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Kendra Entered Mental Hospital at 15 for “Suicidal” Thoughts

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Years before she shot to fame as a Playboy playmate, reality star and married mom, Kendra Baskett survived some dark, dark days as a troubled teen.

In her new E! True Hollywood Story (watch a clip above), Baskett, now, 24, says that she was "about 13" when she had her first experience with cocaine.

"All of a sudden [my friends] broke out this white stuff," she recounts. "I started feeling pretty good. That was the start of my drug days."

Related: PHOTOS: See how Kendra's baby bump grew during her pregnancy

By the time Kendra was 15, she was abusing drugs, "feeling suicidal" and "cutting myself," she says. After Kendra admitted to swallowing a "a half dozen or so medications" at school, her mother Patti decided to check her in for two weeks at a secured psychiatric facility.

"It was crazy in that place," Baskett tells THS. "We didn't see daylight. We weren't allowed outside. It was basically a jail, but it was a hospital."

Her grandmother, Mary, admits, "None of us had ever had a situation like that in the family. Her mother and I did a lot of crying."

Related: PHOTOS: Check out snaps from Kendra's baby shower

Yet the future star's hospitalization "did not change me at all," Baskett says. "I think it made me worse because in my heart I didn't want to change. People were forcing me, and that's something that does not work with me."

By her sophomore year of high school, Baskett was a runaway. "I was still on drugs," she says. "I met a guy and I ended up running away with him."

Related: PHOTOS: Kendra and Hank's wedding album

That boyfriend was bad news, she admits now. "All throughout sophomore year I lived with this guy and I did drugs for that long. Every day, every minute."

Kendra's shocking True Hollywood Story premieres on E! Wednesday at 10 p.m. EST. Watch a video clip from the special now (above).

For more on Kendra and her life today as new mom, pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now.

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