XPost: rec.arts.tv   
   From: atropos@mac.com   
      
   Eliza Dushku has revealed the depths of her addiction problems for the   
   first time.   
      
   The 36-year-old has never hidden her sobriety but has not openly spoken   
   about why she did not drink until now. The BRING IT ON star opened about   
   about her issues to warn a group of young people at the Youth Summit on   
   Opioid Awareness in New Hampshire, New England, on Tuesday.   
      
   Dushku, who came to the event at the request of Mark Wahlberg's brother   
   Jim, revealed to the 8,000 middle and high school students she is both a   
   recovering drug addict and alcoholic.   
      
   Eliza - who first started using drugs at age 14 - said in her speech,   
   recorded by WMUR: "Something a lot of people don't know about me is that   
   I am an alcoholic and I was a drug addict for a lot of years. You hear   
   people say 'I am that' because I am that and I'm always going to be that   
   but the difference between me and an alcoholic or drug addict that still   
   drinks and does drugs is that I am sober."   
      
   The BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER actress frankly said: "I loved the first   
   time I took a drug because I loved how it made me feel, I loved the way   
   it made me not feel and 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, I have a lot of friends   
   that are dead."   
      
   Eliza - who has been sober for eight years - told the students that at   
   one point her problem with drugs got so bad her family banned her from   
   seeing her niece, Sofia, who was a toddler at the time. The actress told   
   the summit that her brother was right in banning her from seeing her   
   niece.   
      
   "I'm a good person, but when I did drugs and I drank, I didn't make good   
   decisions... and all it takes is one bad decision."   
      
   It was her family that motivated her to get sober but she is the reason   
   she stays sober: "I got sober at first for my family because I had   
   gotten to a point where I felt so sick about myself. I was depressed and   
   I didn't like myself but I love my family. I got sober for my family,   
   but today I'm sober for me, and I'm sober for you. Drugs and alcohol are   
   powerful, but we are more powerful."   
      
   Now that she is sober, Eliza has gone back to college at the age of 36   
   and says she can still dance on tables, connect with people, and loves   
   her life drug free.   
      
   The event was sponsored by the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation in New   
   Hampshire and also featured a speech from surprise presenter U.S.   
   Attorney General Jeff Sessions.   
      
      
   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4291016/Eliza-Dushku-reveals   
   -drug-addict-alcoholic.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)