Craig Ferguson Talks About Life As A Recovering Alcoholic

for me condition of a settlement a joy in it it should be a vote both eyes attacking the powerful people attacking the politicians and then and the Trump's and their and the blue hearts of the word good after BAM we should be attacking the vulnerable people and I think I'm gonna stow Thalia Mirko but this is just for me I think my aims been off a bit recently I I want to change our bet so tonight no Britney Spears jokes and here's why is exactly why Britney Spears I'm not doing a Brennan person when she the kind of weekend she had she was checking in at a rehab she was shaving her hair getting tattoos that's what she was doing this weekend this Sunday I was fifteen years sober so I looked at hot weekend then I looked at my own weekend then I thought you know I'm I'd rather have my weekend but what she's going through the minds me of what I was doing as an anniversary you start to think about it it reminds me of where I was fifteen years ago when I was living like that now I'm not seeing Britney Spears as an alcohol like I don't know she's an alcoholic or not I but she clearly needs help and now I do here is I speak for myself the speculation does always speculation if you don't television about somebody's behind the corporation the production people is not this is me all right it's me me new right I try to be honest with you I'm not an expert on alcoholism or anything else but I'm an expert on my own story I was there when it happened well I was present the the the tape recorder wasn't running until until February 18 1992 and it made me think about the last Christmas that I had when I was a drinkin man hopefully the last one is a drinking man I was in a terrible mess I wasn't shaved my head and getting tattoos I I saved that for later for I bet I got that from a midlife crisis but when I when I guess what I was a bit older than Brittney I was 29 and Christmas morning before I get saw but I I had been in an all-night bender and I woke up in a room above a bar I'd been in that pub the night before it was Christmas Eve I was going to have a drink and then go home I was in London I was going to go to Scotland but you know that one thing led to another I stayed in the room above a pub you know and I woke up in Christmas morning and I was you know I was soaked in my own urine and at least I think it was Maine I can't be sale I couldn't see with tulle honestly that was my urine I didn't have it tasted is what I'm saying I hope to this day it was mine anyway I woke up that morning no this is this is the mind of an alcoholic I woke up that morning Christmas morning and I thought you know I can't do this anymore I want to kill myself today I'm going to do it today and what that was I thought III mean I plan as I'm getting myself together I thought I'll go down a Tower Bridge in London which is the one that goes you know that one and I'll swan dive to my death I don't know how it's one day but I you know I was gonna and I thought by Sean you know by doing this I'll show them I don't even know really well but I was gonna show them that I was desperate I was desperately confused and desperately twisted and turned upside down by whatever the hell was going on in my head you know and I'm the under way out of the bar you know Tommy the barman that I've been drinking with I you know he was kind of playing around of the baby was getting drinks together at the bar in the morning now he had slept behind the bar all night I'm not saying he's an alcoholic but he slept behind the bar all night he was an Irish fella told me and he said to me where are you going I didn't want to cause a fuss and see well you know I'm gonna go to register one day and kill myself so I said I'm going home he said to Scotland I said yeah he said well there's no transport it's Christmas you can't get a bus the planes aren't running there so you can't go anywhere I said just let me go told me why and he said well before you go have a glass of sherry for Christmas morning and I said oh hey all right so he poured me the type of glass of sherry the only an alcoholic would pour ta that a venti sherry they would call it and stuff and I you know I had my glass of sherry and I you know it one thing led to another and I forgot to kill myself that day here's the important point the alcohol saved my life I was self-medicating I'm an alcoholic I needed alcohol I needed something you know and from that point on until February 18th the following year uh it's all about fogging you know I would wake up play I was on a whale bender I was doing stand-up gigs apparently I I wish we had tapes of that I'm sure they were hilarious anyway on the day I finally decided to stop I called a friend of mine who had disappeared over the pop world and got in trouble you know there was scuttlebutt about him in the bars I called him up and I said I I need help and he said yeah I've been expecting this call and he got me into a rehab and and it wasn't like the the way the rehab is or portrayed and in the news outlets at the moment we're all the kind of you know Lindsay Lohan's and fabulous people again my roommate in rehab was a 60 year old 65 year old vicar a priest from the Church of England who was getting said yes well the thing is Greg the parishioners were complaining that all the communion wine was going missing and also an old lady said that there was a hobo sleeping in the church graveyard I had to pretend and go and look for him but it was me and so what happened is I stuck with it I was then oh there's a myth that goes around a popular culture I think right now as well which is the alcoholism can be cured by a 20 extent and Rehab I'm sorry to annoy the census but that is hot that is hot it's not my experience for me there's two types of rehab clinic so the good ones that say to you you know you've done your 28 days this is the beginning you now have a lifetime of vigilance this is that this is a chronic condition that you're going to have to manage for a deal with the rest of your life and the bad ones you know the bad rehab centers will say good good off you go you know the Reverend Ted Haggard for example when he gets out of the rehab and is cured of his gayness this is clearly an unscrupulous bunch of people running out the point I'm trying to make to use this now I have been so about 15 years there is absolutely no way I have a drinking problem I don't have a drinking problem and get one fast but I do it I don't have a drinking problem I have a thinking problem I'm 15 years sober last week right I find out that Guinness has 125 calories a pint and I'm without a wonderful eye I'm thinking maybe I should go on a diet that's clearly insane what what Guinness did to me and I'm thinking 125 calories who can possibly go wrong I want I want to make something clear T I'm not advocating temperance I'm not I'm not advocating that I'm saying this is this is for me you know if I could drink I would drink but I can't you can't you can't say you know to kids drink responsibly you can see me drink responsibly and I'll say I'll try but I can't certain types of people can't drink I'm one of them I threw in the total with alcoholism 15 years ago and I've been trying for the last 50 years to get little bits of the back and it looks to me a little bit that Britney Spears has a similar problem going on with alcohol this woman has two kids she's 25 years old she's a baby yourself she's a baby you know and the thing is you can embarrass somebody today it's embarrassing to admit you're an alcoholic it's embarrassing to wake up and your pee or someone else's for you don't really matter it's embarrassing now I'm not absolving this women of a behavior I'm not you have to be responsible for your actions sick or well you have to be responsible for your actions you just have to be all of us are accountable you have to be if you have a god forbid you have a kidney problem you do go on a dialysis it's your responsibility somehow get yourself the dialysis it's your responsibility to deal with the condition that you have and whatever way you can now all of us in America and I've in Scotland and anywhere I've ever been in my life everybody knows an alcohol like that either what for one or they have one what for them they have a parent or a sibling or a child everybody there's not one of us it does a friend god forbid some some of you poor people are married to them you know what it's like now I have found this you can't beat it with money if you could beat this rap with money rich people wouldn't die you can't does for me only for me and I only speak for myself so much stress there's three I have found that the only way I could deal with it is find other people who had similar experiences and talk to them it doesn't cost anything it doesn't cost a thing and they're very very easy to find the very near the front of the telephone book good luck

Channel: Retep

Views: 1,205,195

Keywords: Craig, Fergusan, Alcoholic, Late, Show

Id: kI-BhQGwDO8

Length: 9min 55sec (595 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 28 2010