Isn’t Eliza Dushku just amazing?
She was easily one of the hottest stars in the early 2000s — of all time, probably — and she’s always just seemed so lovable.
Like, she played Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She pretty much deserves sainthood for that alone.
But while Eliza has starred in so many incredible and/or delightful films and television shows, and while she’s always been just super, super beautiful, she has a dark side.
A dark side that no one really knows anything about it.
Earlier this week, Eliza spoke at the New Hampshire Youth Summit on Opioid Awareness.
“Why would she do that?” you may be wondering. “Is she related to someone with addiction problems? Are the kids at the summit big Bring It On fans?”
But, as it turns out, Eliza is the person who struggles with addiction problems.
And she’s been hiding those problems from the public for nearly her entire life.
In her speech, she said that “Something a lot of people don’t know about me is that I’m an alcoholic and I was a drug addict for a lot of years.”
“I’m always going to be that, but the difference between me and an alcoholic or a drug addict that still drinks and does drugs is that I’m sober. I don’t drink and I don’t do drugs anymore.”
These days, she’s got over eight years of sobriety under her belt, but she revealed that the first time she did drugs was when she was only 14 — that’s when she started smoking marijuana.
“I loved the first time I took a drug because I loved the way it made me feel. I loved the way it made me not feel — I didn’t have to feel.”
“It was fun — and I loved it — until it wasn’t. Drugs didn’t love me. They didn’t love my family. They definitely didn’t love my friends that died.”
She doesn’t describe exactly which drugs she’s taken, but if she had friends that died and if she’s speaking at a summit on opioid awareness … it’s probably safe to say that she got in deep with her addiction.
As for what made her decide to get sober, she simply said “I was depressed. I didn’t like myself, but I love my family.”
“I remember my brother telling me he didn’t want me to be around my niece because he didn’t trust me,” she elaborated.
“I’m a really good auntie today. But you know what? He was right. I’m a good person, but when I did drugs and drank, I didn’t make good decisions.”
“All it takes is one bad decision,” she pointed out. “You don’t have to live like that.”
Eliza concluded her moving speech by telling her audience that “If you’re in trouble, all you have to do is say, ‘I need help.”
“I’m a real badass and tough girl. It was the hardest thing in the world for me to ask for help, and it was the most powerful thing I’ve ever done.”
What an amazing story from an amazing person.
Congrats on the sobriety, Eliza, and congrats for being able to speak up and potentially help so many people.
God, she’s just the best, isn’t she?
