Drew Barrymore spent her 46th birthday on Monday talking about harrowing details of her 18-month stint in a psychiatric ward at age 13. (Watch the video below.)
“You couldn’t mess around in there,” the actor told Howard Stern on his radio show. “If you did, you’d get thrown either in the padded room or get put in stretcher restraints and tied up.”
Barrymore said she channeled her “inner riot grrrl” at times to incite fellow patients into rebelling.
The “E.T.” and “50 First Dates” star said she has forgiven her mother, Jaid Barrymore, for putting her there.
“I was going to clubs and not going to school and stealing my mom’s car and, you know, I was out of control,” she said, per People.
“She created a monster and she didn’t know what to do with the monster, and this was her last gasp. And I was really out of control. And I forgive her for making this choice. She probably felt like she had nowhere to turn.”
Barrymore, who has previously discussed being institutionalized after drug addiction and attempted suicide, won legal emancipation from her mother at age 14. She told Stern they are now in contact after a long estrangement.
“We texted this morning,” she said. “I’m really glad there is healing there.”