Charlie Sheen Admits Memories of ‘Really Awful Situations’ Keep Him From Giving Into Old Vices

Back in 2011, Charlie Sheen was at a low point, ranting in unhinged interviews that he was “winning” and had “tiger blood.” Currently eight years sober, the 60-year-old has an easy way to fight the temptation to go back to drinking and drugging: He thinks back to those bad old days.

“I keep really awful situations on a mobile spinning around my head, like one of those things you would hang over a baby crib,” he told People. “And anytime I’m thinking, ‘That’d be a great idea,’ there’s an example that I can go to and just remember that it woudn’t be a good idea — just the shame, the distress and the chaos.”

The Two and a Half Men alum is baring all in both a memoir, The Book of Sheen, and a two-part Netflix documentary, aka Charlie Sheen, which detail his harrowing spiral into addiction and the destruction it caused. (Wed three times, Charlie has five kids and three grandchildren.)

After numerous failed rehab stints, he quit drugs, believing “the next hit would kill me,” then went cold turkey on drinking in 2017. Ever the bad boy, he said he misses his old life — sort of. “If I could only drink for one hour, maybe I would. But it’s the 15 hours after that first drink where things go wrong.”