Eliza Dushku Gets Personal About Alcohol and Opiate Addiction

Eliza Dushku is still a Slayer — only now it’s of her personal demons.

The Buffy the Vampire and Angel alum, 36, addressed 8,000 middle and high school students on Tuesday at the first New Hampshire Youth Summit on Opioid Awareness in Manchester (at which Attorney General Jeff Sessions was also a surprise speaker). Although the actress started by saying she had “nothing prepared” by way of remarks — she was there at the request of Jim Wahlberg, Mark’s brother, and the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, which sponsored the event — she went on to get candid about her own addiction to opiates and alcohol, which she traced back to her middle school days in Watertown, Mass.

Dushku, who has now been sober for eight and a half years, told the crowd that her drug use — which occurred during her Buffy, Angel, and Tru Calling years, but she got in check before she appeared in 2009’s Dollhouse — “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. I have a lot of friends who are dead.”

The brunette, who split with her live-in love Rick Fox in 2014 and later relocated to Boston, said that asking for help was the most difficult thing she’s ever done.

“I’m a real badass and tough girl,” she said. “That was part of my thing. It was the hardest thing in the world to ask for help, but it was the most powerful thing I’ve done.”

Dushku admitted that when she initially got sober, it wasn’t for herself.

“I’ll be honest — I got sober at first for my family,” she revealed. “I got to a point where I felt so sick about myself. I was depressed. I didn’t like myself. But I loved my family. … I remember my brother telling me he didn’t want me to be around my niece [now 14] because he didn’t trust me. I’m a really good auntie today, but you know what? He was right. I am a good person, but when I did drugs and drank I didn’t make good decisions. I’m sure some of you can relate to that, but all it takes is one bad decision. You don’t have to live like that.”

Getting sober hasn’t ruined her life — or made her less fun.

“I’ll tell you right now — I still dance on tabletops,” she told the young crowd, which drew cheers. “I still have such amazing times, and I connect with people. … I get to be an actress. I’m back in college at 36 years old,” attending Suffolk University, where she’s pursuing a bachelor’s degree in sociology and hopes to work with addicts. “It’s something I always wanted to do and I didn’t get to do because I was on a different path.”

And although she didn’t get sober for herself, she stays sober for herself.

“I got sober for my family,” Dushku 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, you guys. We are. We’re in this together. We can connect with each other. We can protect each other.”

Dushku took to social media later that day to reflect on her speech. “If I said 1 thing that may have helped 1 person today – I’m grateful,” she wrote.

We’re sure her words will help many more than that.

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