{"id":238268,"date":"2026-05-04T09:10:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/rivals-star-danny-dyer-compares-rehab-to-prison\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T09:10:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:10:26","slug":"rivals-star-danny-dyer-compares-rehab-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/rivals-star-danny-dyer-compares-rehab-to-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivals star Danny Dyer compares rehab to prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2026-05-04\" datetime=\"1777885826\" pubdate=\"\">4 May 2026<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/danny-dyer\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,danny-dyer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Danny Dyer<\/a> believes his stint in rehab saved his life because he was popping pills &#8220;like Smarties&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">Danny Dyer has opened up about his stint in rehab<\/p>\n<p>The Rivals actor, 48, checked into a clinic in South Africa a decade ago as he was battling an addiction to cocaine and diazepam and he is convinced the decision to get clean saved him from total destruction but it felt a lot like &#8220;prison&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He told the Guardian newspaper: &#8220;I\u00a0got to a point when I said: &#8216;I\u2019m going to die, I\u2019m destroying everybody around me&#8217; &#8230; I had to get out of the country. The fame and the ego were raging, so I needed to go somewhere where no one knew the f*** who I was. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You\u2019re broken down again. You\u2019re a number in there. No one gives a s*** about your job or your ego. You\u2019re scrubbing toilets, you work in the kitchen. It\u2019s a bit like prison.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Danny added of kicking his diazepam habit: &#8220;It\u2019s worse than heroin. They had to wean me off. It stops anxiety, but we need anxiety and fear and sadness.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nDanny revealed one of the techniques he learned in rehab is still useful today and he believes it should be taught to children at school.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe added: &#8220;We had to go outside and pick up a leaf, and study all the veins in it. I thought, what the fuck are we doing here? It was actually training your brain to calm that fear. <\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;You\u2019re concentrating in the moment rather than thinking of all the s*** that has happened in the past or could happen. It\u2019s about being able to sit with your own thoughts and feelings, and that\u2019s something I\u2019m very comfortable with now.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8221; I think they should teach kids this at school.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nDanny explained he learned to meditate and he now uses the practice to help calm his anxiety, but he doesn&#8217;t believe he will ever be &#8220;cured&#8221;, adding: &#8220;[You don&#8217;t] skip out of the place going: &#8216;I\u2019m cured&#8217;, and everyone\u2019s happy with you. <\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;Then you have to address the people you\u2019ve hurt and the pain you\u2019ve caused. This is still something me and my missus work through.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/rivals-star-danny-dyer-compares-rehab-prison-1441691.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>4 May 2026 Danny Dyer believes his stint in rehab saved his life because he was popping pills &#8220;like Smarties&#8221;. Danny Dyer has opened up about his stint in rehab The Rivals actor, 48, checked into a clinic in South Africa a decade ago as he was battling an addiction to cocaine and diazepam and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":238269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9742],"class_list":{"0":"post-238268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-danny-dyer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}