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He allegedly became addicted to Vicodin after a jet-ski accident in 1997 and completed a 28-day rehab program later that same year. He entered rehab again in February 2001 for an addiction to Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol, two of a total of 15 rehab stints over the years.

His weight also fluctuated a lot over the years as seen on Friends. He said, “When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills; when I have a goatee, it’s a lot of pills,” The most recent photos of him show he had again gained a lot of weight.

From what I’ve read, he started drinking in his early teens to cope with feelings of abandonment due to his parents divorcing at his early age and his mother working all the time, leaving him basically a latch key kid and her basking in her “fame” as the press secretary to Justin Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

In 2000 he was hospitalized with pancreatitis. In 2018, Perry spent five months in a hospital for a gastrointestinal perforation. During the hospital stay, Perry nearly died after his colon burst from opioid abuse. He spent two weeks in a coma and used a colostomy bag for nine months. Upon being admitted to the hospital, doctors told Perry’s family that he had a two percent chance of survival. He was connected to an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, which breathed for him.

Perry was later in a rehab in Switzerland but had lied to his doctors about having severe stomach pain in order to get prescribed hydrocodone, an opioid used to treat pain and as a cough suppressant.

Perry was due to have surgery to alleviate his pain, but he took hydrocodone the night before his surgery, which, combined with anesthetic propofol during the procedure, stopped his heart for five minutes.

He was by many accounts still a heavy smoker, a 2-3 pack a day habit.

He had supposedly played 2 hours of pickleball before his death. But given all his previous health problems, his smoking and the weight gain, likely having HBP, then getting into a hot tub after physical exertion, can raise BP to a dangerous level so a sudden massive stroke can’t be ruled out.

I hope he was maintaining his sobriety at the time of his death; he’d done a lot in recent years to try to help other addicts, but who knows. I’m guessing it will come out eventually.

The amazing thing is not that he died yesterday, but that he lived as long as he did.