Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir

6/8/2023 Date of original post which has been updated several times since the death of Matthew Perry.

I am updating my book review on 8/18/2026 because I learned a lot about Matthew Perry’s addiction from this YouTube doctor named Dr Josef. Here here is a link to the video. According to the video Matthew Perry purchased a large number ketamine vials ketamine to inject by himself which is why he drowned. But I also heard that his personal assistant was charged with injecting Matthew Perry and then leaving him alone. But it’s also possible that Matthew Perry requested to be alone. Matthew Perry seems like he was a very lonely person.

Original Book Review Below:

I just finished the Matthew Perry book and I wanted to write about it while I still had it fresh in my mind. I analyzed his problem. It’s more than the drugs.  He has an overall complete lack of disregard for his physical health. He doesn’t exercise, he smokes, he doesn’t eat healthy foods. Even if he hadn’t taken all the drugs his health still would not be good right now. He talks a lot about different Hollywood actors in the book. Most Hollywood A Listers (like Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep) take good care of their health. If he really wants to be on top with them, he needs to start taking care of his health. Of course that is a mute point because it’s really too late for him. I predict that his health is so run down that even herculean efforts will not be able to fix his health. He’s always going to be in poor health for the rest of his life.  I wrote all of this before he died as a warning.

The Odd Couple

I never watched Friends and I’m not a fan of the show.  If I had to pick a favorite character I would have picked Joey because I thought he was cute with his dark good looks. My experience with Matthew Perry was the New Odd Couple from 2015. I felt really sorry for Thomas Lennon who played Felix Unger. In the book Matthew Perry doesn’t even mention his name and doesn’t mention anything more about The Odd Couple other than one paragraph and just to say that he was sorry. I saw Thomas Lennon in an interview in which he said how disappointed he was with the show’s cancellation.  

Matthew Perry keeps talking about how rich he is without ever saying why he’s still rich considering the ridiculous amounts of money he wasted on luxuries such as constantly changing houses to get a better view. And of course all the money he’s spent on not just drugs but on rehab. I heard the numbers of 7 to 9 millions dollars just on rehabs.

I felt a little bit guilty about getting the audio book from the Library App Libby, instead of buying it on a platform. But when I heard that Matthew Perry spent $175,000 to fly himself to Los Angeles from Switzerland in a private plane in order to obtain more opioid drugs, I felt no guilt after that. When he got to Los Angeles he couldn’t get drugs so he flew himself back to Switzerland and spent another $175,000 on another private flight. And then when he got back to Switzerland he still didn’t get the drugs that he wanted. So many people tried to help him and yet he blamed his dentist and his hypnotist because he couldn’t quit smoking. Smoking deprives your body of oxygen and it’s really bad for your teeth and gums. If your teeth are falling out it’s an overall sign of very poor health.

Matthew Perry has dated many different women and he says all of them were wonderful but he broke up with all of them expect for one who broke up with him. I believe drugs and alcohol were his first and only priority. He never got married or had children was because that would mean he would have to stop using. I can’t believe that at the end of the book he actually put out a lonely hearts ad. He was looking for somebody and she should be five foot two and like pickleball. This must have been a joke.

It took me a lot of time to research his many women. Jamie Tarses was an Executive Producer. I think the way he broke up with her was probably the most cruel. She sat by his bedside in the hospital night after night. As soon as he got well he broke up with her so he could keep his options open and sleep with more women. If he really was the one to break up with Julia Roberts she is probably thankful that she dodged that bullet. Any woman in a relationship with an addict will end up being his caretaker and nurse. There will be no going out having fun, dancing at clubs, going to restaurants and rubbing elbows of Hollywood elite.

In spite of all the mean-spirited things that I said about Matthew Perry in this review he actually did try to do sobriety. He even started a sober living house for men which lasted from 2013 to 2015. According to Dr. Josef the nature of the addiction means that the addict feels unwell due to chronic inflammation and brain damage that is caused by these substances. The drug abuser is trying to fix themselves which causes them to desperately try many different substances. I think Matthew Perry thought that ketamine was a safer alternative to other drugs but as it turns out ketamine has horrific side effects once one becomes an addict.  Medicated all of one’s emotional pain away does not work. One will end up with more emotional pain than before one started taking drugs. Matthew Perry was a victim of attention deficit disorder but this was also why he was such a great actor and comedian in the roles that he took. Doctor Josef also points out that people with addictions become more agoraphobic and less likely to socialize and this only leads to more loneliness, unhappiness and further substance abuse.

Since I wrote this review my hearing has become significantly worse and I’m really not able to tolerate audiobooks for free on Libby anymore due to the low sound quality. probably I should buy this book on a platform with higher sound quality. I enjoyed it so much that someday I may even want to listen to it again. I really appreciate Matthew Perry for having the courage to read the book himself because it’s always a better experience for the reader when the narration is heartfelt. The reader has a direct connection to the author.

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