Jackass star Steve-O has revealed he 'heard the voices of angels and demons' while experiencing psychosis at the height of his addiction troubles. Now 15-years sober, the London-born star opened up to podcast host Steven Bartlett on the Diary Of A CEO.
The host asked the 49-year-old about an interview in which he said that by "mid-2007 I was practically living on Diet Coke booze and nitrous". Steve-O laughed and replied that Bartlett had read it wrong, it was in fact "not Diet Coke, a diet of coke (cocaine)", adding: "There's a big difference".
Bartlett followed up by asking Steve-O about allegedly hallucinating and hearing voices during his worst period of addiction. The Jackass star, who shot to fame in 2000 with the MTV series, said he was hallucinating "big time".
He explained: "It's called psychosis and it's a fascinating thing. There are so many different substances one can ingest that might bring about this phenomena of psychosis.
"There's so many similarities between the experiences people have with it even though they take so many different 'avenues' to get there." Steve-O went on to reveal that his experience with substance abuse has led him to believing alternate dimensions and that he has heard both angels and demons.
He told Bartlett: "I believe that there's... different compartments maybe dimensions and that in our in our human experience we are in a distinct compartment. Psychosis happens when you erode the barriers to the other compartments, other dimensions.
"By doing that with chemical substances, we erode the barriers and kind of open ourselves up to energies from other dimensions." He added, finally: "You open yourself up to like all levels of it so you can really let in demons.
"You know like demons being low level of frequency energy and angels like being a higher level. Consuming enough substances I really believe that you erode the barriers you open yourself up to all these energies."
Steve-O substance abuse reached a head in 2008, when his Jackass co-stars held an intervention. This resulted in him being involuntarily sectioned to a psychiatric hospital to get the help he needed.
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According to the NHS, psychosis is when people lose some contact with reality. This might involve seeing or hearing things that other people cannot see or hear (hallucinations) and believing things that are not actually true (delusions).
The two main symptoms of psychosis are:
- hallucinations – where a person hears, sees and, in some cases, feels, smells or tastes things that do not exist outside their mind but can feel very real to the person affected by them; a common hallucination is hearing voices
- delusions – where a person has strong beliefs that are not shared by others; a common delusion is someone believing there's a conspiracy to harm them
The combination of hallucinations and delusional thinking can cause severe distress and a change in behaviour. Experiencing the symptoms of psychosis is often referred to as having a psychotic episode.
When to get medical advice
You should see a GP immediately if you're experiencing symptoms of psychosis. It's important psychosis is treated as soon as possible, as early treatment can be more effective.
The GP may ask you some questions to help determine what's causing your psychosis. They should also refer you to a mental health specialist for further assessment and treatment.
