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Tom Feltonis opening up about his substance abuse and mental health struggles in his recent memoirBeyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard.
After growing up in the spotlight, theHarry Potteralum, 35, admitted in the book — released on Oct. 18 — that throughout his mid-to-late 20s, he started “drinking to escape” and spending a lot of time at dive bars “craving normality” while living in Los Angeles.
“I went from being not particularly interested to regularly having a few pints a day before the sun had even gone down, and a shot of whiskey to go with each of them,” he wrote.
“The alcohol, though, wasn’t the problem. It was the symptom. The problem was deeper,” Felton said, later learning that his mental health was struggling.
Felton revealed that the situation became so bad that his manager, then-girlfriend, and agents eventually staged an intervention, demanding he get help as they were concerned about his drinking and behavior.
He recalled a message from his lawyer that “hit the hardest” and made him more willing to get help.
“My lawyer, whom I’d barely ever met face to face, spoke with quiet honesty,” Felton wrote. “‘Tom,’ he said, ‘I don’t know you very well, but you seem like a nice guy. All I want to tell you is that this is the seventeenth intervention I’ve been to in my career. Eleven of them are now dead. Don’t be the twelfth.'”
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After adopting his dog Willow, Felton said he began to get his life back on track, however, “the numbness returned” a few years later. He eventually went to rehab again, which he praises himself for doing on his own.
“I can honestly say it was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. But the very fact that I was able to admit to myself that I needed some help — and I was going to do something about it — was an important moment,” Felton said. “I am no longer shy of putting my hands up and saying: I’m not okay.”
“I am not alone in having these feelings,” he continued. “Just as we all experience physical ill-health at some stage in our lives, so we all experience mental ill-health too. There’s no shame in that. It’s not a sign of weakness.”
“By no means do I want to casualize the idea of therapy — it’s a difficult first step to take — but I do want to do my bit to normalize it. I think we all need it in one shape or another, so why wouldn’t it be normal to talk openly about how we’re feeling?” Felton wrote.
source: people.com
