‘Harry Potter’ actor Tom Felton explains how an escape from rehab helped his sobriety and his life
Tom Felton is one of the most famous and accomplished actors in Hollywood, and now, in a new book called “A Man Like Me” he is sharing the story of his own recovery. Felton, now 42, became involved in addiction treatment back in 1988, when he read about outpatient rehab facilities in Chicago. He had a lot of people tell him he needed to get in, but instead of taking the first offer on his table he instead started attending meetings in the early morning while he was still in his car on the way to the airport. He knew it would get him where he needed to be, and he didn’t have to fly across the country.
At first, the meetings were tough. “I was afraid they would treat me like an idiot and take me out of the program. My mind was racing,” Felton wrote. But as he began to see the benefits, Felton began to believe he could control his actions. Felton attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, did his chores, and even cleaned his apartment. “I had a little life and I was able to put that part of my life in place. I was willing to pay the price that would make it happen, but I decided to get sober for me.”
The book, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, is a memoir told from a second person’s point of view — Felton’s — as he shares his story from when he was a young child in Ohio, through his teenage years, college, and into a successful career. Felton uses the language and the emotion of his own words to describe the effects of addiction on his life as well as on his family. He talks about how the early days of his recovery, as well as his later years, has given him a new awareness of his own strength, as well as his weaknesses — and how, through both of those processes, he has learned to control the way he is and the way he acts in his life.
“I think it’s important for everybody who is dealing with addiction or has someone who is dealing with addiction to know that I know that I am not alone. This book has allowed me to get to a
