Actor Charlie Sheen is opening up about a lifelong struggle that he says first led him to start drinking, beginning a years-long battle with substance abuse.
Sheen said he has struggled with stuttering his whole life and that he learned to drink to feel freer.
"Drinking just ... it softened the edges," Sheen told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Michael Strahan in an interview about his new memoir, "The Book of Sheen." "It gave me just freedom of speech."
Sheen said it was not until he starred on the sitcom "Spin City" in 2000 that he opened up to his costars and coworkers on set about his stuttering.
"When I got the first script for 'Spin' and I was going through it, I was like, 'Oh, that's a problem. That's gonna be a problem. I can't say that,'" Sheen recalled, adding that his decision to be public about his stutter felt liberating. "So yeah, when in doubt, just be human enough to be vulnerable, and to know that it's okay to ask for help."
In the years leading up to "Spin City," Sheen said he was deep in addiction with alcohol and crack cocaine, which he said he first tried in 1992.
Two years before that, in 1990, Sheen did the first of what would be multiple stints in rehabilitation centers after his family staged an intervention. The actor, who comes from a family of actors including his father Martin Sheen and brother Emilio Estevez, was 24 years old at the time.
Martin Sheen says he 'regrets' changing his name from Ramón Estévez"It's hard to ask for help when somebody else has raised your hand for you," Charlie Sheen said of his struggle to get sober. "And so I think that's, that kind of was the theme of, you know, knowing it was only a matter of time, of wanting to always be in control of things, wanting to do things my way."
In the late '90s, Charlie Sheen's family stepped in again when his father turned him in for violating probation. Charlie Sheen said it felt like the "biggest betrayal" by his dad at the time, but he said he later came to see it as an act of love.
Eventually, Charlie Sheen said he got sober, but relapsed again when he started using prescription pills while starring in the hit TV series "Two and a Half Men."
During that time, the actor said he worked overtime to hide his relapse, saying, "It's a terrible feeling. You gotta remember who, you know, always worry about who knows what."
In 2011, during the height of the success of "Two and a Half Men," the show was put on hiatus so Sheen could enter rehab. Later on, he was barred from the set of the show and eventually fired.
Charlie Sheen told Strahan he went onto quit alcohol in 2017 and has been completely sober since then.
Since then, he said he has worked hard to make amends with the people he loves and those he hurt during his battle with addiction.
In addition to sharing all in his memoir, out Sept. 9, the ups and downs of Charlie Sheen's life are explored in the upcoming Netflix docuseries, "AKA Charlie Sheen." The people closest to Charlie Sheen speak out in the docuseries, including his celebrity friends, former co-stars and his ex-wives and children.
Charlie Sheen admits he was a sex addict, says he was extorted by partnersLooking ahead, Charlie Sheen said he wants to be "appreciated" as a writer and an author. He said he also believes the best for him could still be yet to come.
"This story should've ended 100 times 20 years ago, and it didn't. And it didn't," he said. "So whatever happens next might be just where some of the real gold has been hidden, you know?"
