General Hospital star Jacob Young has spoken candidly about living a double life during his seven-year struggle with opioid addiction.
During a recent appearance on the Imperfectly Perfect podcast, Young, 46 — who played Lucky Spencer, the son of lead character Laura Spencer (Genie Francis) and Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary), on the long-running daytime drama — revealed his addiction to pain medication began after he underwent dental surgery.
“I ended up getting a prescription for Vicodin,” the soap opera star said. “This is something I’ve never been completely open about. I started getting hooked on opioids and I went through seven years of my life wasted on opioids.”
Young explained that at the time he was “just needing to [feel] numb,” claiming the pills were “the one thing that made me feel normal.” He clarified that his drug use “never affected my work.”
“I always showed up, I always did my lines,” he added. “I was always well-studied.”
Recalling the difficult period, Young continued: “I was living a lie. I was living an absolute lie. There was no two ways about it. And I would show up pretending that I’m completely normal, that everything is fine in my life, and then go home [and] realize that I just completely lied to everyone that entire day.”
For years, he said he managed to hide his addiction from everyone, including his wife, Christen Steward. “I finally broke down and told her the truth,” Young shared. “I was like, ‘Look, I’m addicted. And I can’t get off this because I don’t want to get sick, but I need help.’”
He entered counseling, where he said he was able to “get to the root of ‘Why? Why am I needing to do this?’”
“[I was] working my way out of it,” he said. “That was a journey, to get off of that. That was really tough.”
Young also opened up about his past struggles with alcohol and cocaine, which he ultimately got clean from after meeting Steward.
“I was a single guy, I was making a ton of money in New York, but I wanted to find those people [to party with], but I didn’t know why,” he said. “Because I was going basically undiagnosed. I was dealing with resentment, depression, old wounds that were still bleeding inside of me. And those [the drugs] seemed to just knock all that out.”
Young and Steward got married in 2007. They share three children: Luke, 17, Molly, 12, and Grace, 9.
Besides General Hospital, Young is best known for his longtime roles on The Bold and the Beautiful and All My Children. He earned his first Daytime Emmy in 2002 for his role of Lucky Spencer and has since received several nominations for his work on the latter two shows.
If you or someone you know is suffering from drug addiction, you can seek confidential help and support 24-7 from Frank, by calling 0300 123 6600, texting 82111, sending an email or visiting their website here.
In the US, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration can be reached at 1-800-662-HELP
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