'Mum put me in an institution at 13, I thought I would die at 25' Drew Barrymore bares

Drew Barrymore now and with her mum, Jaid, aged 7

DREW BARRYMORE talks about drugs, drink and partying in Studio 54 at only 9 before her mother put her in an institution aged 13, in her new book Wildflowers.

 

In some ways, it's extraordinary that Drew Barrymore is still standing.

Her early years weren't just hell-raising, they were a hair-raisingly terrifying way for a young child to live.

E.T. made her a global superstar at 7 and by the time she was 13 her mother had locked her up in a drugs and alcohol institution for 18 months.

 

Is she angry or resentful looking back at that time?

"It was horrible and dark and very long-lived, a year and a half, but I needed it," she says.

"My life was not normal. I was not a kid in school with normal circumstances. There something abnormal and I needed some severe shift."



Drew Barrymore and E.T. in 1982

The shocking childhood of the beloved actress has hit headlines again with the publication of her new book, Wildflower – an philosophical examination of her life.

Drew's parents divorced when she was 9. She says that her father, actor John Drew Barrymore - a violent alcoholic - was 'just unavailable.'

Her mother Jaid, meanwhile, "was definitely too out there."

Now 40, Drew remembers her mother taking her clubbing to Studio 54 when she was just 9 years old.



With her E.T. director Steven Spielberg and co-star Henry Thomas in 2002



Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed

By the time she was 12 she had been in rehab and a year later was institutionalised for drugs and alcohol abuse.

"It was like military school for humility and gratitude and perspective. I had none. I had the weirdest life ever," she told People magazine.

"And they kicked my a** until I walked out of there knowing what 'please' and 'thank you' meant for the first time in my life. 

"I thank her (Jaid) every day for it. It was the best thing that ever happened to me."

 

I was unemployable at 14 and I though I would die when I was 25

Drew Barrymore

Although Drew was legally emancipated from her parents when she was 14, the next three years of her life living on her own were the hardest.

"It was in a dangerous neighbourhood and I was so scared to sleep," she told the Guardian magazine.

"I had bars on the window and alley cats f***ing 30 feet away. I was so terrified."

Having been such a huge star at such a young age, Drew found herself unable to find work, washed up and virtually a laughing stock in the industry at 14.

"People going, 'You're an unemployable disaster,' that's a tough trip to have by the time you're 14," she said.

"I was so scared of not knowing where I was going. I really had a fear that I was going to die at 25."

 

Drew Barrymore with her husband Will Kopelman

Extraordinarily, only three years later she reinvented herself with a major comeback as Poison Ivy in Batman Forever, followed by major roles in Scream and Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You.

The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler kicked off a  lucrative series of likeable romcoms, including Never Been Kissed.

These days, as an actress and producer,  Drew is a respected figure in the industry, both in front and behind the camera.

Her own family life is a far cry from those desperate early years. Married to Will Kopelman, she now has two daughters of her own, Olive, three, and Frankie, 18 months.

 

So, how does having children of her own make her reflect on her own childhood and how will she explain it to her daughters?

"I'm not going to pretend I am not who I am," she said.

"I'm going to show them how it got me to where I am now."

Drew Barrymore's new book, Wildflowers, is out next week.