'Teen Mom' star Amber Portwood says she started taking pills at age 11
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Amber Portwood opened up about her drug addiction battle that began at the age 11. (Getty Images)
“Teen Mom OG” star Amber Portwood opened up about her past drug use Friday and how she started taking pills at the age 11.
The 28-year-old reality star told Dopey Podcast that she’s been partying since she was a child, when she was first introduced to drugs.
“I’ve been partying since I was about 11 years old, that’s the first time I did pills,” Portwood said. “In Anderson, [Indiana], there’s not much to do. A lot of kids at school, they always brought s— from their house. We didn’t know what much of it was.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}By 15, Portwood said she was dabbling in “partying, hanging out with bad people.”
“That’s when the pills started coming in, a lot of opiates. In my mind, I think I was just trying to self-medicate at the time, probably very depressed, so it just kind of spiraled out of control,” she added.
Portwood said she stopped doing drugs when she got pregnant with her daughter Leah because she worried about potential health issues for the baby. Her pregnancy was featured on “16 and Pregnant.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“A lot of people don’t even believe me when I tell them that, but it’s the truth,” Portwood said.
But a few months after giving birth in 2008, Portwood said she began taking opiates again.
“Six to seven months after Leah was born, I started taking opiates again, medication for my back for my scoliosis and I got addicted from there,” she said.
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The reality star said she became a “horrible opiate addict” and having money she made from the MTV series “Teen Mom” didn’t help.
Portwood was charged with domestic violence against her ex-boyfriend, Gary Shirley, in 2010. Two years later, she opted to serve time in prison after dropping out of her court-ordered rehab program.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Portwood seems to have turned her life around since her prison stint. She welcomed a baby boy in May with boyfriend Andrew Glennon and said she now can “drink a little” because she’s never had a drinking problem.
“Now I can have a glass of wine every now and again,” she said. “It’s not every day. It’s not every month.”