18 July 2023 , 12:18
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McFly star Dougie Poynter has opened up about his experiences in rehab when he battled drink and drug addictions – while also reconnecting with his inner child.
The 35-year-old One For The Radio performer has openly discussed his struggles in the past – revealing that he was so addicted to alcohol he once considered drinking his aftershave in the hope of getting a kick from the medical alcohol in the product.
Now Dougie has opened up about his addiction struggles again, explaining that he has been to rehab twice for two different addictions over the years.
He explained that his creative thought process led to a specialist adapting the treatment process so he could get the best results.
Discussing his battles with Busted star Matt Willis in his podcast On The Mend with Matt Willis, Dougie said: “I’ve done it twice for two separate addictions.
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Dougie Poynter has discussed his past addiction struggles and treatments (Getty Images)
McFly star Dougie opened up to Matt Willis, who has also had his own addiction battles (Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Prince of Egypt)“Both times I felt like they were huge life-changing things, they were like the worst times in my life and the best, for some reason. I still reference my last stint in rehab now whenever I’m like not feeling quite right or something.”
Going into more detail about his treatment, he explained that realising his love for creativity helped him heal.
He said: “I had this amazing therapist who knew that I couldn’t process information at the time, so I couldn’t really read anything.
“So I couldn’t read like the assignments properly and write s**t down, and found it so hard to talk because all those eyes like looking at me – it was just like a f**king rollercoaster.
“She knew that I worked really visually and I liked making things, and so she changed all of my assignments to something creative.
“And so I’d have to paint or something and then talk about that, and she’d ask me questions whilst I’m looking at this painting and the group would ask, and I found it easier to do that because I was stimulated and I liked doing it. And that was like a little glimmer of hope, that I was like 'oh yeah, yeah I like making s**t'.”
Another exercise that Dougie was asked to perform was to select some music from his past that connected to him.
After initially listening to rock music he liked, the bassist – who realised other members of his rehab group might not appreciate hard rock – made a huge self discovery.
He recalled: “I went to John Williams and found all these movie soundtracks like one of the songs from Home Alone and one of the Jurassic Park theme songs.
“And whilst I was listening to them, started to remember who I was pre-drink and drugs. And all the s**t that I was into, like dinosaurs and stuff.
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“All the nerdy stuff that I now know that I absolutely love and it’s really important to have in my life. And that sense of connecting to the little kid that I was, was so overwhelming, like yeah I f**king cried and then couldn’t stop crying and couldn’t stop listening to those bits of music.”
On The Mend with Matt Willis is available now wherever you get your podcasts.