Matthew Perry has opened up about his battle with addiction

This actor has opened up about his long-term struggles with drug and alcohol addiction in a video which was released yesterday on his 46th birthday.  

Matthew Perry battled with addiction for a long time, including while he was working on the world famous sitcom Friends. 

The 46-year-old opened up about his past saying he has "learned a lot" from his previous failures and he is now sober. 

In the video he speaks about how important rehabilitation facilities are as "getting sober is a really hard thing to do".

He says breaking such an addiction is all about hope and that "you can't have a drug problem for 30 years and expect to have it solved in 28 days."

Matthew explains his own struggles saying that he is by nature an extremely private person, but by being on a TV show which had over 30 million people watching it, people were well aware of what was happening. 

During the ten seasons of Friends it was clear that the actor was really struggling as his weight fluctuated a lot and looking back on it all he says "I've had a lot of ups and downs in my life."

Although he had a difficult past, he is happy that he can now use that to help others. 

"The best thing about me is that if an alcohol comes up to me and says can you help me stop drinking? I can say yes."

Following the filming of Friends, Matthew went on to star in movies such as 17 Again, The Whole Nine Yards and Three To Tango.