Former child star Mackenzie Phillips has faced numerous challenges in her life, including an incestuous relationship with her father for a decade, public family conflicts, and a battle with addiction to alcohol and drugs.
Her struggle with drug abuse began when she was still a young teenager.
During an interview on the show “Oprah: Where Are They Now?
“, Mackenzie, who is now sober and works as a drug rehab counselor in Pasadena, Calif., reflected on her tumultuous past and identified several overwhelming factors that contributed to her ongoing drug use.
Mackenzie attributes part of her struggles to a long line of undiagnosed mental illness, rampant addiction, and alcoholism within her family.
She believes there is a genetic component to her addiction.
Additionally, she points to being introduced to these behaviors at a very young age as another influence.
At the age of 10, Mackenzie’s father, John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas, taught her how to roll a joint.
By 11, she had already tried cocaine.
She was arrested for the first time just one week before her 18th birthday.
To her, none of this seemed out of the ordinary.
Mackenzie explains that witnessing various forms of extreme behavior and inappropriate actions desensitized her to them.
She fed into her addiction and shame, without fully comprehending the neglect and abuse she experienced.
The adults around her using drugs and engaging in risky behavior also distorted her understanding of what it meant to be an adult.
She believed that such behavior was a rite of passage.
The genetic monster inside her awakened and hungered for more.
She continued to feed into her shame, not realizing the root causes behind it.
Mackenzie also battled with the belief that she was somehow responsible for the traumas in her life.
She questioned if there was something inherently wrong with her, leading to her being punished.
As a young child, she sensed that something was severely amiss, but nobody provided her with the answers she sought.
This underlying confusion left Mackenzie feeling lost throughout her childhood.
She struggled to find her place and people she could trust.
At the age of five, she should have been filled with love and a sense of belonging, but instead, she felt the opposite.
