Belinda Carlisle Speaks About Her Struggles with Addiction
“I can’t believe I’m not dead,” said Belinda Carlisle, founder of the Go-Go’s, about her three decades of cocaine addiction. Carlisle, who is soon to-be- 60 years old, finally got sober at the age of 47.
“I loved all the edgy drug films that made me want to go out and do drugs,” said Carlisle. “I always wanted to be the bad girl… I’m contrary by nature and think my addiction owed a lot to that… I was just born that way.”
She reflected on the life she was living under substance abuse addiction. “When I started to make money, I went a bit crazy,” she said. “Once I went to the race track and woke up the next morning owning a horse. I’d been drinking, doing drugs and betting and it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Her family was also affected by her substance abuse. “My absence as a mother when my son James was growing up is my biggest regret,” she said. “After I got sober he told me that when he was three he thought I lived at the airport. That really hurt.” She also spoke about her relationship with her husband of 31 years, Morgan Mason. “I put him through the wringer with my addiction and when I asked him once why he stuck with me he just said he always saw the person underneath.”
Carlisle mentioned how she always felt like an imposter when she was still living under substance abuse addiction; she discovered Buddhism a few years before she got sober at 47, saying that it was “so powerful. It was like holding a mirror up and realizing I was in serious trouble.”
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