Lindsay Lohan. (Chris Pizzello, AP)
Weeks after finishing her sixth trip to rehab, actress Lindsay Lohan said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that she is an addict and realised she needed "to shut up and listen" because her approach to dealing with personal problems was not working.
"I'm my own worst enemy, and I know that and I admit it," Lohan (27) told Oprah Winfrey in an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). She said she realised she had a problem "over a period of time" rather than at any one moment.
Asked whether she was an addict, Lohan replied "yeah", adding that her drug of choice was alcohol, which she said had been a "gateway to other things".
Lohan, who shot to fame as a child star in The Parent Trap before huge success in hit films such as Mean Girls, has seen her image tarnished by a string of arrests, court appearances, bouts in rehab and a stint in prison, not to mention nearly continuous media coverage of the scandals.
She recently sought treatment at the Betty Ford Centre, then finished treatment at another facility.
'Tons of guilt'
Lohan told Winfrey she had often felt shame, and "tons of guilt" over her frequent relapses with substance abuse, public quarrels with her parents and scrapes with the law.
When Winfrey asked what was different about this latest time in rehab, Lohan said that she no longer takes adderal, which she took for ADD (attention deficit disorder). She said being on the medication was "all I know" but that she was now calmer without it.
Lohan said she now only takes vitamins and said her attitude had evolved.
"I just need to shut up and listen. In this case [in rehab], I wasn't fighting at all," she said, adding that it was clear that her idea of what works hasn't in the past.
Lohan spoke of a life steeped in chaos, starting with her home life, although she differed with a common perception that her parents exploited her talents for financial gain.
"Nobody's perfect," she said of her parents, themselves tabloid fodder, adding "I love my family".
"I don't think anything was intentionally done … they're just parents," Lohan said when Winfrey asked about the possibility of her parents having exploited her.
"I don't blame anyone for my mistakes," she added. "I did that, and I'm not proud of it."
'Chaos'
But Lohan said she felt many of her demons have endured due to "all the chaos around me, that I was so comfortable with".
Since completing a court-ordered 90-day stint in rehab on July 31, the actress has enlisted a "sober coach" to help her stay clean and guest-hosted comedienne Chelsea Handler's talk show Chelsea Lately on US cable network E!.
Her latest film, The Canyons, was excoriated by critics, but many praised her performance.
Lohan, who will also be the subject of a reality series on OWN next year, is required to attend weekly therapy sessions over the next 15 months to comply with a court order for a reckless driving charge. – Reuters