Dax Shepard is thanking fans for their support after revealing his recent relapse with prescription painkillers after nearly 16 years of sobriety.
"Just quickly, I want to say thanks to all the people that have been so unbelievably lovely to us in response to 'Day 7,'" Shepard told listeners of his "Armchair Expert" podcast on Monday.
The former "Parenthood" star said he'd been nervous about opening up about the relapse and was relieved when fans responded without judgment.
"My fears were the opposite of what the result was," continued Shepard, who said he was "struggling with some fraudulent feelings of receiving love based on a f---up. But at any rate, I am really, really grateful and there’s so many beautiful, nice people."
Shepard's comments come three days after he opened up about his relapse in a podcast episode recorded on Sept. 21. The 45-year-old actor, who's long been candid about his struggles with alcohol and cocaine addiction, revealed that in recent months he'd battled an addiction to the opioid painkiller Vicodin.
Shepard said he was originally prescribed Vicodin in 2012 after a motorcycle accident on his way to the set of "Parenthood." His wife, actor Kristen Bell, was the only one who was allowed to administer the drugs.
During a trip to visit his ailing father, he recalled, "I give him a bunch of Percocet, and then I go, 'I have a prescription for this and I was in a motorcycle accident and I'm going to take some too.'"
After confessing that relapse to Bell, the actor got clean again.
However, Shepard said he later continued to suffer more injuries, and had always used painkillers responsibly. But about six months ago, he started "getting shadier and shadier."
"For the last eight weeks maybe, I don't really know... I'm on them all day. I'm allowed to be on them at some dosage because I have a prescription. And then I'm also augmenting that. And then all the prescriptions run out and I'm now just taking 30 mil Oxys that I've bought whenever I decide I can do (it)," he said.
Though at first he felt his use of the pills was "manageable," he soon found himself lying to loved ones, including Bell and his podcast co-host, Monica Padman.
After trying to detox unsuccessfully, Shepard decided to be honest with Padman. "I'm gaslighting you and I know I am," he told her, recalling his behavior. "And I'm making you feel crazy and I'm making Kristen feel crazy."
"I felt so terrible about the lying," he added. "I was just very scared and I felt very, very lonely."
Shepard also revealed that he was high earlier this month when he celebrated the milestone of being 16 years sober — a day that found Bell and the couple's two daughters sweetly honoring his achievement on Instagram.
He called being congratulated at a meeting while abusing pain pills "the worst hour of my life."
Shepard titled the candid podcast episode "Day 7," because it was recorded on his seventh day of renewed sobriety.