(CNN) — The “Friends” star, who played lovable Chandler Bing on the series, has penned an autobiography titled “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” which is due out Nov. 1. In it, Matthew Perry tells the story of his life and his addictions, saying that he is finally in a position to talk about it.
“I wanted to share it when I was safe from going back into the dark side of it all,” Perry told People about the book. “I had to wait until I was pretty sure I was sober, and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction, to write it all down. And most importantly, I was pretty sure it would help people.”
Perry reveals in the book that, due to addiction, he nearly died at age 49 when his colon burst from overuse of opioids. She was in a coma for two weeks and spent five months in the hospital.
Details his addiction to alcohol during “Friends”
“I could handle it, sort of. But at 34, I was really in a lot of trouble,” Perry told the publication, adding that he was sober through season nine.
Of his co-stars, Perry said, “It’s like penguins. Penguins, in the wild, when you’re sick, or when you’re really hurt, the other penguins surround you and hold you. They walk around you until the Penguin can walk on its own. That’s what the cast did for me.”
Perry admits to having been to rehab 15 times and is “pretty healthy” now.
“What surprises me the most is my ability to recover,” he said. “The way I can recover from all this torture and the horrible. I wanted to tell the story, although it’s a little scary to tell all your secrets in a book, I didn’t leave anything out. It’s all there.”
