Brad Pitt’s Addiction Battle Under Scrutiny: Experts Warn “Alcoholics Are a Horrible Source of Information”

Brad Pitt’s recent comments about drinking again after seven years of sobriety have started a wider conversation about what recovery can look like and whether returning to alcohol is always a sign of relapse.

Pitt, 62, told Esquire that he had started drinking again after spending years sober and attending Alcoholics Anonymous for about 18 months. He said he now drinks in what he considers a controlled way, explaining that he can have a few glasses of wine but cannot drink heavily. “I can have a few [glasses of wine]. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it,” Pitt said.

His comments quickly drew criticism from some people in recovery communities. On Reddit’s r/stopdrinking, several users questioned whether someone with a history of alcohol problems can successfully return to moderate drinking.

However, addiction experts who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter offered a more complicated view. They stressed that recovery does not look exactly the same for everyone and that Pitt’s personal history is not detailed enough to determine whether his current approach will work.

Joe Schrank, a clinical social worker and addiction policy advocate who has worked in the field for more than two decades, said Pitt’s claims should be treated carefully. He pointed out that people struggling with alcohol can sometimes misjudge their own situation “Typically speaking, alcoholics are just a horrible source of information about themselves,” Schrank told The Hollywood Reporter.

At the same time, Schrank argued that complete lifelong abstinence is not necessarily the only possible recovery path for every person. “Not everybody needs to spend the rest of their life totally abstinent,” he said, while adding that some people, including himself, do benefit from staying completely sober. Schrank also said recovery can change over time. Someone can make significant progress, experience setbacks and still continue moving toward a healthier life.

“Recovery is not going to go in a straight line,” he explained. Stanford University psychiatry professor and addiction researcher Keith Humphreys also urged caution before judging Pitt’s situation. He said some people who previously had drinking problems are eventually able to drink moderately, although there are no guarantees.

According to Humphreys, factors that may improve the chances of successfully managing moderate drinking include having a lower level of alcohol dependence, strong social support and fewer serious psychiatric problems. He stressed that it is impossible to know from Pitt’s public comments exactly where he falls within those categories.

“There’s clearly some risk here, but it may be manageable depending on how he did on those other dimensions,” Humphreys said.

The experts also pointed out that Pitt’s situation should not automatically be treated as either a complete recovery or a total failure. Schrank compared recovery to other long-term health struggles, where setbacks can happen without erasing years of progress.

There is also a broader health concern surrounding alcohol. The World Health Organization has said that no level of alcohol consumption is completely risk-free, meaning moderation does not eliminate the potential health effects.

For now, Pitt’s comments have raised more questions than answers. His experience is personal, and addiction experts say there is no universal recovery formula that applies to everyone.

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