Jamie Lee Curtis shudders to assume what would have occurred had her opioid dependancy raged throughout right this moment’s fentanyl disaster.
The Oscar-winning actress, 64, has been sober for greater than 23 years, a milestone she does not take calmly. In a brand new interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday, she stated she’d be “useless” had the potent artificial opioid drug been as obtainable again then as it’s right this moment.
“I used to be an opiate addict, and I appreciated a superb opiate buzz,” Curtis stated. “And if fentanyl was … as simply obtainable as it’s right this moment on the road, I would be useless.”
The Halloween star, who was additionally hooked on alcohol and used cocaine, known as herself “extremely fortunate” to not have utterly blown up her life as an addict.
“My worst day was virtually invisible to anybody else,” she stated of her secret battle. “I did not make horrible selections excessive or underneath the affect that then for the remainder of my life, I remorse. There are ladies in jail whose lives have been shattered by medicine and alcohol. Not as a result of they have been violent felons. Not as a result of they have been horrible individuals however as a result of they have been addicts. I’m extremely fortunate that wasn’t my path.”
Curtis talked about generational dependancy, as her father, actor Tony Curtis, and different relations additionally struggled with dependancy.
“I’ve seen it in my family,” stated Curtis, who went on to speak about dropping her half-brother, Nicholas Curtis, to a heroin overdose when he was 21. “He was clear and sober, and he went out and used one time and died from an overdose. And he’s considered one of tens of millions and tens of millions of individuals whose lives have been extinguished due to dependancy.”
Curtis, who reached a profession milestone earlier this yr when she received her first Oscar (for Greatest Supporting Actress in The whole lot In all places All at As soon as), has been very candid about her dependancy via the years.
Her opioid use started after she was prescribed painkillers following minor cosmetic surgery in 1989 on her eyes. Curtis, who’s married to Christopher Visitor, hid her wrestle for10 yr earlier than getting sober in 1999.
“I had a 10-year run, stealing, conniving. Nobody knew. Nobody,” she informed Individuals of her Vicodin dependancy. Then a good friend noticed her casually swallow a handful of drugs with wine whereas cooking dinner. “The jig was up,” she informed Selection. Curtis, a mom of two, did not really cease till she was caught stealing drugs from her sister, who was recovering from an damage. Across the identical time, she occurred upon an article in Esquire titled “Vicodin, My Vicodin” about author Tom Chiarella’s painkiller dependancy and realized, for the primary time, that she wasn’t alone. She sought assist and has been sober since.
“Getting sober stays my single best accomplishment … larger than my husband, larger than each of my kids and greater than any work, success, failure. Something,” she informed Individuals.
