Drew Barrymore is reflecting on her turbulent teenage years, opening up about entering rehab at just 14. The “50 First Dates” star shared her experience while chatting with Mae Martin during “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Friday.

The conversation was sparked by the thriller series *Wayward*, which centers around two friends attending an academy for troubled teens. Martin revealed that the story was loosely inspired by a real-life friend who was “sent to one of these troubled teen institutes” for two years.

“I also was someone who got taken away and put in a place for two years,” Barrymore, 50, shared, referring to her 18-month stay at Van Nuys Psychiatric Hospital in the mid-1980s.

Martin, 38, responded with surprise, saying, “I did not know that. I mean, I know that you were a wayward teen as was I, and I was in rehab and stuff, but I didn’t know that you were at one of those places.”

After bonding over their shared experience, the “Never Been Kissed” star praised Martin for her accurate depiction of what it’s like inside a rehabilitation facility. “I didn’t know that about you, but watching the show, there was way too much accuracy,” Barrymore said. “It was too real for me in that element where I knew there was no way you weren’t telling an authentic perspective.”

Barrymore went on to caution viewers that if they haven’t experienced a “breakdown” yet, it’s likely coming. “A lot of people who have not had that experience or that track, watch out — something’s coming because none of us escape breakdowns or rebirths or the excruciation of what it takes to get to that,” she warned. “It’s coming sometime, at some time, in some form.”

The former child star also admitted she faced another difficult decade shortly after turning 40, something she has previously discussed on her daytime talk show. “Oh, no, I found another one at 40, which was interesting,” she shared. “Yeah, I thought, ‘Oh, 14, this is rock bottom.’ Turns out I hit it at 40 as well.”

Despite the challenges of her teen years and her 40s, the “Wedding Singer” star managed to get back on track. “We pull ourselves up, hopefully, and we find people that encourage us to tell the truth and to finally have the opposite of shame,” Barrymore told Martin and her audience. She explained that shame often comes with erratic behavior or societal judgments like “that’s not appropriate at this age,” or “what you’re doing is out of control.”

“That is shame,” she added. “And when you live with shame, it is crippling.”

Reflecting on her nearly two years in rehab at 14, Barrymore admitted she found “a lot of lightness” in her institutional experience, which she sees reflected in *Wayward*. “I know that sounds wild, but it was encouragement to say your truths, to be brave, to find humor and heroism in your journey,” she said. “And it’s the best thing that ever happened to me, honestly.”

“I hold a lot of it sacrosanct, but it wasn’t easy,” Barrymore concluded. “It was hard as hell, and I found that the tone that you brought to the show was true to a life experience when you gotta be broken and get fixed.”

Barrymore first revealed that her mother sent her to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction as a teenager during a 2015 interview with *The Guardian*. Shortly after being released, she was emancipated from her parents.

More recently, the “Scream” star opened up about her time at Van Nuys Psychiatric Hospital in a 2023 blog post. “I lived a boundaryless life and job,” Barrymore, who was only 7 when she became famous for *E.T.* in 1982, explained. “And this place, as hellacious as it was, it was exactly what I needed from the too much excess my life had become on the outside,” she added.
https://nypost.com/2025/10/24/entertainment/drew-barrymore-reveals-why-rehab-at-14-was-the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-her/