Charlie Sheen has never been shy about chaos, but his new memoir, The Book of Sheen, is blunt even by his standards. He tracks the exact moment cocaine dug its hooks in, how crack sent him into freefall, the car ride that finally snapped him out of it, and what his 2011 HIV diagnosis did to his head and his life. It is a rough read, but he does not dodge the details.
From Platoon to a full-on addiction
Sheen says it started on the set of Oliver Stone's Platoon, the 1986 Best Picture winner that put him on the map. The work was career-changing; the habit that came with it was life-wrecking. Cocaine, he writes, felt sneaky and relentless. He could be doing anything else and then, in a blink, be consumed with getting high. The spiral only got worse in 1992 when he tried crack for the first time. His words for that experience are basically: another galaxy. He calls it the most addictive drug he ever touched.
The fallout is ugly: a 32-hour cocaine nosebleed on movie sets, overdoses at home, and years where the drugs drove both his health and his career straight into a wall. He describes feeling emotionally crippled and stuck in a cycle he could not break. Not until 2017.
The day it clicked: a car, a mirror, and a gut punch
His turning point reads small on paper and massive in practice. In 2017, he had been drinking and could not drive his daughter Sami, so a friend took the wheel while Sheen rode along. Watching his kid in the mirror, he realized the damage was not just collateral to him — it was landing on his family first. The guilt of failing his children, he says, cut deeper than what he was doing to himself.
"There was only one thing that felt worse than betraying myself, and that was failing my children. In that car, on that day, with my best friend and a child I adore, I joined Sam in those mirrors and saw a guy who was desperate to finally come home for real."
He says the next 48 hours were brutal but decisive. On December 11, he took his last drinks and pills. On December 12 — his daughter Cassandra's birthday — he stopped drinking for good. Since then, he says sobriety has stuck and his focus has shifted to family, rebuilding relationships, and earning back trust.
The HIV diagnosis that shocked him — and weirdly, steadied him
Sheen also writes candidly about testing HIV-positive in 2011. Given how open he is about injecting drugs and paying sex workers, you might assume he saw it coming. He did not. Before the diagnosis, he was getting hammered by symptoms — splitting headaches, night sweats, the kind of stuff that made him fear brain cancer, spinal meningitis, or a failing liver. When doctors finally told him what it was, he describes being flattened by shock and sadness — and, at the same time, relieved to finally have a name and a plan.
That relief, he says, came from knowing there was modern medicine and a roadmap to hit the virus hard. He even remembers stepping out for a cheeseburger and a cigarette with a friend right after he got the news — a strange, human reset after a life-changing moment.
These days, he says he thinks about HIV only long enough to take his meds. Between treatment, sobriety, and keeping his life tighter around family, he has learned to move forward while accepting what he cannot change.
The quick timeline
- 1986: Platoon wins Best Picture; Sheen says cocaine becomes an obsession.
- 1992: He tries crack; calls it the most addictive drug he has experienced.
- Years of chaos: a 32-hour coke nosebleed on set; overdoses at home; career and health crater.
- 2011: HIV diagnosis after weeks of severe symptoms; initial shock mixed with relief due to treatment options.
- 2017: A car ride with daughter Sami becomes the wake-up call. Dec 11: last drinks and pills. Dec 12 (daughter Cassandra's birthday): he quits drinking for good.
- Since then: he says nearly eight years sober, focusing on family and rebuilding trust.