Hulk Hogan is opening up about beating an addiction to prescription painkillers he’d developed after undergoing numerou surgeries.
“I was hitting the pain pills hard because I’d had to endure 25 procedures, including 10 to my back, facial operations from being kicked, knee and hip replacements and abdominal and shoulder surgeries,” Hogan — whose real name is Terry Bollea — explained in a new interview with Muscle And Health.
“There was a period of time, about five or six years ago, where I was in crazy pain to the extent I couldn’t even function. When you have back surgery, it takes a good year for your body to recover, yet they were cutting on me every four months,” he continued.
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“I needed pain meds at that stage, that’s for sure. But once things started to wind down, they continued giving me the same meds,” he explained.
“It got to a point where I’d recovered from the 10th back surgery and the pharmacy would call me and say, ‘Your prescription’s ready,’ and like a dog chasing a bone, I’d go pick it up,” he added.
“Then, finally, I just looked at myself, and I said, ‘I’m not in pain. I don’t need this. My body hurts from all the wrestling injuries, but I’m not in this excruciating pain that I can’t live with,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hogan also revealed that he quit drinking earlier this year.
“About seven months ago, I decided not to drink any more alcohol. I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and I saw a bunch of stuff that I didn’t condone or like. I saw myself in this environment and I went, ‘You know what? I don’t know how I got here, but I’m done,’” he told the magazine.
“I was around people who believed and behaved differently from me and I just said, ‘I’m out,’” he said, adding, “I’ve had certain wrestlers look at me in the face and go, ‘If you don’t have a drink with me, you’re not my friend.’ I say, ‘Well, I am your friend, but I’m not going to drink with you. What are you going to do about it?’”
The health benefits he experienced were instantaneous.
“As soon as I quit drinking, I had no desire to eat junk at night, and the weight just started falling off me,” he recalled.
“Right now, I’m enjoying life on the beach, playing the bass for fun when my daughter Brooke comes to visit, working on my cars and partying hard and sober,” he shared. “Life is good.”
