Matthew Perry Credited God’s Power for Saving Him from Addiction: Pain Was ‘Washed Away’
He died Oct. 28 at the age of 54.
In 2018, he survived a coma after nearly dying from a gastrointestinal perforation.
He overcame his addiction in the past few years thanks to the power of God, he wrote in his book Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
“‘God, please help me,’ I whispered. ‘Show me that you are here. God, please help me.’ As I kneeled, the light slowly began to get bigger and bigger until it was so big that it encompassed the entire room. … What was happening? And why was I starting to feel better?” he wrote.
“I started to cry. I mean, I really started to cry — that shoulder-shaking kind of uncontrollable weeping. I wasn’t crying because I was sad. I was crying because, for the first time in my life, I felt OK. I felt safe and taken care of. Decades of struggling with God, and wrestling with life, and sadness, all was being washed away, like a river of pain gone into oblivion.”
The prayer, he wrote, was very different from a selfish prayer he had prayed as a youngster when he asked God to make him famous.
“I had been in the presence of God,” he wrote, referencing his newfound faith. “I was certain of it. And this time, I had prayed for the right thing: help.”
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