Drew Barrymore Goes Public About Her Sobriety

It’s always inspirational when celebrities have the courage to come forward about their struggles with substance abuse, like actress Drew Barrymore did earlier this week when she revealed on CBS This Morning that she has been sober from alcohol for the past two and half years. 

Known as a child star for her role in E.T. as well as her later appearances in hits like Charlie’s Angels, 50 First Dates, and The Wedding Singer, Barrymore is no stranger to addiction. Along with being the grandaughter of actor John Barrymore, whose illustrious stage career was marred by his alcoholism, she has previously discussed her battles with other forms of substance abuse. 

Her memoir Little Girl Lost, which she wrote when she was only 14 after falling so far into a cocaine addiction at the age of 12 that she was blacklisted in Hollywood for it and sent to a rehabilitation facility for 18 months at age 13. 

“Maybe people think, like, I figured out so many problems when I was young, because it was so hard then,” she commented. But, as she reflected: 

“We don’t fix it, move on, and then it never breaks again. We are on that roller coaster.”

This, though, is the first time that Barrymore has publicly discussed her abstinence from alcohol, which she described as a result of a realization that the substance did not serve her and the result of a “quiet, confident journey” that the actress has been on. 

But, now that she feels secure in her new lifestyle choice and her decision to make the necessary changes, she is ready to add to the conversations surrounding substance abuse and mental health. She was inspired to turn her attention to the subject by a conversation she had with the rapper Machine Gun Kelly on her own talk show, the Drew Barrymore Show.

The two discussed the pressure to be perfect and to project positivity for their fans and followers even when they are suffering internally after Kelly opened up about his own mental health struggles. 

““I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a revolt against the perfection right now that we are all forced to see and feel through social media,” Barrymore reflected. 

“I think it is time for us, especially coming out of what we’ve come out of. How can we show our vulnerability? How can we talk about if something is going on? What is the path to getting better? And then talking about that journey and being more communicative…Can we get to conversations that are funny and full of insight, but take back the layers so we can get to the humanity of what we’re all going through and help each other through it?”

Hopefully, Barrymore’s words and openness reflect a genuinely shifting landscape when it comes to the ways we think about vulnerability, and about prioritizing sincere human connection and sometimes painful growth over quick fixes and fake smiles. 

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