Backstory/Early Addiction
During the beginning of Eminem's addiction, which was around his filming the movie "8 Mile", he never truly saw himself as having a problem. All he claims to remember was liking it more and more. Whenever someone mentioned that he did, even remotely, he'd kick them out of the room. Since he wasn't shooting up or snorting coke, he minimized his issue. The first time taking a Vicodin, Eminem felt that "ahh" moment when everything gets calm, then the pain finally slipped away from his body. He thought he was able to control it until his first overdose during Christmas of 2007 when his addiction finally landed him in the hospital. The doctors honestly had no idea whether he would make it considering every organ he had was shutting down. Even dialysis was a potential option if he didn't bother to recover quickly. His bottom would soon be death if he didn't get help.
Shortly after the movie "8 Mile" released, Eminem checked himself into a 30-day treatment facility. He completed the program but didn't make it very far after he got out because soon enough, he'd be in the hospital again from another overdose. Finally, after hitting rock bottom between hospital visits, overdoses, and the loss of friends, Eminem now knew he had a problem. It was apparent this time, and there was no denying it to himself anymore, so he again decided to check himself into another rehab.
Early Recovery
In 2009, Relapse, the album, was released but unfortunately received horrible critiques from both fans and critics. He almost wondered whether he was even still good enough to stay in music. Throughout his career, Eminem never once recorded sober before and thought long and hard whether he was still good enough to stay in the game. Being in recovery doesn't automatically cure your body, mind, and spirit. You need to continue to work hard at it, and he was still very early in his recovery, with a lot of that work left ahead of him. In Relapse, he would barely use any beats and sounded downright angry on almost every one of his tracks. It did get to a point where not even the fans had much faith in his music.
But in 2010, he released "Recovery." He was initially going to call it "Relapse 2" until he realized that it didn't reflect the same vibe as the first "Relapse" did and that the recent album reflected more of his time healing. He was already about 2 years clean at this point and was able to continue growing before releasing another album. The 10-year reunion of his comeback album "Recovery" was just recently, and Eminem claims it's far from over.
"In the 2012 documentary How to Make Money Selling Drugs, the rapper opened up about his struggles with addiction." It really shed light on what he went through, how much he was in denial, and the consequences of addiction. Now, just a few weeks ago, he celebrated his 12 years of recovery.
His Relationship w/ Elton John
It's no secret that some of his music could be a bit racy, but everyone was shocked to find out how close he was with Elton John, considering much thought he was homophobic, but Elton is even his sponsor! Their relationship has blossomed throughout the years, no doubt, and all Elton can say about Eminem is how much he loves the guy. Eminem first met Elton John in 2001 but didn't really connect until they performed "Stan" on the Grammy's as Elton John played Dido's part.
Now refers to him as his uncle. In December 2017, Elton appeared on "The Graham Norton Show." While being asked about his long-term relationship with Eminem, he stated that people thinking he is homophobic because of his lyrics is nonsense. In his 2019 autobiography Me, Elton John wrote: "... I'm Eminem's AA sponsor. Whenever I ring to check in on him, he always greets me the same way: 'Hello, you c**t,' which I guess is very Eminem." In another article, specifically, Eminem commented, "He understands, like, the pressure and any other reasons that you wanna come up with for doing drugs, you know." Being an addict as a celebrity can be difficult, especially when you're trying to get clean and find a sober network, but you can't because you'll never know if people are just hanging out with you because of who you are.
Conclusion
But Eminem's not alone in the celebrity recovery scene. You'd be surprised who'd you find is in recovery. For example, Macklemore - the rap artist, Lana Del Ray - the singer/songwriter, and Sia - another singer/songwriter, but those are just a handful of musicians alone. There's plenty more where that came from, so he will never be alone if he ever needed to reach out to those in the industry. There are zero excuses for him now.
When it came to Eminem, in his earlier albums, he openly shared his hatred and anger, but once he got clean, not only did his demeanor change, but his music changed, and most certainly for the better. In his early recovery, he replaced his addiction with another -- running, but soon able to gain balance through the steps. He was even capable of learning what it was to be an addict, and now has a whole new level of respect for his mother. Now that he could gain back his music momentum, he couldn't be happier doing what he loves to do. "I almost feel like a little kid again with rap, I wanna play around with different flows. If I don't feel like it's what I'm fully capable of, if there's one weak line, I wanna change it. Rap was my drug. It used to get me high, and then it stopped getting me high. Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that. Now rap's getting me high again." Keep being you Eminem because whatever you're doing now, it's working.