Drew Barrymore reveals how she was put in psychiatric ward by her mother at height of fame

‘I think she created a monster, and she didn’t know what to do with the monster,’ the actor and talk show host said

Drew Barrymore has opened up about being placed in a psychiatric ward by her mother at 13.

“I was in a place for a year and a half called Van Nuys Psychiatric, and you couldn't mess around in there. If you did, you'd get thrown either in the padded room or get put in stretcher restraints and tied up,” she said in an interview with radio host Howard Stern.

“Don't you think, if your mother had been more equipped, if she had just sat you down and said, ‘Drew, why are you so angry, what's going on?,’” Stern asked.

“I think she created a monster, and she didn't know what to do with the monster,” Barrymore replied. “This was her last gasp, and I really was out of control, and I forgive her for making this choice. She probably felt like she had nowhere to turn. I'm sure she lived with a lot of guilt for years about creating the monster, but then I think she lived with a lot of pain because I wouldn't talk to her for a long time.

“Are you talking to her now?,” asked Stern.

“Yeah, we texted this morning. I’m really glad there is healing there, and we have spent our whole lives trying to figure things out,” she said.

“I have so much more empathy now, being 46 and the mother of two girls,” the Charlie’s Angels actor continued. “It's hard, and I raise my girls so much more traditionally, quietly, and very protectively. It's such an antithesis to my upbringing.”

Barrymore also recently opened up about her experience being institutionalised on her talk show with guest Paris Hilton, who has spoken about being placed in solitary confinement at a boarding school for “emotionally troubled” youths when she was growing up.

“I didn't like being thrown in solitary confinement,” Barrymore said. “I will say that I was very rebellious. I started riots there all the time. There were a lot of other kids like me, and my mom just didn’t know what to do with me.”