Drew Barrymore Beat The Odds And Is Finally Sober After Years Of Struggle

Mar 07, 2022 by apost team

Drew Barrymore is perhaps most well-known for being an actress and talk show host of her own television show. She also has work credit as a director, producer and businesswoman, proving that there’s nothing that she can’t tackle. While Barrymore has time and again conquered her professional career, she has also made some pretty remarkable changes in her personal life as the years have gone by.

The actress first rose to fame during her childhood as she starred in a plethora of films, one of her most popular being “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” She went on to find success in adulthood as well, landing leading roles in many movies throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including a long string of films starring alongside fellow actor Adam Sandler. Some of her more notable films include “50 First Dates,” “Never Been Kissed” and “Charlie’s Angels.” Barrymore has also received a handful of awards and award nominations over the course of her career.

Barrymore is known for having a bright, bubbly personality and always being a beacon of hope and light. However, she has faced some personal challenges over the years and has been extremely open and candid about them. By sharing her story on her talk show called “The Drew Barrymore Show,” as well as revealing more in tell-all interviews, Barrymore has revealed bits and pieces about her life. However, she kept the majority of her journey to sobriety pretty private — until recently. In December 2021, she reflected on what it’s like being more than two years sober.

Drew Barrymore has seen her share of hardship. The star's troubles and challenges started early in life in her teens. She was born into a family full of actors and people related to show business. Her father, John Barrymore, was a U.S. actor himself as well as a member of the Barrymore family of actors and actresses. Growing up in Hollywood, Drew Barrymore started attending Hollywood parties at the young age of nine as her mother Jaid would take her along.

Being confronted with the decadence and substance abuse prevalent in certain circles of Hollywood meant that young Barrymore ended up a young drug addict. Her mother finally placed her in rehab at the age of 13, and young Drew emerged sober again at age 14 after several months spent in a special facility. It would mark the start of several phases of addiction and sobriety in the star's life. Within a year, young Drew tried to take her own life and was re-committed to mental health care. When she was finally released at 15 years old, she moved to stay with U.S. singer and songwriter David Crosby and his wife. Barrymore describes this period of her life in detail in her autobiography "Little Girl Lost."

Finally, after a three months stay with the Crosbys, Barrymore went to court and was granted emancipation, moving out into her own apartment at just 15 years old. 

However, while she successfully weathered this period of time in her young life, this would not be the last time she had trouble with substance abuse. Throughout her acting career as an adult, Barrymore experienced periods of heavy drinking, quiet phases in between, and then again a heavy reliance on alcohol.

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In December 2021, Barrymore opened up about her personal journey to being sober and what it’s been like for the star to celebrate more than two years of sobriety. She made the decision after realizing that drinking no longer served a purpose in her life, according to CBS News.

Barrymore said:

“When you are stuck in a pattern or if you are going through things and you not only admit them out loud, but you force yourself to say, ‘I’m willing to make big changes.,’ I think we’re very weak when we don’t make those changes.”

She added, “That inner dialogue proves to us, ‘You’re not capable of change. You are weak. You’re staying stuck.’ And when you break that cycle, the empowerment that comes out of it, that says, ‘I’m not weak. I’m actually strong. I’ve proven to myself that I am capable of change.’ And I believe people are capable of big changes.”

While Barrymore has been extremely open about her personal life in a handful of interviews, as well as on her popular talk show “The Drew Barrymore Show,” she decided to keep this journey a bit more private. This gave Barrymore the chance to really focus on finding peace on her own.

“I just want to figure this out and go about this with no profession, no public anything,” she said. “Let me do this quietly and privately. And now it’s been long enough where I’m in a lifestyle that I know is really working on a high road for my little journey, and there’s so much peace finally being had where there were demons."

According to CBS News, Barrymore spoke more about her sobriety journey on an episode of “The Drew Barrymore Show” alongside guest rapper Machine Gun Kelly. She explained that she suffered from depression following her divorce and ended up going to a facility in Utah to receive help for her mental health struggles.

Barrymore said:

“And I just wanted to go talk to some people on how to pull myself out of a hole that I got stuck in, and I couldn’t pull myself out, and I just couldn’t see the light. And I had these two kids that I had to fight for and be the best person, and they always inspired me to be my best. And I needed help so I started reaching out to different people, and eventually, I really made some big sweeping changes in my life and I got on a whole new track, not back on track, but a brand new one that I helped build.”

Speaking with CBS Mornings, Barrymore also talked about social media and societal pressures that people deal with. “We’re in an impasse and a crux of a moment where I think talking about how we figure ourselves out, how we fix ourselves, takes a journey, solutions,” she said.

Although she had previously kept much of her sobriety journey private, Barrymore has found a sense of comfort in sharing her story, especially since she has proven to be a safe place for others to turn to as well. She said, “It’s almost like I breathe a sigh of relief for telling my truth and I would like to move forward in a more honest fashion that is more conducive to my mental peace."

What do you think about Drew Barrymore’s honesty about her sobriety journey? Let us know, and feel free to send this to your loved ones, too.