For some celebrities, the spotlight isn't all it's cracked up to be.
"I really did try very, very hard to drown my sorrows in the traditional sense of the word, the alcoholic sense of the word," Frankie Grande recalls in a teaser segment from Sunday's new E! True Hollywood Story. Continuing, Ariana Grande's brother remembers, "I stopped sleeping and then I was prescribed benzos."
His comments set the tone for this compelling clip from Friday's Daily Pop, in which E!'s Nina Parker, Carissa Culiner and Melanie Bromley hear from Dr. Drew Pinsky, an addiction specialist who lends his expertise to this week's THS episode, aptly titled, "Is Fame An Addiction?" So, for starters—is it?
"It can be conceptualized that way," Dr. Drew explains. And though he says behavioral addictions and drug addictions don't play out in all the same ways (and thus shouldn't be treated as if they do), the celebrity doctor emphasizes that, "the way people get hooked on fame…it can behave very much like an addiction."
As he acknowledges during his Daily Pop appearance, the stories featured in Sunday's THS seem like proof of that, Frankie's especially.
"I think Frankie's [story] got me a little bit, in terms of how far he went," Dr. Drew tells the hosts, before outlining his professional treatment recommendations for those struggling with a fame dependency.
"You have to go cold turkey for a while at least," he insists of social media, which can be a damaging contributor to this sort of addiction. On THS, Pinsky tells the camera that seeing their "followership diminishing" is often a trigger for famous people at risk of becoming addicted.
Hear Dr. Drew's thoughts on why some celebrities navigate stardom with grace—and find out if he believes Jenelle Evans is addicted to fame—in the clips above.