“I was a horrible opiate addict. I would probably do 10 to 20 hydros — if they didn’t have hydros it would be OxyContin or oxycodone.”
MTV star Amber Portwood recently spoke out about her battle with drug use and her rock bottom.
According to US Magazine, the 28-year-old — who is known for her roles on MTV’s 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom and Teen Mom OG — recently spoke about her history of drug use on an episode of the Dopey Podcast.
“I have really horrible anger problems because I’m bipolar and borderline, which is not an excuse, but at the time I didn’t know it, so I wasn’t really taking care of myself or really understanding why I was feeling certain emotions,” Portwood said on the podcast. “I’d go party every other day. I’d be a Wednesday, I’m at the f—king bar and whopping ass and s—t, just like getting kicked out of bars or I got kicked out of our Walmart.”
She added, “There’s like pictures of me beating up a girl in iHop. It was just crazy. I don’t know where the hell I was. I was gone. You can blame the drugs for the most part for kind of being impulsive, but it was kind of just me as a person.”
Portwood’s involvement with MTV dates back to 2009, during the first season of 16 and Pregnant. According to US magazine, she says the “money didn’t help” with her struggles with drugs.
However, she also stated that she does not blame MTV for those struggles.
“When you’re making a lot of money, there’s more drugs,” Portwood said on the podcast. “Every time a drug dealer had a new stash, of whatever, they called me first because they knew I’d buy the whole [stash], because I had the money to do it. It never helps.”
“I was a horrible opiate addict,” she continued. “I would probably do 10 to 20 hydros — if they didn’t have hydros it would be OxyContin or oxycodone … any kind of opiate that they had, I would try to take. I think it was that feeling of just kind of not being aware that I liked .. I think back in the day I was probably depressed and s—t. That was my ‘go-to’ thing.”
Over the years, Portwood’s drug use has landed her in various difficult positions. In December 2011, according to US Magazine, she was arrested for violating probation after she pleaded guilty to two counts of domestic battery. Then, in 2012, she chose to step away from her court-ordered treatment program and serve five years in prison instead.
On the podcast, Portwood explained that her rock bottom came at her grandmother’s house and that was her reasoning for deciding to serve time.
“Nothing else was working,” she said. “I had overdosed at my grandma’s house on fentanyl in the bathroom. It was daylight when I was awake … I woke up on the floor, like, just drooling out of my mouth. It was nighttime, I had no clue how long I had been in there,” she revealed.
Despite her history with drugs, Portwood states she can now drink in small amounts.
“Now I can have a glass of wine every now and again,” she said. “It’s not every day. It’s not every month.”
