Topics: Drugs, Drew Barrymore, Celebrity, Film and TV, Mental Health
Drew Barrymore has reflected on her 'unorthodox' childhood while opening up about a particular challenge she's now facing as a parent.
Drew Barrymore was flung into the spotlight at the age of just seven-years-old after starring in 1982 blockbuster ET.
She was later exposed to a world of partying by her mom and introduced to drugs at the age of just nine.
Now, a mom herself, Barrymore has taken to social media in a 'vulnerable' post to discuss her childhood and what she wants to learn from it as a parent now herself.
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Barrymore took to Instagram yesterday in a post captioned: "Phone Home."
In a statement, she explained she was writing 'in a very vulnerable way' to open up about some of the challenges she's recently been faced with as a parent.
She continued: "I wished many times when I was a kid that someone would tell me no. I wanted so badly to rebel all the time, and it was because I had no guardrails.
"I had too much access and excess, and eventually, 'no' actually became a challenge. I would not accept it because I had so much autonomy at a young age that I simply couldn't accept authority of any kind, and I ended up in an institution for two years."
Indeed, Barrymore has previously opened up about going to hospital for 18 months at the age of 13 for alcohol and drug addictions.
In an interview with The Guardian, she explained her mom 'locked [her] up in an institution'.
She continued: "Boo hoo! But it did give an amazing discipline. It was like serious recruitment training and boot camp, and it was horrible and dark and very long-lived, a year and a half, but I needed it. I needed that whole insane discipline.
"My life was not normal. I was not a kid in school with normal circumstances. There was something very abnormal, and I needed some severe shift."
In her post to Instagram, the TV host echoed the sentiment, calling her institutionalization 'a blessing' and 'a hard-core style of a reset', which made her 'appreciate everything'.
"And since there isn't a time machine to go back and redo anything, I will keep loving my journey," she added.
However, when it comes to Barrymore now being a parent herself to two daughters aged 10 to 12, her own 'unorthodox' upbringing has made her think about her own parenting more deeply.
She questions: "I wonder if my life's experience was a butterfly net to capture the understanding of what young girls need. Is it my karma? I know now that I have never wanted to be more protective of kids in general."
Reflecting on when she chased 'an artistic moment in Playboy in [her] early 20s' and how she didn't think of how something in a paper could then end up being on the internet, Barrymore is calling for kids to not be 'exposed' to 'too much, too soon' and hopes for tighter 'guardrails against tech'.
The mom is calling for parents to come together and work with schools, psychologists and tech companies to design a phone which 'has many of the amazing aspects of artistic and inspiring innovations without the pitfalls of social media'. Basically, a phone in which you can 'talk, text, track; music, maps, memories (photos)' but not much else - kind of like the new Barbie phone which HMD has just released.
Despite acknowledging this move will prove unpopular with many kids of today, Barrymore resolved: "I am going to become the parent I needed. The adult I needed. And I want to have the voices in my head saying, 'I'm trying... I'm trying.' Because that's all we can do."
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can call American Addiction Centers on (313) 209-9137 24/7, or contact them through their website.
