“I was the wildly controlled drug addict and alcoholic,” Jamie began, before revealing she didn’t take drugs before 5pm, and didn’t even take painkillers in the morning.
Referring to her opiate use as a “warm-bath feeling” that she “chased” for a long time, Jamie said no one knew about her addiction, except for the people she got the pills from.
She told the publication she first started taking the medication after having a routine surgery to remove puffiness from underneath her eyes, which made look as though she hadn’t slept.
“I went and had routine plastic surgery to remove the puffiness. They gave me Vicodin as a painkiller for something that wasn’t really painful,” she confessed.
Jamie went on to say that after reading an article about Tom Chiarella’s addiction to painkillers, she realised for the first time she wasn’t the only one.
The Halloween star said it was that article that inspired her to seek out treatment and attend her first recovery meeting, which was 20 years ago, and she has been sober ever since.
While the 60-year-old admitted she was initially nervous somebody would recognise her at meetings and sell her story to the tabloids, she admitted her experience was nothing like that.
Looking back, Jamie, who also admitted to drinking “too much in a very controlled way”, said to call oneself an alcoholic or drug addict is kind of like wearing “a badge of honour”.
“It is a way of acknowledging something that is a profound statement and can be, for many people, life-changing,” she said.
