Secret Addiction: Colton Haynes Confesses He Was Held In Psych Ward After 7-Day Drug & Booze Bender
Mar. 28 2019, Published 5:36 p.m. ET
Colton Haynes has been battling a secret addiction with alcohol and drugs that left him hospitalized several times. In a bombshell interview, the Arrow actor tells all on his near-fatal downward spiral.
"In 10 years, there were maybe 25 days I didn't drink," Hayne told Attitude. "I remember when I started, it was a couple glasses of wine, and it regressed into really dark times.”
Haynes, 30, admitted the root of all his problems were “alcohol and drugs,” as he used to blame his anxiety and depression.
The former Teen Wolf star's substance abuse intensified when he came out in 2016.
"I came out and, in a way, my downward spiral started," he explained. "I felt extremely free but at the same time the amount of attention I was getting was making me spin out of control."
It only got worse when his personal life crumbled in early 2018.
"I got married and that didn't work out,” he said of his marriage to Jeff Leatham. “That was extremely public and heart-breaking, and right when that was going on, my mom died.”
He confessed that was when he “fell apart.”
“My brain broke,” he said. "I was doing a massive comedy for a studio, showed up to work and got fired on the first day. They said I looked as if I had 'dead in my eyes', and I did. I got so heavily involved with drugs and alcohol to mask the amount of pain I was feeling that I couldn’t even make some decisions for myself. I was drowning in my own s**t.”
According to the article, Haynes has been admitted to the hospital several times following drug and alcohol abuse. He entered a four-month treatment program and has been sober for six months.
"I locked myself in a hotel room at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills for seven days and was found in my room with these insane bruises all over my body," he said. "It looked as if somebody had beaten the s**t out of me. I couldn’t walk, so I was falling everywhere.”
He said how the bender almost caused his kidney to rupture.
"I ended up in the hospital, ended up in 5150 psyche hold," he confessed. "I was on such a destructive path that I could not function. I lost partial sight in my left eye for a while. I ended up having two seizures. I didn't know any of this was happening until I was sober enough to remember it.”
The incident was a “rude awakening” for Haynes.
"If anyone else had told me to get help I would be like ‘F**k you,” he said. “I had to make that decision on my own. I was ready to stop running from my own problems. Once I went to treatment, I found this amazing amount of true love for myself, and started figuring out who I am without those vices, and recognizing the people in my life who lifted me up instead of tearing me down."
He continued that he is “always going to be in recovery.”
“There are so many people struggling out there, but not a lot of them talk about it,” he said. "Life is much more beautiful than I could have imagined. It’s just a different life now. It's the best gift I've ever been given."