Feb 19 2009
Nick Carter’s Road To Recovery
Backstreet Boys, Nick Carter’s, 10 year struggle road to recovery from substance abuse has been rocky.
“I would make excuses to just go out to drink and party,” he says on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, airing Thursday. “It was excessive … Alcohol kind of kicked it off and then once the alcohol wasn’t doing it for me I would lean on other things.”
Although Nick Carter, 29, knew he had a problem, nothing could make him stop for more than a few months at a time – not a DUI, a bar brawl, or even his ballooning weight, which reached 224 lbs at one point. He needed a rude awakening and that came in the form of a weakening of his heart muscle, a condition known as Cardiomyopathy.
After a few slips and falls early on – and some blunt straight talk from his cardiologist – Carter sobered up and got healthy. At 167 lbs., he’s now in the best shape of his life. Today, says Carter, life is “awesome.”
