Jamie Lee Curtis penned an emotional essay titled “Kill the Pain” for the Huffington Post, in which she revealed her past opiate addiction. The actress was inspired to shed light on the issue following Prince’s April 21 death at age 57 — which investigators are looking into as a possible overdose on painkillers.
“I too, waited anxiously for a prescription to be filled for the opiate I was secretly addicted to,” the actress, 57, wrote on Thursday, May 5. “I too, took too many at once. I too, sought to kill emotional and physical pain with painkillers. Kill it. Make it stop.”
“I am one of the lucky ones as I have been in recovery from opiate addiction for over 17 years,” she said. The Scream Queens star explained that she became hooked on the prescription drugs following a medical procedure. “Once the phenomenon of craving sets in, it is often too late.”
“It seems now that the governmental body, the AMA, the FDA and the media are starting to address the rampant epidemic of opiate addiction,” the Freaky Friday actress continued. “There have been reclassifications and attempts at reigning in the overprescription of opiates.”
She says that she can relate to the late “Purple Rain” singer and feels the world has lost a legend. Although Prince’s cause of death is yet to be determined, The New York Times reports there’s mounting evidence that he was seriously abusing painkillers. “I, like all of you, mourn the passing of a great artist but I also mourn the passing of potential artists past and present, caught in this deadly vise,” she said. “Let’s work harder, look closer and do everything we can not to enable and in doing so, disable, our loved ones who are ill.”
