On October 28th, Matthew Perry was found dead at his home in Los Angeles, taking the world by surprise. Matthew Perry was an American actor best known for his role of the sarcastic Chandler Bing on the hit tv show Friends. Perry played this role for 10 years from 1994 to 2004. However, over the course of his career, Matthew Perry became so much more than simply a character on a show. He was someone who could make the entire room laugh. “He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard,” said Jennifer Aniston in her tribute to him on Instagram. Perry was a person loved by the people around him, earning a spot in the hearts of many from co-stars to millions of fans. 

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Widely loved, however, Perry was not without his battles. Throughout his whole life, he grappled with addiction. At times, his addictions caused him to end up in the hospital. 

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In 2021, Matthew Perry released his biography titled Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. The book was centered around his lifelong struggle with addiction. When most hear the name Matthew Perry, they picture a young guy sitting on an orange couch, in a coffee shop, laughing with his friends. His book brought another perspective; that behind the acting and the character was a person struggling for his life. Matthew Perry said he started to drink at the age of 14. As life progressed, he began to take harder drugs. 

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“It’s exhausting but you have to do it or you get very, very sick. I wasn’t doing it to feel high or to feel good. I certainly wasn’t a partier; I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin and watch a movie. That was heaven for me. It no longer is,” he said in an interview.  Having to go through the battle of addiction is extremely difficult, even more so when everything little thing you do is scrutinized by the media . During some of the lowest points of Matthew Perry’s life, when literally fighting himself to stay alive, the media would take photos and publicly criticize him. 

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So, why did Perry write a book? Afterall, the media and previous publications of his story had been to his detriment in the past. Well, in fact, he never even had planned to write a book. In interviews surrounding the book, Perry explained that it had simply started with writing down parts of his life in the notes app on his iPhone: next thing he knew it consisted of 110 pages. Perry then showed it to his manager and decided to keep going. 

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Throughout his life, Matthew Perry made many incredible efforts in his battle against addiction; it is estimated he spent 9 million dollars trying to become sober, attended 6000 AA meetings, and at least 15 rehabs and 30 years of therapy. He took his entire journey, everything that he went through, both the huge struggles and small successes, and shared it with the world through this book: not for fame, not for money, and not for recognition, simply because Perry wanted to help those who are going through the same battle he did. 

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“Addiction, the big terrible thing is far too terrible for anyone to defeat alone, but together one day at a time, we can beat it down.” Matthew Perry chose to use his voice to try to help as many people as he could. “You had a heart. Which you were generous with, and shared with us, so we could recreate a family out of six strangers” wrote David Schwimmer, Matthew’s past co-star. 

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Rest in peace, Matthew Perry, you will forever hold a place in our hearts.