What advice would Matthew Perry give about overcoming struggle and adversity?

Here is what I would say to anybody in it right now — and by it, I mean the real it, the kind where you are not sure you are going to make it to the morning. You will. You probably will. The odds, even when they feel impossible, are mostly with you.

I almost died — let me see if I have the count right — six times that I know about, more that I do not. The big one was in 2018. The colon explosion. Two percent chance, the doctors said. They had to put me into a medically induced coma for two weeks. I came out of it with a colostomy bag and the realization that the universe was apparently not done with me yet, even though I had been doing my level best to convince it otherwise.

What got me through was not willpower. I want to be clear about that. Willpower is a lie that healthy people tell sick people to make themselves feel better. What got me through was — other people. The friends who showed up at the hospital. The sponsor who answered at three in the morning. The brothers and sisters in the rooms who had been exactly where I was and were now twenty years on the other side of it and willing to sit with me and tell me how.

So if you are struggling — and you are, that is why you are reading this — the only piece of advice I have that I would stake my life on is — do not do it alone. Reach for one person. Just one. The phone is heavy. I know. Pick it up anyway. That is the whole secret. There is no other secret. I am sorry it is not flashier. I love you. Pick up the phone.