In Variety‘s Recovery Issue, prominent entertainment figures offer insights on navigating a sober life in Hollywood. For more, click here.

Andy Lassner has been candid on Twitter and other social media platforms about how low he sank in the 1990s as his addiction to heroin, alcohol and other drugs spiraled out of control.

“I’m someone who hit bottom and then furnished it,” says “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” exec producer during a lengthy interview. “I hung out there awhile.”

In early 1999, as he started his second stint in rehab inside of three months, Lassner took an accounting of his life and decided that death wasn’t a bad option. He believed he’d lost everything — his first marriage, his relationship with his oldest child, his job as a creative executive at King World Prods. He also believed he would never be able to control his urge to drink and do drugs.