Selma Blair Reveals Her Battle With Alcohol Addiction Began At Age 7: ‘I Don’t Know If I Would’ve Survived Childhood Without Alcoholism’
11.05.2022 - 15:21
/ etcanada.com
Selma Blair speaks candidly about her battle with alcoholism in a new interview with People.
The actress, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, is set to release her tell-all new memoir Mean Baby on May 17.
She explains how her alcohol addiction started when she was just seven years old.
“I don’t know if I would’ve survived childhood without alcoholism,” Blair tells the magazine. “That’s why it’s such a problem for a lot of people. It really is a huge comfort, a huge relief in the beginning. Maybe even the first few years for me because I did start really young with that as a comfort, as my coping mechanism.”
In an excerpt from Mean Baby, Blair writes: “The first time I got drunk it was a revelation. I always liked Passover. As I took small sips of the Manischewitz I was allowed throughout the seder a light flooded through me, filling me up with the warmth of God.
“But the year I was seven, when we basically had Manischewitz on tap and no one was paying attention to my consumption level, I put it together: the feeling was not God but fermentation. I thought, Well this is a huge disappointment, but since it turns out I can get the warmth of the Lord from a bottle, thank God there’s one right here. I got drunk that night. Very drunk. Eventually, I was put in my sister Katie’s bed with her. In the morning, I didn’t remember how I’d gotten there.”
The actress says that when she first started drinking, she did not get drunk, “just quick sips whenever my anxiety would alight. I usually barely even got tipsy. I became an expert alcoholic, adept at hiding my secret.”
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