Lena Dunham has come a long way.
Lena Dunham attended a benefit luncheon for the Friendly House treatment center today, and she took the time to open up about her struggles with addiction. “Being sober in life is hard,” Dunham told Variety. “But being sober is the first step to facing all the things that made you want to hide in the first place.” Demi Moore, who has faced her own struggles with addiction, presented Dunham with the Woman the Year Award.
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“Part why I love Friendly Houses is because they don’t discriminate,” said Dunham, who has been sober now for over a year. “It’s not a rehab for the rich and famous. It’s a place where women who need help are never turned away for financial reasons. It’s sad that in this country, recovery has become a privilege, not a right.”
“I didn’t think that I was a drug addict,” she continued. “I thought drug addicts were depraved lunatics who wandered the streets, demanding crack from innocent children and flaunting their open wounds in public parks. And I was a successful, capable celebrity who wandered red carpets demanding attention and flaunting her open boobs on TV. It’s totally different.”
“Being me has sometimes hurt so much that I couldn’t bear it,” she said to the audience. “But being me is also a super-power, and it’s the same for all you…” She finished by proclaiming her confidence in women saying, “I’ll put my money on sober women any day — because a woman who has overcome an addiction can do f—ing anything.”