Troubled comedian Artie Lange has opened up about his extended rehab stint in Florida, revealing he's finally conquered his problems with drugs and alcohol.
Lange, the sidekick of radio show host Howard Stern, has struggled with substance abuse over the last few years and he largely stepped out of the spotlight following an alleged suicide attempt in January, 2010.
The funnyman has now come clean about his road to recovery, admitting he's put his drug-fuelled past behind him after getting help for a period of several months at a treatment centre in South Florida.
During an appearance on U.S. programme Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Friday (30Mar12), he said, "I feel fantastic. I went to rehab. I had some issues that had to be dealt with in rehab. They have experts there, that deal with people like me... It was in South Florida... I went down there and I had a counsellor, she's a wonderful woman, 60-years-old, very sweet. It's me and eight guys in the group... and the woman says, 'You know I think your drug-use can be traced back to (your) lack of self-importance.'"
And while Lange admits getting sober wasn't easy, he insists he's finally kicked his habits.
He continues, "The first month there I was doing drugs, in Florida drugs are all over the place. They wash up on the shore... Smugglers, if they think they're going to get caught, they throw cocaine off in a bag... It happens so much, they give it a name, they call it white lobster... (But) I finally got the idea of rehab, which is to stop doing drugs... A lot of normal people, like you, think rehab is like white (lab) coats... It's not that way. It's people (that are) really concerned (about you)."