- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMichael Jay Meyers
- Michael Meyers was born on February 7, 1946 in New Rochelle, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Goodbye, Columbus (1969), The David Frost Show (1969) and The Merv Griffin Show (1962). He died on September 14, 2009 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Michael Meyers is also the author of "Goodbye Columbus, Hello Medicine"
- a memoir.
- Dr. Meyers was a medical director of the Brotman Medical Center's Chemical Dependency Treatment Program in Culver City, and worked exclusively in the field of chemical dependency since his own recovery from drug addiction.
- Became a physician.
- Qualified as an M.D. later specializing in chemical addiction.
- Michael Meyers drowned in the ocean September 14, 2009 in Los Angeles County.
- I really didn't start to drink or use drugs at all until medical school.
- I was dying and I had no other place to go. I crawled into a hospital on my belly, helpless, hopeless and too chicken to kill myself, but feeling there was no way to go on doing what I was doing. I didn't think I could survive without my medication and drugs. In a blackout trying to get off of all of the stuff, I almost killed myself in an auto accident.
- The statistics are that 10% of the general population are alcoholics or addicts, but it is felt, and some of the statistics bear this out, there is a higher proportion in the medical professions. At least 10% and probably closer to 15 to 18% of physicians are addicts. It's staggering to think that one out of six doctors has a problem.
- Actually, "Goodbye, Columbus" came along right in that summer between graduating from college and beginning medical school. I suddenly found myself as a first-year medical student who was scared to death whether I was going to make the grade as a doctor-in-training. I also had this fantasmagorical summer of being pampered and treated as this movie star. That following summer, the movie broke and it really got a lot of good play, good reviews and my character certainly stuck out. I started to get acting offers and I had to make a decision whether to go back to a second year of medical school.
- So I came into work in the treatment field 8 1/2 years ago and I really have built a reputation as a real specialist and expert in the area of chemical dependency. (From a 1991 interview with The Los Angeles Times).As I got more years of sobriety and there was less of the stigma in the world to accept me back as a doctor, I was able to be much more open with my own recovery.That is why I work with physicians and other professionals. I know what they are going through. You can't figure your own addiction in your intellectual head. A high IQ can be a detriment to recovery. You can be too smart to recover, but you can't be too dumb.
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