Brad Pitt has a new lease on life. In a conversation with Anthony Hopkins for Interview magazine published on Monday, Pitt, 55, reflected on his past mistakes - and beautydrops.shop why his struggles may have been necessary to get him to the place he is in today. The Ad Astra star continued: "You can’t have one without the other. Hopkins, 81, related his journey to sobriety to Pitt’s own. The Oscar winner (who costarred with Pitt in 1994’s Legends of the Fall and 1998’s Meet Joe Black) said he’s been sober for about 45 years. "I look at it, and I think, ‘What a great blessing that was, because it was painful,’ " Hopkins said. "I did some bad things, beautydrops.shop but it was all for a reason, in a way. … It’s like there’s an inner voice that says, ‘It’s over. Pitt - who first revealed his sobriety and treatment back in 2017 - said the decision to quit alcohol altogether came when he recognized the detriment it had on his life.
"I just saw it as a disservice to myself, as an escape," he said. "I am quite famously a ‘not-crier.’ Is that a term? " the Once Upon a Time … Hollywood star joked. "I hadn’t cried in, like, 20 years, and now I find myself, at this latter stage, much more moved - moved by my kids, moved by friends, moved by the news. Pitt added: "I think it’s a good sign. The Two Popes actor assured the penchant for shedding tears is just something that comes with age. "You’ll find, as you get older, that you just want to weep," Hopkins said. Filling his time with producing and acting gigs, as well as with his new passion for sculpting, Pitt said he’s looking forward rather than dwelling on the past. "We’ve always placed great importance on the mistake. But the next move, what you do after the mistake, is what really defines a person," he said. "We’re all going to make mistakes. Artic le h as been created with the help of GSA Content Generator Demoversion!
Sober living homes were created with the best of intentions: to offer recovering drug addicts and alcoholics--many of them just out of jail--a clean environment to help kick their habit. But with the number of such transitional homes doubling across California in the last decade, communities are rising up in protest against some facilities they consider anything but therapeutic. Unlike traditional drug treatment programs, sober living homes receive no state oversight and little scrutiny from local governments. No one is sure exactly how many are in business, and while many operate without trouble, police say some facilities have become magnets for crime and drugs. The latest problem occurred two weeks ago when the Orange County Probation Department pulled 20 probationers from a Santa Ana sober living home, saying conditions at the facility violated county standards. Incidents like this--and worse--have prompted several failed bills in the state Legislature to monitor the facilities and assess their effectiveness.
But city and state officials say tough federal housing protections for recovering addicts leave them virtually powerless. "It’s very frustrating," said San Clemente City Manager Michael W. Parness, whose city has seen a jump in both the number of sober living homes and police calls to them. Experts estimate that there are 1,200 sober living homes in California. These homes do not offer medical treatment for addictions like regular drug rehab centers and therefore don’t fall under the medical oversight of state officials. Rather, they are designed to provide a drug-free environment to bridge the gap between treatment and independent living. Charging between $250 and $1,000 a month, the homes also provide some impoverished addicts with a cheaper alternative to residential treatment facilities. In San Jose, authorities said they found conditions at some homes so overcrowded that addicts were living in cars. Residents of San Pedro are battling against what they consider an over-concentration of group homes within a few blocks of each other in the downtown area, including nearly 20 sober living facilities.
In a recent survey by the League of California Cities, communities reported dozens of examples of crimes at such transition homes ranging from drug sales to vandalism. The disputes have wide implications: The growth of sober living homes comes as courts place greater emphasis on rehabilitation over detention as the most effective way to prevent recidivism by criminals with substance abuse problems. "Treatment is the big thing right now," said Karyn Sinunu, assistant district attorney in Santa Clara County. Even the sober living home industry concedes that some type of oversight is needed, primarily to target unscrupulous home operators who provide addicts with little more than a pricey, overcrowded flop house. A bill working its way through the state Legislature would create modest oversight of transitional drug and alcohol facilities. Meanwhile, a coalition of sober living homes is proposing a voluntary certification program run by the industry. "What’s happened with some . " said Susan Blacksher, executive director of the nonprofit California Assn. of Addiction Recovery Resources.