Real Talk

Fighting Addiction: How Maintaining Sobriety is a Family Effort

by Kevyn Gohu
September 11, 2025

Kristen Bell’s celebration of her husband, Dax Shepard’s, 21 years of sobriety proves that staying sober is a family effort.

It’s not easy fighting an addiction, especially when it’s supposedly one of the more accepted ones. Alcoholism and even drugs, being two of the hardest addictions, can be a long, uphill battle. It doesn’t end after one round; sometimes, there’s a relapse. Especially when one reaches their lowest point, it can be so tempting to return to the addiction. It’s why Frozen voice Kristen Bell celebrates her husband, Dax Shepard’s, 21 years of sobriety.

“This is what 21 years of sobriety looks like. Lots of hugging. Hugging everyone and everything. Hugging life. Thank you for getting sober, @daxshepard. I am eternally grateful to have you. We all are 💕,” she writes.

Dax Shepard suffered from Vicodin addiction and has fought against falling back into a relapse since then. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have two kids: 10-year-old Delta and 13-year-old Lincoln.

Kristen Bell's celebration of her husband, Dax Shepard's, 21 years of sobriety proves that staying sober is a family effort. — Photo from kristenanniebell

The Battle for Sobriety

While family can be a great source of support, it can also be the very origin of stress. Sometimes, the words that we say or the emotional distance can drive some relatives to the very edge. The worst part is, they look absolutely normal. It’s only after seeing it frequently or when they hurt somebody that everyone starts wondering, “What happened?”

In the Philippines, it’s much more complicated than that. Drinking is a big part of the Filipino party culture. Usually, it’s something light like a bottle of beer. More sophisticated celebrations use wine or champagne. Drugs, on the other hand, have been a long time issue in Philippine society.

Even medical drugs are prone to abuse. It’s why most painkillers now come with prescriptions. Sometimes, when the pain becomes unbearable, we’ll do anything to make it stop. We start popping pills, and the relief can feel magical. It’s why some people become so addicted to it; living without the pain creates that association to the pill, which is where the addiction starts (Lee et. al, 2021; Galea, 2023).

Regardless of the substance, the impact addiction has affects families greatly. In a study done in 2024, children of alcoholic parents shared that living with a parent addicted to alcohol left them fearing for their lives and in a state of hopelessness. They also often resort to escapism to survive the trauma of living with such an erratic parent (Manzano et. al, 2024).

How Kristen Bell helped Dax Shepard through it all

In his podcast, The Armchair Expert, Dax Shepard realized the importance of being transparent about his relapse. He had come clean to Kristen about how he started finding other ways to augment his prescription way back when, especially after suffering a severe accident.

However, his staying sober despite the relapse is proof that sobriety is a choice one needs to make. Addiction is a never-ending battle. It lies, waiting for the right time to strike. And sometimes, the best way to beat the addiction is to replace it with something else. According to Kristen Bell, they replaced it with growth instead.

“He’s addicted to evolving,” Kristen Bell explained in an interview on People.com. “He was like, ‘I don’t want to risk this family, and I did, so let’s put new things in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again.'”

So if ever we do have a family member struggling with addiction, remember that their relapse doesn’t mean that their effort isn’t all for not. It’s a stumble, yes, but one we can help them recover from so long as we support them.

References

Galea, M. (2023). Drugs ‘n dads: Exploring the lived experiences of fathers with a substance use disorder (Master’s thesis, University of Malta).

Lee, J. J. N., Cataldo, I., Coppola, A., Corazza, O., & Esposito, G. (2021). Mind the dad–A review on the biopsychosocial influences of drug abuse on father-infant interaction. Emerging Trends in Drugs, Addictions, and Health, 1, 100015.

Manzano, K. H., Daguio, M. M., Flor, D. C., Ramos, M. T. B., & Bautista, P. S. (2024). A Home of Paradoxes: A Phenomenological Inquiry into the Lives of Adult Children Living with an Alcoholic Parent. Philippine Social Science Journal, 7(2), 117-126.