Clueless' Stacey Dash Recalls "Taking 18 to 20 Pills a Day" Amid Her Addiction Battle

In a new interview with Dr. Oz, Stacey Dash, who is now five-years sober, looks back at her battle with addiction.

By Elyse Dupre Oct 14, 2021 8:44 PMTags

Stacey Dash is speaking about her battle with addiction and her road to recovery. 

The 54-year-old actress shared her journey during the Oct. 14 episode of The Dr. Oz Show.

During the interview, Dash spoke about her past. She said her parents were addicted to drugs, and Dr. Mehmet Oz told viewers Dash first tried drugs when she was 8 years old. Dash also said that, when she was 16, her mother gave her her first line of cocaine.

In addition, Dash said she was molested when she was 4 years old. "I didn't really remember until I was 17 when I tried to kill myself," Dash, who later noted a friend rushed her to the emergency room and saved her life, said. "It was at that time that I remembered that that happened to me, and I had already been very angry. I was a very angry, angry teenager. I became angry at I'd say around the age of 10 or 11, which is when my mother finally left my father. Even though my home was unstable and my father was a heroin addict, I knew he loved me. He just couldn't beat it. He couldn't overcome the addiction."

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Dash said she ran away from home and would party. She also said she was in an abusive relationship with a boyfriend in her early 20s.

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Later on, Dash became sober. After being sober for 20 years, she relapsed. She had been prescribed Vicodin to help with her painful fibroid cysts and became addicted.

"I'm not blaming doctors at all because it was my choice to take more, you know?" she said. "It was my choice to take that extra one even though I wasn't in pain. I chose to do that because the Vicodin filled that hole inside of me. It filled that anger. It calmed that anger down. It slowed my brain down. It gave me the ease so that I could deal with life. That's how I became addicted. It's no one's fault but my own."

At one point, Dash said she "was taking 18 to 20 pills a day" and that nobody knew. The Clueless star said she "lost everything." And when Oz asked how much money she had spent on drugs each month, Dash guessed about $5,000 to $10,000.

"That's what stopped me. I almost died," she recalled. "My kidneys were so infected that my blood was septic, and my organs were shutting down. So, I got rushed to the hospital and I had to have a full blood transfusion and I was in there for three weeks. And by the grace and mercy of god, I lived."

After she left the hospital, Dash continued to abuse drugs. "That again was when I thought, 'OK, Stacey, then give up. You can't do this life.' And I almost did something stupid. I didn't," she recalled. "I called my sister and I told her 'Come over right now.' And then I called my attorney and I said, 'I need help.' And she sent me away. Within eight hours there was an intervention guy at my house and I was on a plane to Utah to go to rehab….It wasn't until the last 10 days that I said, 'Oh, snap. I'm an addict.'" 

Today, Dash is five-years sober. "I just celebrated five years of sobriety," she said. "I'm clean, five years. And in this five years, my blessing—the greatest blessing is that not only have I been able to be honest with myself and become a better person, I've been able to understand my parents and that they did love me and that they were doing the best they could and they were just sick. They were addicted."

Dash credits her faith for helping her get sober and hopes that, by sharing her story, she can help people battling with addiction.

"I feel like telling my story—letting people know that there is no shame in being an addict, there is no shame in getting help because that's what we need," she said. "And for people who are not addicts, I would ask them to please look at people with more compassion and empathy, understanding because they need help. They need help. They can't do it on their own." 

If you or someone you know needs help, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.