Kelly Osbourne Revealed That Vicodin Set Off Her Struggle With Addiction at 13 Years Old
Kelly Osbourne, 36, revealed how her struggle with addiction started at 13 years old.
She was prescribed painkillers after having a tonsillitis surgery.
“They gave me Vicodin and that was all I needed,” she recalled.
Kelly Osbourne has always been open about her struggle with addiction—even when she relapsed in April after nearly four years of sobriety. And in a new interview on Red Table Talk, the actress shared how her relationship with substance misuse began at only 13 years old.
Osbourne was prescribed Vicodin (hydrocodone/acetaminophen) after surgery as a teen. “I kept getting sick and I had a really bad case of tonsillitis, they ended up having to give me some crazy surgery, and then after that, they gave me Vicodin,” she told co-hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and Willow Smith. “And that was all I needed.”
She liked it because the painkiller temporarily silenced her anxiety and self-doubt. “I went from having every voice in my head being like, ‘You’re fat, you’re ugly, you’re not good enough, no one likes you, you don’t deserve this, people only like you because of who your parents are.’ And then all of a sudden, every single voice was silenced and it felt like life gave me a hug,” she explained.
After that, she continued to search for substances that would give her the same feeling. “I was like, ‘Why am I so confident in all of this?’ And then very quickly I went from Vicodin to Percocet, from Percocet to heroin eventually, because it was cheaper,” she said.
The now 36-year-old admitted that, into her adulthood, she did “nothing” sober. “I never went to work sober, I never went to dinner sober,” she said.
She also feels that her addiction robbed her of some life experiences. “I feel very behind, as a woman,” she said. “I would’ve loved to be married and have children by now ... but that wasn’t what was in the cards for me, and I would’ve been no kind of mother at all. Because I was like that crazy addict that would say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll just stop doing drugs when I get pregnant.’ I’m like, that’s insane that I would ever even think that! That’s not normal.”
When she relapsed a little over a month ago, the podcast host got vulnerable with her fans. “This is a little hard for me to talk about, but I’ve always promised you that I will always be honest with you about where I’m at and what’s going on in my road to recovery,” she said on her Instagram Story, per People. “I relapsed. Not proud of it. But I am back on track.”
She continued: “I just wanted to tell you guys the truth, ‘cause I never, ever want to lie to you. Thank you so much for your support and your love, and you’ll be hearing from me soon.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s free 24/7 hotline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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