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ContactAndre Agassi’s Story of Amphetamines and Redemption [BIOGRAPHY]
December 22nd, 2009 by Mike
Andre Agassi. He’s one of the greatest sportsman of all time. His name, when you hear it spoken, has an echo to it, as if hearing a holy word or the name of a god. There is profound greatness in that echo. He is beyond celebrity. He is a legend, a cherished institution, admired and beloved the world over. The impact of his name and the ripples left in the world by his accomplishments will last for decades to come.
And for a brief period in his stellar life, he too used amphetamines. Crystal meth, specifically. Granted, a methamphetamine user is not exactly the same as an Adderall user, but they’re closely related…first-cousins if not siblings, especially when higher doses of Adderall are involved (via liberal prescription or abuse).
Now retired,  Andre Agassi has been talking a lot recently about the behind-the-scenes of his life and career while promoting his new autobiography. The most startling revelation to come out of this book (as far as the news media is  concerned) is that he used amphetamines while playing tennis professionally in 1997.
News media see amphetamine use and they immediately think “Oh wow! Drug use! He is a druggie! Tell us the details of how you tried to destroy yourself!”. A drug is a drug to them. They treat his amphetamine use the same as if he had said he used Heroin or Cocaine or pot (or all of the above). Because they don’t understand it.
But you, dear reader and former Adderall taker…you know that amphetamines are different from other drugs. They have a different draw. A different kind of person that uses them. People don’t use amphetamines to destroy themselves; they use them in a misguided attempt to save themselves.
And that is exactly what I found when I investigated Andre Agassi’s drug use…exactly the kind of story that most readers of this site can identify with.
Watch Andre Agassi’s interview with BBC’s Jonathan Ross, where he talks about the motivations behind his amphetamine use
Key Quotes:
Growing up I hated tennis. It wasn’t a love-hate relationship. It was a hate-love relationship. I didn’t really start to love tennis until I grew up and really took ownership of it when I was about 27 years old.
Guess what happened when he was 27 years old? Why do you think he could single out that year specifically as when he grew up and started loving tennis? See “1997” in the timeline below. 🙂
I was depressed and I didn’t even realize it. I found myself really disconnected with what I did…the career that I had…I was in a marriage I didn’t want to be in.
What [amphetamines] offered me was a chemically-induced way to care about something again.
Sound familiar?
A summarized timeline of Andre Agassi’s life and career. Read the whole thing to get the full affect.
Note: Andre was born in 1970, so the “How old was he in that year?” math is mercifully straightforward.
1977 to 1983 – (Ages 7-13). Andre’s father forces him to play tennis every day. “There was a rule in my house: When you wake up, first you play tennis, then you brush your teeth. In that order.”
1983 – (Age 13) Sent by his father to a tennis academy. He hates it. Refers to it as a prison. Says that the only way out was to succeed at the game. So he succeeds.
1986 – Starts playing tennis professionally at age 16.
Early 1992 – Wins at Wimbledon, defeating two previous champions in the process
Early 1993 – Wrist injury takes him out first part of the year, loses in first round at U.S Open, gets wrist surgery.
Early 1994 – Recovers from wrist surgery, begins new training regime with new coach
Late 1994 – Becomes first man to win the U.S Open starting from the bottom of the pack. Most U.S. Open winners get to skip qualifying rounds because they’re already favored or “seeded”. Because of Andre’s bad year in 1993, he was not favored and thus had to come in at the bottom and fight his way up. And he did. All the way to the top. Nobody else would accomplish such a feat until ten years later. Still hates tennis.
1995 – Shaves head, has highest win-to-loss ratio of his career (73 wins, only 9 losses), achieves #1 world ranking, helps United States win the Davis Cup.
1996 – Tournament success starts to slide. Fails to reach any Grand Slam final. Intentionally throws a U.S because he doesn’t want to face one of his enemies in the final. Wins Gold metal for men’s singles.
Early-Mid 1997 – Marries actress Brooke Shields. Wrist injury surfaces, loses all passion for tennis, starts using amphetamines as “a chemically-induced way to care about something”. Only plays a third of his usual matches. The low point of his career. World ranking slips to #141.
Late 1997 – Quits crystal meth. Finally falls in love with Tennis. Takes ownership of his talent and his career. He will forever refer to this year (when he was 27-years-old) as his defining year; when he changed the most as a person (for the better).
1998 – Divorces Brooke Shields. Recommits to tennis with newfound love and clarity. Begins rigorous conditioning program. Wins so many matches and tournaments that his ranking rises from #122 to #6 in the world, setting a record for highest jump into the top 10 in a single year. That record still stands.
1999 – Wins French Open. Meets the love of his life, Steffi Graf, at the winners’ ball (she won the womens’ French Open as he won the mens’). They are still married today. Becomes only one of six players in history to have won all four Grand Slam singles titles during his career, and the first to achieve that goal on three different surfaces (clay, grass, hard courts). Becomes first male payer ever to win the Career Golden Slam (all four Grand Slam tournaments plus Olympic gold medal). Makes it to the final at Wimbledon. Wins U.S. Open. Ends the year as #1 in the world. Again.
2000-2005 – Lots more wins and high world-rankings. Read the details on Wikipedia if you want.
2006 – Plays final match of his career. Gives powerful speech as he chokes back tears. Receives eight minute standing ovation.
Now that is an amphetamines-to-redemption story if I’ve ever heard one.
As somebody who has just quit Adderall, you are effectively at that 1997 (age 27) point on Andre Agassi’s timeline, the year he would forever remember as the year when it all changed for the better. That year is where you are now.
I will leave you with this quote from his Wikipedia article. What did Andre Agassi do in 1998, right after he had quit amphetamines?
In 1998, Agassi began a rigorous conditioning program and worked his way back
So get to it, dear reader. Work your way back. And write the rest of your timeline with passion and furious self-improvement.
Good article and I agree with your point.
However, I do want to point out that Adderall is not a methamphetamine as you’ve stated here. Methamphetamine and amphetamine are not the same. Similar yes. Same family yes. But methamphetamine is significantly more potent and different enough that many modern drug tests test for “amphetamine” and “methamphetamine” separately. Amphetamine=methylated phenylethylamine, methamphetamine=double methylated phenylethylamine. The double methyl causes methamphetamines to penetrate the brain in a way that amphetamines can’t without causing an overdose. A person on methamphetamines is generally a whole different animal from someone on amphetamines. Take it from someone who grew up in one of the “meth capitals of the country” and has had encounters from far too many tweakers, including the one who jumped me outside of my job and robbed me a few months ago, then tried to use crystal meth induced psychosis in court as a defense.
Hi Lilah!
Yikes. That’s a crazy story. How did the police catch the guy? Glad the did. Hope you got some victim restitution or something.
Thanks for the info! I corrected that line in the article that referred them both as methamphetamines. My mistake. I probably should clarify the difference more. May do that in a future edit.
I’ve never run into one of those crazy meth tweakers before. I come from a pretty white-collar area, so the people I’ve seen take meth were otherwise-intelligent suburban kids from good homes who were probably more conservative (if such a thing is possible) and short-term about their meth usage than some of those “will rob you in a meth-induced psychosis” redneck types. So I’ve only seen the “lighter” side of meth that’s much closer to Adderall than the side that’s way, way different.
And given your story, I’m kind of grateful for that. lol.
BTW: Merry Christmas!