Publications
Partners
Cape Town – Lena Dunham has revealed she is six months sober after “misusing” benzodiazepines, specifically Klonopin.
According to Health24, Klonopin – aka Clonazepam – is a benzodiazepine drug and is prescribed to manage and prevent seizures in epilepsy as well as panic attacks, anxiety and insomnia.
Speaking to Dax Shepard during an episode of his Armchair Expert podcast, Lena revealed she started using the drug when she had to “show up to things I didn't feel equipped to show up for.”
Becoming more and more dependent on the drug however, Lena admitted she started taking it a lot more often, even if she didn’t need it and eventually worried about what life would be like without it.
“It stopped being I take one when I fly, and it started being, like, I take one when I'm awake.”
Speaking about how she feels after being sober for half the year, Lena told Dax: “I thought medication was allowing me to be more myself. I can see all of the things that the world [brought] upon me.
“I don't blame myself for my illness; I don't blame myself for the sexual abuse I experienced; I don't blame myself for the physical abuse I experienced; I don't blame myself for the challenges of being a woman in this world, and an anxious woman in this world, and living in this body. But I do see the way that I medicated myself, negatively impacted people around me, and decimated my decision making and hurt my creativity.
“So, I just feel, literally like, on my knees grateful every single day.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL PODCAST HERE:
