Lena Dunham has been going through more than we thought!
First her longtime relationship with Jack Antonoff ended, then her newsletter. And it turns out something else ended for her.
The Girls creator spoke openly on Dax Shepard‘s great new convo podcast, Armchair Expert, revealing she’s “been sober for six months.”
Related: Kristen Bell Vapes Weed Around Sober Dax
It wasn’t alcohol. Lena had spent years abusing prescription drugs:
“My particular passion was Klonopin.”
Klonopin is not your usual addiction — it’s an anti-anxiety drug, a benzodiazepine like Valium. She explained:
“I was having crazy anxiety and having to show up for things that I didn’t feel equipped to show up for. But I know I need to do it, and when I take a Klonopin, I can do it.”
Lena said on the drug she felt “like the person I was supposed to be”:
“It was like suddenly I felt like the part of me that I knew was there was freed up to do her thing.”
And since it isn’t a narcotic, she was able to get as much as she wanted:
“I didn’t have any trouble getting a doctor to tell me, ‘No, you’ve got serious anxiety issues, you should be taking this. This is how you should be existing.'”
She says she spent three whole years “misusing benzos” — taking them all the time, any time she was awake.
“It stopped feeling like I had panic attacks and it started feeling like I was a living panic attack.”
Ultimately, however, she knew the drug “wasn’t making it better” and decided to try to get through her emotional problems sober.
That was when she found out about the withdrawal.
“Nobody I know who are prescribed these medications is told, ‘By the way, when you try and get off this, it’s going to be like the most hellacious acid trip you’ve ever had where you’re f**king clutching the walls and the hair is blowing off your head and you can’t believe you found yourself in this situation.’ Now the literal smell of the inside of pill bottles makes me want to throw up.”
Yeesh! That sounds like proof of addiction to us.
We just want to thank Lena for sharing this — because far too few keep these things quiet and end up thinking they’re all alone!
Wishing you all the strength and positivity, girl!
(And keep up the podcast, Dax!)
[Image via Lena Dunham/Instagram/WENN.]
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