In the News: Kirstie Alley Talks About Cocaine Addiction

Like most people, Kirstie Alley has stated that she was almost instantly hooked on cocaine after the first time she tried it. She used it around the time of her separation from her first husband, Bob Alley.  Kirstie Alley has never made her past cocaine addiction a secret, but in an interview with Howard Stern on Wednesday, the actress exposed what led her to using the destructive drug in the first place. “I didn’t do drugs until I was 25,” Alley said. “I got a divorce from my husband, and I started hanging out with this guy I was sort of madly in love with. He had already done all of his drugs, but he had a lot of druggie friends.”

“I had heard that cocaine made you peppy and happy and I was sort of depressed because I had gotten a divorce and wrecked everybody’s lives. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna try this,'” she recalled. “I took one snort of cocaine, and I go, ‘Oh my God! I’m gonna do this every day for the rest of my life!'” Alley admitted that she went from experimenting with the drug to a very rapid addiction. I can remember when my drug use went from having fun to a problem, just like Alley’s did. She stated she used so much cocaine and it was crazy and that she thought she was going to overdose almost every time. Yet, she still continued to use cocaine even though she feared it would kill her.

Kirstie Alley has credited her sobriety to Narconon, the Scientology rehab program. She says that this program helped her to overcome her cocaine addiction of nearly 3 years. Narconon International is a substance abuse treatment program developed by L. Ron Hubbard. He has stated that drugs and their metabolites are stored in the body’s fat tissues and this causes the addict’s cravings. Apparently, he states it can be flushed out through a regimen comprising elements such as exercise, sauna and intake of high doses of vitamins. This hypothesis is challenged by experimental evidence, and is not acknowledged by mainstream medicine or education. Narconon claims an 80% success rate but this has been said to be untrue by drug experts.

In my opinion, I believe anyone can get sober as long as they’re willing and ready to do whatever it takes. It seems Kirstie Alley reached a point in her life where it was either go on and die or get help. I reached that same point before I decided to get sober and looking back on it now I am so grateful that I was able to go through all of it. I personally couldn’t have stayed sober without going to 12-step meetings and working a program. However Kirstie Alley was able to get sober, she seems to have really turned her life around. She became a huge actress shortly after seeking help for her addiction and made a name for herself in the acting industry. I find it important that she is speaking out about her addiction and sharing how she changed her life; hopefully it can be an inspiration for other people who are struggling to get help with their addiction, too. If you or a loved one are struggling with substance abuse or addiction, please call toll free 1-800-951-6135.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/kirstie-alley-_n_4399845.html

http://www.people.com/people/kirstie_alley/biography/0,,20475436,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narconon