Aug 25, 2026 · 1 hr · 11 segments
Last week, Ethan posted an article to his SubStack that attracted a lot of attention. It had to be with the passing of someone he knew. It had to do with addiction. Due to the overwhelming response he…
Ethan SupleeHostElisabeth JordanbyGuestAllyHost
And I mean, I smoked pot a couple of times and I drank, and I did, I did have a bit of an issue with alcohol as a teenager.
Um, but I had my gallbladder removed in 1996, and in the hospital I was on a morphine drip.
You know, it, it, it's a strange thing because I still felt pain, but the pain didn't really matter to me.
And all of my feelings of shame or insecurities, those melted away with morphine.
And then I was given a, a pretty big, um, uh, prescription for Vicodin when I left, and I was given a refill for that.
You'd go in and you'd say like, "I have a really bad headache." And you'd have to like ham up the, um, the, what you were feeling a little bit and then they'd sell you these pills.
And, and then I found doctors through friends of mine who, who would, you know, you could sign that you'd been for a visit, an insurance slip, and, and they'd write you a prescription for whatever you wanted.
And eventually one of my friends said, "You know, you're really killing your liver with those pills.
Like, I don't wanna laugh at that, but there is something about that like suggestion and that to you at the time it felt like, "Oh, yeah, good call." Like-
Right
... easier, it was less complicated than having to go track down doctors and go to pharmacies and, and yeah, it was a- at that point it was presented to me as the healthier option.
Healthier option.
But then in the midst of this you're working, right? Like, that was like the other thing for me in the article, that juxtaposition of here you are at a movie premiere for a really amazing big movie, and you're getting high in the bathroom.
Did people who you worked with...
Like, were you just really good at hiding it, or did they know and just kind of turned a blind eye?
I mean, I think anybody who was aware of what an addict looked like probably knew.
Um, I like to think that I was hiding it but then, you know, my friends had multiple interventions with me, so I would be slammed with the reality that I wasn't hiding it all that well over and over again.
And I mean, I smoked pot a couple of times and I drank, and I did, I did have a bit of an issue with alcohol as a teenager.
Um, but I had my gallbladder removed in 1996, and in the hospital I was on a morphine drip.
You know, it, it, it's a strange thing because I still felt pain, but the pain didn't really matter to me.
And all of my feelings of shame or insecurities, those melted away with morphine.
And then I was given a, a pretty big, um, uh, prescription for Vicodin when I left, and I was given a refill for that.
You'd go in and you'd say like, "I have a really bad headache." And you'd have to like ham up the, um, the, what you were feeling a little bit and then they'd sell you these pills.
And, and then I found doctors through friends of mine who, who would, you know, you could sign that you'd been for a visit, an insurance slip, and, and they'd write you a prescription for whatever you wanted.
And eventually one of my friends said, "You know, you're really killing your liver with those pills.
Like, I don't wanna laugh at that, but there is something about that like suggestion and that to you at the time it felt like, "Oh, yeah, good call." Like-
Right
... easier, it was less complicated than having to go track down doctors and go to pharmacies and, and yeah, it was a- at that point it was presented to me as the healthier option.
Healthier option.
But then in the midst of this you're working, right? Like, that was like the other thing for me in the article, that juxtaposition of here you are at a movie premiere for a really amazing big movie, and you're getting high in the bathroom.
Did people who you worked with...
Like, were you just really good at hiding it, or did they know and just kind of turned a blind eye?
I mean, I think anybody who was aware of what an addict looked like probably knew.
Um, I like to think that I was hiding it but then, you know, my friends had multiple interventions with me, so I would be slammed with the reality that I wasn't hiding it all that well over and over again.
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