Jamie Lee Curtis reveals painkiller addiction

Jamie Lee Curtis has revealed that she became addicted to painkillers. Photo / Supplied

Jamie Lee Curtis has spoken about her past addiction to painkillers.

The 50-year-old actress – who became addicted to painkillers after a cosmetic operation on her eyes when she was 35 – has opened up about her struggle with prescription medication, and now believes it was rooted in problems she suffered when she was younger.

She wrote in a blog for The Huffington Post: "I found painkillers after a routine cosmetic surgical procedure and I became addicted, the morphine becomes the warm bath from which to escape painful reality. I was a lucky one. I was able to see that the pain had started long ago and far away and that the finding of the narcotic was merely a matter of time. The pain needed numbing.

"My recovery from drug addiction is the single greatest accomplishment of my life... but it takes work - hard, painful work - but the help is there, in every town and career, drug/drink freed members of society, from every single walk and talk of life to help and guide."

Jamie also referred to late pop legend Michael Jackson – who died of a suspected cardiac arrest last month, amid widespread reports he was battling a serious addiction to prescription drugs – in the posting.
She suggests claims he turned to painkillers after being badly burned while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984 could be wide of the mark.

Jamie believes Michael's problems were instead rooted in his upbringing, which the singer claimed was often violent.

She wrote: "The explanation is that this moment was the drug start point that eventually took over his life. I don't believe it. The pain he suffered was from his birth, from his being and becoming the commodity that then made him the omnipotent King of the Pop-Goes-The-Weasel-Jacko-In-The-Neverland-Box that destroyed him. Few children, put into the intense focus of their precious youth being marketed for other's pleasure, come out unscathed and with any sense of mental balance.

"Mr. Jackson was an addict. It is coming out. Everywhere. He wanted relief and would get it in any name, place or method he could. It was and is a conspiracy of silence and I'm sure there were attempts to intervene and I'm sure his family and friends tried... but the addict gets what the addict wants, relief from the pain of their life."

- BANG! SHOWBIZ