I only ever watched one episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and that was because I knew someone on it. I don’t know why because I fell in love with the series Angel. But I do know and like all the actors from Buffy and that includes Eliza Dushku who famously played Faith. It turns out, Eliza is just as tough as Faith in real life. Eliza battled a drug and alcohol addiction that started as early as 14. She has since gotten sober and has stayed sober for the last eight and a half years. She recently opened up about all of this for the first time at the New Hampshire Youth Summit on Opioid Awareness in Manchester. Apparently, Eliza, who is a proud native of Watertown, MA, recently befriended the event’s organizer and agreed to speak when she had heard so many people would be there. She chose to speak without any notes so that her words came straight from the heart.
Eliza Dushku opened up about her secret battle with alcoholism and drug addiction while speaking at the New Hampshire Youth Summit on Opioid Awareness in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, March 7.
“Something a lot of people don’t know about me is that I’m an alcoholic and I was a drug addict for a lot of years,” the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum, 36, told thousands of students during her speech. “I’m always going to be that, but the difference between me and an alcoholic or a drug addict that still drinks and does drugs is that I’m sober. I don’t drink and I don’t do drugs anymore.”
“I got sober for my family,” she said. “But today, I’m sober for me, and I’m sober for you. Because drugs and alcohol are powerful, but we are more powerful.”
Dushku revealed that she’s been sober for eight-and-a-half years and that she first dabbled with marijuana at the age of 14. “I loved the first time I took a drug because I loved the way it made me feel. I loved the way it made me not feel — I didn’t have to feel,” she explained. “It was fun — and I loved it — until it wasn’t. Drugs didn’t love me. They didn’t love my family. They definitely didn’t love my friends that died.”
You can watch her speech here. As I said above, Eliza gave the speech off the cuff and she sounds slightly nervous at the beginning, almost like she doesn’t know if she is going to go though with telling the audience she’s an addict. But you can hear her confidence as she moves forward and the crowd gives her encouragement. She said that one of the reason she got sober was that her brother no longer trusted her around his daughter because when she drank, she didn’t make good decisions. Her quote, “Because drugs and alcohol are powerful, but we are more powerful,” stood out to me because when I quit smoking, I had one cigarette I kept and every morning I would pick it up and say, “You are not more powerful than me.” I employ the same tactic for a lot of things now, whenever I feel something is beating me.
Elisa has worked fairly steadily since Buffy. She was in the revamp of The Dollhouse and I always thought that was a good fit for her. Even though her career has been steady, Eliza is fulfilling her dream of a college degree at Suffolk University in Boston. She is earning a BA in sociology. This is especially poignant given that she speaks to how hard Middle and High School were. If it wasn’t for college, I wouldn’t have any fond school memories so I’m really happy for her. Her speech was both emotional and effective and in conclusion, Eliza said, “If you’re in trouble, all you have to do is say, ‘I need help,’ I’m a real badass and tough girl. It was the hardest thing in the world for me to ask for help and it was the most powerful thing I’ve ever done.” We’ve heard this before but it always bears repeating.
If I said 1 thing that may have helped 1 person today- I'm grateful. #addiction #recovery Thx @JWahlly & everyone who organized & attended 🙏 https://t.co/jOt0YDUWsC
— Eliza Dushku (@elizadushku) March 7, 2017
A post shared by Official Eliza Dushku (@elizadushku) on Feb 26, 2017 at 2:34pm PST
Photo credit: Twitter, Instagram, WENN and Fame/Flynet Photos
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