Buzz Bissinger opens up about breakdown

Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger has opened up about the true extent of his pre-rehab breakdown last year (13), admitting he was starting to self-harm and take pills before seeking professional help. In a candid GQ article published last March (13), the writer declared he had blown $600,000 (£375,000) due to a compulsive shopping habit, and also confessed he was struggling with sex addiction.
Now he has explained his obsession with buying designer goods was just the “tip of the iceberg”, claiming he was hurting himself physically and had begun taking prescription pills before checking into a clinic.
He tells Vanity Fair magazine, “There was a hell of a lot more going on in my life than shopping addiction. That was probably the tip of the iceberg… I went into rehab for a variety of compulsive and dangerous behaviours, shopping addiction the least of them.
“I was doing physical harm to myself and beginning to take pharmaceuticals. I did tremendous damage to my marriage and caused my wife unforgivable pain. I also hurt others. I no longer cared about anything. I had a breakdown on pretty much every front. It had been in the making for years. The GQ story really did create an enormous misperception, one that was my fault. But I do not regret it. It was my way of bottoming out and knowing that I needed in-treatment help. I could no longer continue the way I was living.”
Bissinger, who wrote the Friday Night Lights novel which spawned a TV series and movie, is now adamant everyone should go into therapy to keep their lives on track.
He adds, “I think everybody should go to rehab. It’s called rehab, but it’s 60 days of stepping out of your life and thinking very hard and working, because you’re seeing therapists basically 12 hours a day.”