In his recently published autobiography, Luiz Fernando Guimarães makes an unprecedented revelation about a sad episode in his life when he was hospitalized against his will for alcohol addiction. The decision was made by her husband Adriano Madeiros along with their longtime friend Claudia Raia.
“I had to help get him into a rehab clinic against his will to treat alcohol abuse. It was a difficult moment for me because I heard that he didn’t want that,” says Raia in a statement given to the book “Luiz Fernando Guimarães. I am a series of 11 chapters. The autobiography”.
The actor himself describes in the book the moment of hospitalization in 2017. At the age of 72, he also recalls his experiences with drugs.
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“I lost three years of my life because of alcoholism. (…). Like much of my generation, I tried many drugs. Once I took an acid that took me to heaven, it was like the Aurora Borealis. But that Drinking is complicated. I started abusing it. Drinking made me cry, I suffered a lot. And I realized that alcohol separated me from many friends. Drinking left me with an abandoned life,” he wrote.
“Adriano (Medeiros, her husband) and my therapist at the time, with the help of friends like Claudia, thought hospitalization would be the best way out. They said I was going to a spa for a weekend,” he continued. She recalls the experience in “rehab”: “They took my cell phone. I felt like I was in a horror movie…”.
“I know that Adriano and Claudia did everything with the best of intentions. They suffered and didn’t want to see me like this. I also know that this hospital stay didn’t work out. And I kept drinking, but I started to better understand the problem. In my case, alcoholism is a hereditary disease. When you least expect it, you’re already drunk.”
He says he managed to control his alcohol addiction after switching therapists: “I only stopped drinking when I really wanted to. I was on my way to becoming a weakened and devastated person. And I didn’t want to. But, go.” Now I understand that it’s something under control, it’s a disease. And that “just one dose” can have a big effect”.
Actor Luiz Fernando Guimarães Photo: Ana Branco/Agência O Globo .jpeg.jpg "Luiz Fernando Guimarães tells in a book that Claudia Raia admitted him to a rehabilitation clinic to treat alcoholism 2")
Actor Luiz Fernando Guimarães in his apartment in the Jardim Botânico Photo: Ana Branco/Agência O Globo
Luiz Fernando Guimarães and Claudia Raia in 2001 Photo: Arquivo/Vera Donato