Eminem on how his Vicodin and Valium addiction made him balloon to 230 pounds

Home Top

My wife volunteered for a one-way mission to Mars: Husband whose other half signed up for Mars One comes to grips with never seeing her again
Bat boy for amateur Kansas baseball team, 9, dies in hospital after adult player accidentally struck him in the head during practice swings
'You coward, you destroyed a family for less than two grams of marijuana': Police chief vents fury at suspect at center of manhunt for shooting dead Memphis cop during traffic stop
Doctor becomes second American named in African lion-killing investigation: Pittsburgh gynecologist 'killed lion in illegal hunt'
Married Pennsylvania couple are found dead after 'succumbing to hypothermia' while on canoe trip in Maine
Thousands flee their homes in Northern California as wildfire DOUBLES in size just days after a separate blaze claimed the life of a forest ranger
How 'cold as steel' Ava Gardner drove Sinatra to try and kill himself... TWICE: Two abortions. A smoking gun. Told for the first time, the full story of Old Blue Eyes' greatest - and almost fatal - obsession
Donald Trump accuses Obama of 'doing absolutely nothing for the black community' - as he soars over rivals again with latest poll giving him 19% of Republican vote
'I fight like hell to pay as little as possible': Donald Trump says he avoids all the tax he can because he hates government 'waste'
Hillary Clinton tells how she is inspired by her mother who was abandoned by her parents when she was just eight-years-old
Hillary's embarrassing private emails revealed: British Prime Minister David Cameron described as 'unsure, inexperienced and oblique' on the world stage
Woman, 25, 'murdered her father AND her daughter, hid their remains in a neighbor's shed and then pretended they'd run away to Georgia'
Four relatives charged over claims they beat a pregnant Texas girl, 14, into delivering a stillborn baby before disposing of the remains on a charcoal grill
Bobbi Kristina's relatives cheer and chant her name as they gather at Pat Houston's home for 'celebration of life' party after funeral
'Walt Disney WASN'T anti-Semitic': Experts claim long-standing charge against animator are unproven
Two teenage girls die from apparent overdoses at California music festival
The bleak and bland shop fronts that capture the grim reality of life behind the Iron Curtain in the late 1980s
Joe Biden is '90 per cent in' on decision to run for President after son Beau urged him to before he died
'I am angrier than I've ever been in my life': Mother left devastated after bags belonging to her war hero son killed in Iraq are stolen
Investigative photojournalist who was found murdered in Mexico was 'tortured before being shot dead'
Man who 'decapitated his wife and pet dogs and then gouged his own eye out' is moved from hospital to jail and charged with murder
'The Vicodin and Valium left a hole in my stomach': Sober Eminem reveals how his prescription pill addiction caused him to binge-eat and balloon to 230 pounds before he found his perfect work-out video
Reunion Island locals swamp MH370 investigators with scrap and even old kettles in fruitless bid to help
Man sues In-N-Out after finding 'two blue meth pills and a napkin in his drink'

Eminem was addicted to prescription pills, including Vicodin and Valium
Drugs 'left a hole' in his stomach, so he indulged in takeaways and steak
He also got drunk on a regular basis causing his weight to soar to 230lbs
In 2007, the 42-year-old rapper had a drug overdose and was hospitalized
He decided he needed to lose weight and began to run - but got addicted
Tried another exercise method - workout DVDs - and found one he loved
Now, the star completes Body Beast every day before going to the studio

Published: 23:40 EST, 2 August 2015 | Updated: 06:31 EST, 3 August 2015

View
comments

He has detailed his prescription pill addiction - and his battle to overcome it - in his rap albums.

But now, Eminem has revealed in an emotional magazine article how the addiction caused him to balloon to 230 pounds - before he found the perfect work-out video and lost the excess weight.

In the piece for Men's Journal, the Detroit rapper explains how he was frequently taking pills like Vicodin and Valium and drinking alcohol when he suffered an overdose in December 2007.

lt was then, he says, that he realized how much weight he had gained.

'In 2007, I overdosed on pills, and I went into the hospital. I was close to 230 pounds. I'm not sure how I got so big, but I have ideas,' reveals Eminem, real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III.

Scroll down for video

Contrast: Eminem has revealed in a new magazine article how his prescription pill addiction caused him to balloon to 230 pounds - before he found the perfect work-out video and lost the excess weight. Above, the Detroit rapper is pictured in 2006 during his weight gain (left) and in New York on July 20 this year (right)

He adds: 'The coating on the Vicodin and the Valium I'd been taking for years leaves a hole in your stomach, so to avoid a stomachache, I was constantly eating - and eating badly.'

According to his mother Debbie Nelson's book My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem - published by John Blake in September 2007 - Eminem was gorging on Mexican takeaways and filet mignon.

The 42-year-old star would order the steak from an expensive restaurant almost every evening, causing him to pile on weight, break out in pimples and suffer other health issues, Nelson wrote.

He became depressed and a recluse in his upscale Michigan home, she added.

He was also regularly taking prescription drugs, including Vicodin (a narcotic painkiller that treats moderate to severe pain) and Valium (a benzodiazepine that treats anxiety and muscle spasms)

When he was admitted to hospital after his overdose, 5ft 7ins Eminem weighed 230 pounds.

In accordance with the BMI chart, he was clinically 'obese' - and close to the 'very obese' mark.

The rapper, whose organs were shutting down, was treated and eventually released from hospital.

Workout DVD: After suffering a drug overdose in 2007 and realizing he was clinically obese, Eminem decided he needed to lose weight. He initially started running, but soon became addicted to it. Instead, he switched to another means of working out - exercise DVDs. The first one he began using was Shaun T's Insanity (above)

Best-selling artist: 'I know a lot of these DVD guys are wacky, but I'm alone in my gym; I need someone on the TV yelling to motivate me. Besides, some of this s*** is entertaining,' the world-famous rapper writes in the Men's Journal article. Above, Eminem performs at Coachella Festival in Indio, California, in April 2012

However, just a month later, he suffered a relapse and entered a rehabilitation facility.

When he emerged from rehab, he knew he needed to 'lose weight'.

'I also needed to figure out a way to function sober,' Eminem writes in the Men's Journal article.

'Unless I was blitzed out of my mind, I had trouble sleeping. So I started running.'

However, while his treadmill sessions helped him to sleep, he quickly became addicted to them.

Soon, he was running 17 miles a day like a 'f***ing hamster' and scrutinizing the number of calories he was burning. He dropped to 149 pounds and began to suffer injuries such as muscle tears.

Eminem decided to 'dial back' and try out another means of working out - exercise DVDs.

'I know a lot of these DVD guys are wacky, but I'm alone in my gym; I need someone on the TV yelling to motivate me. Besides, some of this s*** is entertaining,' the world-famous rapper writes.

Eminem talks his music influence on Southpaw at its premiere

Binge eating: At the height of his binge eating, Eminem (pictured, left, in 2006, and, right, in 2013) would gorge on Mexican takeaways and filet mignon. He became a recluse in his Michigan home, according to his mother

New favorite workout: After Eminem 'started plateauing' on Shaun T's Insanity, he changed to the P90X workout program and later, to the Body Beast workout (file picture) - which he continues to do every day

One of the first DVDs Eminem tried out was Shaun T's Insanity, which promotes a challenging, but effective, body conditioning workout. And he loved it so much he soon ditched running altogether.

However, after he 'started plateauing' on the workout, the rapper changed to the P90X workout program and later, to the Body Beast workout - which he continues to do every morning.

He says he can now do the workout, before he goes to the studio, without pausing the DVD. But despite being both lean and sober, he admits that he is still 'pretty compulsive' with working out.

The coating on the Vicodin and the Valium I'd been taking for years leaves a hole in your stomach, so to avoid a stomachache, I was constantly eating - and eating badly

Eminem

'I feel like if I step away from it for too long, if I have a crazy week and take a five-day break, it'll be like starting over,' he writes. 'I'm afraid that if it goes beyond that, I might lose the motivation.'

The revelations - which will appear in Men's Journal's September issue - come just a week after Southpaw, a boxing film that Eminem worked on, was released in U.S. cinemas.

Eminem's drug issues feature heavily on his sixth studio album, Relapse - which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart in 2009, selling 608,000 copies in its first week.

They also weigh significantly on his follow-up album, Recovery, released on June 18, 2010.

In a documentary, How to Make Money Selling Drugs, released last year, Eminem revealed that he nearly died from his prescription drug addiction when he was hospitalized following his overdose.

'Had I got to the hospital about two hours later, I would have died,' he said in the film. 'My organs were shutting down. My liver, kidneys, everything. 'They were gonna have to put me on dialysis.

'They didn’t think I was gonna make it.'

Eminem, whose alter ego is Slim Shady, has had ten number-one albums on the Billboard 20

With more than 172 million album sales, he is one of the world's best-selling artists.