Christy Carlson Romano has recently opened up about her longtime struggles with alcohol.
In a new YouTube video, the 37-year-old actress said she was exposed to nightlife at a young age and started drinking alcohol at the age of 16, revealing that alcohol “almost ruined my life.”
Romano said, “The thing is that once you lock in a habit, a habit can become something that becomes a part of your personality, especially when you’re young.”
“So what I wasn’t realizing was that I had a little bit of shyness from being sort of an awkward preteen and tween,” she added. “What was happening was I was learning how to have fun as long as alcohol was involved.”
The Even Stevens actress clarified that she was not “waking up and drinking,” but she had become a binge drinker. She said she would sleep until it was time for her to go out drinking again.
As a result of drinking, Romano reached a state of depression, adding that it creates “the perfect formula for somebody to stay down.”
At one point, she did not let alcohol get the best of her. She explained that she underwent talk therapy and briefly took low-dose antidepressants. However, the medicine failed to work because she “couldn’t stop drinking” since it was “so embedded” into her daily life.
Romano also shared that reached a point where she was not able to quantify how much alcohol she used to drink per day.
She said, “Having alcohol in my life influenced a lot of the negative thought process that I had. I wasn’t understanding my self-worth, I wasn’t very accountable for my actions, and I was quite numb about what I was doing to people.”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly about the future. When I was drinking, I was never thinking about being a mom,” Romano continued. “In fact, it was the furthest thing from my mind. I could barely take care of myself. I didn’t really have any goals. I didn’t have any dreams. I didn’t have a lot of feelings. A lot of those things were just pushed down.”:
“Alcohol kept pushing them down for me,” she added. “It wasn’t helping me. It wasn’t giving me anything I could grow from. It was a bad presence in my life.”
Romano then decided to quit drinking when she learned she was pregnant with her first daughter, Isabella, 4. She said becoming pregnant “changed everything.”
She revealed that she is currently in a 12-step program, sharing that she has attended several years of Al-Anon meetings.
The YouTuber now prefers alcohol-free mocktails whenever she goes out.
“I can see the benefits of not drinking and being sober,” she said. “I look younger, I feel happier — obviously, more consistently. I can grow and learn more about myself and my emotional journey. I can do so much more. It’s a better way of life to not have alcohol in your life.”
