Dax Shepard is recalling when he hit rock bottom, which he admits was the “scariest place you can be.”
Speaking Thursday on OBB Sound’s The Pursuit of Healthiness with Blake Griffin, the Top Gear America host recalled the time his drug abuse was exacerbated by his mental health struggles.
Shepard admitted his sobriety was on a sliding scale in the early 2000s, where he would “get sober for movies” but his addictions would become “more and more dangerous” between each gig.
The Parenthood alum recalled his most dangerous trip, where he got involved in “all kinds of super dangerous things, smoking meth” when partying with a friend in Hawaii before filming 2005’s Zathura.
Shepard remarked that trip should have been the highlight of his life because “I’m about to start a movie and make the most amount of money I’ve ever made in my life, people in Hawaii recognize me. I’m now famous. And I recognize I have every single thing I ever wanted.”
“But, I am at my lowest point, emotionally. And something has got to be very broken about that,” he confessed. “If I have everything I said was going to make me feel good and I feel terrible.”
Shepard explained that, back when he “didn’t have anything,” he would fantasize about what would make him happy, so when he finally had everything he could have ever wanted and still felt “miserable,” he notes “that’s actually about the scariest place you can be.”
The 46-year-old said he turned to AA after a disastrous 2004 interview on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, where he blacked out in the pre-interview and broke a coffee table during filming.
Shepard admits Conan banned him from the show — but, once he got sober, the host allowed him to return.