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"Amber Valletta was an open book on Friday, July 11, when she gave an incredibly personal talk in front of a live audience for the site MindBodyGreen. The actress and longtime model revealed her struggles with addiction, detailing her journey to sobriety for the crowd.&amp;#xA0;\r\n\r\n&amp;#x201C;I&amp;#x2019;m coming out to you today, and I&amp;#x2019;m not coming out to you in the way you think,&amp;#x201D; Valletta said smiling. &amp;#x201C;I&amp;#x2019;m coming out to you today as an addict. I suffer from a disease called addiction.&amp;#x201D;&amp;#xA0;\r\nThroughout her speech, the Revenge star reiterated that only she was to blame for her addiction, but gave the audience an idea of how her problems began.&amp;#xA0;\r\n\r\n&amp;#x201C;When I was 8, I started trying to get out of myself,&amp;#x201D; she said. &amp;#x201C;I sniffed markers, I sniffed glue, fingernail polish, anything that could give me a buzz. Then I found drugs that were around the culture of my family. By 10 I had been high. By 18 I moved to Europe, I found cocaine and alcohol. I was in a business where drugs and alcohol were widely accepted. They were given to me.&amp;#x201D;\r\nThe 40-year-old, who landed a Vogue cover by age 25, also noted that drugs and alcohol affected every aspect of her life. &amp;#xA0;\r\n&amp;#x201C;I put everything on the line for my addiction&amp;#x2014;all my friendships, my family, my job, I had a multi-million dollar deal. I showed up to the first day to shoot this campaign high and drunk,&amp;#x201D; she recalled. &amp;#x201C;I didn&amp;#x2019;t care, and that&amp;#x2019;s to just show you addiction takes you to the worst places. I showed up to my uncle&amp;#x2019;s bedside&amp;#x2014;he was dying&amp;#x2014;and I was still high, still drunk and looking for a place to go do another line.&amp;#x201D;&amp;#xA0;\r\n\r\nValletta got sober at age 25, noting that it was the fear of death that led her to seek treatment.&amp;#xA0;\r\nThe 15-minute talk has already inspired many, with Valletta&amp;#x2019;s Revenge costars tweeting their support for her honesty.&amp;#xA0;\r\n&amp;#x201C;Incredible talk on addiction by one of the most beautiful women I&amp;#x2019;ve met inside and out,&amp;#x201D; Revenge star Emily VanCamp wrote.&amp;#xA0;\r\n\r\n&amp;#x201C;@ambervalletta @MindBodyGreen thank you for sharing your truth..stunningly honest and open xx,&amp;#x201D; Gabriel Mann added.&amp;#xA0;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/amber-valletta-drug-alcohol-addiction-2014147>