The former 'Scandal' star addresses his struggles with drug abuse, saying, 'I was doing cocaine and drinking a lot... I just lost myself back then.'
- Dec 11, 2014
AceShowbiz - Columbus Short revealed his struggles with drug abuse in a new interview on "Access Hollywood Live" on Wednesday, December 10. "I'll be candid. I was struggling with drugs," Columbus told hosts Billy Bush and Kit Hoover.
The 32-year-old actor added, "I had a lot on my plate, and you know, I was using unhealthy ways to kind of self-medicate and deal with a lot of heavy duty stuff in my life." Billy then asked him, "What kind of drugs were you doing?" to which he replied, "The real drugs - I did cocaine. I was doing cocaine and drinking a lot, and trying to balance a 16-hour work schedule a day, and a family, and, I just lost myself back then."
When asked if Shonda Rhimes knew about his addiction, the former "Scandal" star said, "She did [know]. And if we're going to be fully transparent, they protected me and they held me down. And that was one of the real reasons - they just wanted me to get my stuff together."
"Sometimes the bottom has to be dropped out for you to really get it. So I moved to Atlanta. I've been living there for the last five months, five-and-a-half months, and it's just been great. It's been life changing," he added.
Asked about his reason to use drugs, Columbus responded, "It was numbing stuff, it was just numbing - a lot of things I really don't want to talk about. I was going through a lot, going through a lot in my marriage, I had a lot of loss, tragic loss, so it's tough."
"Last year, one of my best friends died, he killed himself, Lee Thompson Young, and that kind of started a spiral," he continued, "I found out when I was on set, and it really just, it took my legs out from under me."
Columbus then gave advice on how he dealt with drug abuse. "First of all, I think when anybody's dealing with drugs or alcohol, you need to change your environment, period," he shared, "Persons, places, things, you need to get out of whatever the comfort - it was accessible to me. Come on - I'm on the number one show on television, anything I wanted I could get it, but that's deadly, you know what I mean? So it was about, how do I change my life?"
"I had to move, and my therapy really was my album. Working on my album changed my life," he added, "Music changes things, and that is a fact. And, you know, writing it out. And I have a lot of crappy songs that I wrote, that are just like me ranting, and then I have great [ones], and I put together a great EP with the team, [and] that's how I got through this."
Although his character Harrison Wright has been killed off on "Scandal", Columbus said he's ready to get back to work. "I'm really ready to get back to work," he shared, "As far as Shonda's shows, I would love nothing more to go back to 'Scandal'. It's my family."
