Drew Barrymore says her therapist of 10 years, Barry Michels, told her she couldn’t do it anymore after turning to alcohol to “numb the pain” following their 2016 divorce.
Drew Barrymore recently shared that her drinking got so bad after her 2016 divorce from Will Koopman that even her therapist quit. Now, that doctor is weighing in.
The daytime host told The Los Angeles Times that Barry Michels, her therapist of 10 years, finally told her, “I can’t do this anymore.” She explained, “It was really about my drinking. I said, ‘I understand. I’ve never respected you more. You see I’m not getting better. And I hope, one day, that I can earn your trust back.” ,
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Drew Barrymore Says Her Therapist Gave Her Drinking Habit After Divorce
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According to Barrymore, it took him two years to do so. She said that when she reached out to him again, Michele agreed to work with her again. She said that it wasn’t until she landed on “The Drew Barrymore Show” that she made a real change.
“I think the opportunity to be on a show like this really impressed me,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘I can’t handle this until I’m in a really clear place.’
Michels confirms the basic beats of Barrymore’s story, saying that it’s actually a normal part of the process sometimes. “Sometimes a therapist has to suspend treatment until a patient is willing to stop some of the chronic self-destructive behaviors that are inhibiting therapy,” he said in a statement to EW.
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Drew Barrymore drank to ‘numb the pain’ of ‘seriously difficult’ divorce from Will Kopelman
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He continued, “Fortunately, in this case, I was working with Drew Barrymore—one of the strongest and most powerful people I’ve ever met. He did the right thing for himself, and we got to do our job again.” We were able to start the treatment together.”
The “Scream” star – who described being a mother as “the role of my life” – said she broke down after her daughters left for summer camp last year, and called Michelle, who reminded her that Olive and Frankie were fine.
“It’s not me being a bad mother. It’s not my childhood,” Barrymore reflected. “I have a lot of things I have to work through.”
As far as drinking is concerned, Barrymore admitted, she had to change her thinking about it. “I kept thinking, ‘I’ll be good at this. I’ll figure it out. ‘” And in the end, I just realized: ‘You’ve never mastered this, and you never will,'” she said, adding later, “I’m not trapped.”
