Woodstock.

• One of the more disturbing incidents involved an intoxicated Downey wandering into a neighbor’s house and passing out in a bed.
• However, it appears from interviews and other sources that he’s been serious about his recovery since 2003.
• Treatment programs had continued to fail, and Downey was hovering on the brink of personal meltdown.
• Because of these and other coming-of-age films Downey did during the 1980s, he is sometimes named as a member of the Brat Pack.

I think you know what both of them are, and I think you’d do well to get rid of one of those reputations. If you don’t, it will get rid of the other one.” But it didn’t stick. In 1993, Downey married Deborah Falconer and together they welcomed the birth of their son, Indio.

Downey’s turnaround, 2003‍

Although Downey has attended six other types of drug treatment programs without lasting success, the actor said he had recently summoned the resolve to stay sober. The judge sentenced Robert Downey Jr. to 36 months at the high minimum-security facility California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison on drug charges but served less than a year. After his release in 2000, he joined the cast of the hit televisions series Ally McBeal where he played the love interest of the lead actress Calista Flockhart. Critics raved about his performance and even handed Downey a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film. His father, Robert Downey Sr., was an avant-garde film director with a passion for social issues.

A month later, still on parole, he trespassed into a neighbor’s home while intoxicated and fell asleep in a child’s bedroom. We help thousands of people change their lives with our treatment programs. When an addict wants to get better, they often seek out treatment at a rehab center.

When his parents divorced in 1978, Downey moved to California with his father, but in 1982, he dropped out of Santa Monica High School, and moved back to New York to pursue an acting career full-time. Downey was first arrested in June 1996, when he was pulled over in his pickup and found to be in possession of cocaine, heroin and a pistol. He was arrested two weeks later after he stumbled into a neighbor’s Malibu home under the influence of drugs.

For years, Downey Jr. spent time in and out of rehab, sober, relapsing, getting arrested, and repeating the cycle. As someone so visible in the public view, he has taken his story of hardships and turned it into an inspiring triumph over addiction. His path can prove to others that you can always rise back up no matter how low you sink. He’d breached probation three times by failing to submit drug tests. When he appeared in court again in 1999, Downey was sentenced to three years in prison. In fact, back in the 1990s, he was considered the poster child for substance abuse.

By the time he was living with then-girlfriend Sarah Jessica Parker, he was making a name for himself off-Broadway and jetting between New York and Los Angeles. Downey was referred to as one of the ‘Brat Pack’, the young, Hollywood elite who included Ally Sheedy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, and Rob Lowe as members. “I mean, I grew up with people saying, ‘Hey, that’s Bob Downey’s kid’ – and understandably so… He was a great innovator and a heck of a filmmaker.”

In 1987, Robert Downey Jr landed the role of Julian Wells in Less Than Zero. Downey’s character spirals downhill due to his addiction, racking up debts, becoming cut off from family, eventually reduced to a homeless junkie who dies of heart failure. If you or someone you know is struggling with a substance use disorder, eco sober house complaints help is available. At The Recovery Village, a team of professionals will talk to you about your needs and atreatment programthat could best work to address your substance use and any underlying co-occurring disorders. Downey Jr. said in a 1988 book, “The New Breed”that, “There was always a lot of pot and coke around.