Kathy Griffin has called her pill addiction “almost comical” as she reflects on recovery.
The 61-year-old appeared on the most recent episode of The New York Times’ Sway podcast and talked candidly about her pill addiction and past suicide attempts.
The comedian shared on Thursday’s episode, “I think that I’m probably an addictive person, you know. But you have to admit, it’s almost, like, comical. Like, I went in the hospital for pill addiction at 59 years old. Who the hell becomes a junkie in, like, their late 50s? Me.”
Griffin also revealed that the fallout made her miss various business opportunities. She even said that she was put under watch by the Secret Service.
“I didn’t know what to do with myself,” the actress told Kara Swisher. “I was just such a crazy workaholic. And all of a sudden, I had this time on my hands, and then I was depressed, and things just weren’t looking up.”
“And then, you fall into the, like, life will be better for my husband without me around,” Griffin said of her love Randy Bick. “It just came to a point where I really, I was convinced, like, I’ve had a good run on this planet, and now it’s time for me to go.”
She also said that the COVID pandemic played a role in her addiction to pills. “Not to blame COVID, but then COVID also is like, just laying around all day and trying to figure out life,” she said. “So that was rough, although it was a good thing, ultimately, and it was sobering, quite literally.”
Griffin revealed that she was taking Oxycontin and benzodiazepines, including Valium, Klonopin, and Ativan, as well as Adderall and Provigil. “I was doing, like, a rich white lady speedball, basically,” she said.
She said she got “addicted like the classic story … I had injuries, and then blah, blah, blah” and her addiction “got away from me.” She added, “Like, I kind of knew it was getting bad, but then I didn’t.”
Griffin decided to seek help for her addiction after two suicide attempts. She was admitted to the psychiatric ward after telling her doctors that she had attempted suicide.
“I’m there, in the hospital psych ward for three days, and boy, that will sober you up like nothing,” she recalled. “You have no drugs, you’re just shaking, and I’m looking at the ceiling and just reassessing life choices and you have nothing but your own thoughts.”
Griffin is now under the supervision of her clinicians who have been helping her throughout her sober journey, which she credits with changing her for the better.
She said, “That really saved my life. Through that process, you are kind of unpacking anything and everything. Everything is kind of surrounded by that a little bit.”
