Fred Toucher returns to 98.5 The Sports Hub airwaves after stay at detox facility

BOSTON — Fred Toucher returned to the “Toucher & Rich” program on 98.5 The Sports Hub on Friday, after spending most of the week at a detox facility.

Toucher, who sent out a couple of concerning tweets over the weekend, said he checked himself into the facility on Sunday for a 72-hour treatment. With Sunday and the holiday Monday not counting toward those hours, he said he was released from the facility on Thursday morning, allowing him to return to work on Friday.

“What I did was I said, all right here’s what I can do. I can stay home and the likely scenario for this will be that I will read this [tweet] again, I will become embarrassed, and I will drink, and then I will just make things a thousand times worse, and it will just feed on itself until something bad happens, until something really bad happens. So what I decided to do though, was I decided to check myself into a detox on Sunday morning,” Toucher told co-hosts Jon Wallach and Ryan Johnston to begin Friday’s show.

Co-host Rich Shertenlieb, who had been in Tuesday through Thursday, was not in on Friday.

“I was voluntarily locking myself up so I wouldn’t drink anymore, so I knew I wouldn’t drink,” Toucher explained. “That’s how I felt like, I was like, all right, I’ve lost control, I’ve lost control of alcohol, I’ve lost control, I’m not thiking like me, I need to make sure that I’m in a position where I do not have the opportunity to drink,” Toucher said. “Was it fun? It was the worst five days of my entire life.”

Toucher had just recently returned to the show after missing extended time due to the loss of his voice. That issue ended up being resolved with treatment, though Toucher shared that he and doctors had feared the root cause may have been cancer. Toucher also missed an extended period of time in 2020 while undergoing rehabilitation for alcohol addiction.

Toucher said he’s now putting in the continued work necessary to maintain his health.

“The setup I have right now is by far the most gnarly setup I’ve had. I’m talking about like four hours a day of intense therapy for alcohol and intense therapy for anxiety,” he said. 

He added: “Got out yesterday morning and immediately went to an outpatient facility, then went to a therapist. Right after the show today, I’m going back to that outpatient facility. So I’m taking this recovery very, very seriously.”

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or for more resources visit their website. For more mental health resources, click here.