How This EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND Co-Star Helped Patricia Heaton in Her Journey to Sobriety
By Movieguide® Staff
Actress Patricia Heaton is vocal about her past addiction and recently celebrated three years sober.
In a recent interview, she credited her sobriety, in part, to the advice she received from her EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND co-star, Peter Boyle.
Read Also: Patricia Heaton Discusses The Moment She Decided to Choose Sobriety
Heaton, who struggled to balance her love for alcohol with the rest of her life for the majority of her career, recalled that the cast of EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND would often visit bars and drink as a group.
However, Boyle, who played Frank Barone from the show, never drank.
“‘You’re pumped up from the show. You just want to have a drink with everybody. You want to celebrate. You want to kind of have your adrenaline come down. How do you not — how do you keep yourself from drinking?'” Heaton asked Boyle at one point 20 years ago. “He said, ‘You know, I just think about the first drink. And I think about it leading to the second one, and then to the third one, and I just walk through it in my brain. And by the time I think about that, I know I don’t want to be in that position.'”
Heaton said that she never forgot Boyle’s reasoning for not drinking and has helped her in her years of sobriety.
“There’s a Pavlovian response you have to going out with your friends where the waiter comes up and says, ‘Can I get you all something to drink?’ and you just want to order something to drink,” she recalled. “I just remember Peter talking about that, and so I would just think about it, and just think how I would feel at the end of the meal where I would have eaten too much, and then I wouldn’t sleep well that night because of the alcohol.
“If I gave myself that 30 seconds or 60 seconds to think about it, the urge would subside. And then I could get through the meal,” Heaton added.
Although her addiction pertained primarily to alcohol, Heaton also recalled the moment she tried cocaine.
The Hollywood Reporter noted:
Heaton said she had already been struggling with depression due to circumstances around her mother’s death from an aneurysm when the actress was 12. Taking cocaine exacerbated her mental health issue so much that she never wanted to use it again.
“Cocaine was flowing like crazy, and I remember being there and drinking and doing cocaine till six in the morning. That next day I was fine, but the day after the depression I felt was so intense, I thought, ‘I am never going to do this again because I feel like I’m going to kill myself,'” she said.
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Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
