“It was the only thing that made me feel normal,” the actor admitted.

General Hospital star Jacob Young opens up about his 7-year opioid addiction: ‘I was living an absolute lie’

"It was the only thing that made me feel normal," the actor admitted.

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Popsugar.

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March 23, 2026 2:51 p.m. ET

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Jacob Young on 'General Hospital'. Credit:

Scott Humbert/ABC/Courtesy Everett

Soap star Jacob Young is opening up about a secret, years-long opioid addiction in the hopes that his story might help others.

The *General Hospital *alum reflected on his journey during a recent appearance on the *Imperfectly Perfect Podcast**,* where he revealed that he's had a history of smoking, drinking, and cocaine use — all of which, he came to realize was a poor method of coping with a turbulent upbringing.

"I had some dental surgery done," Young, 46, told host Glenn Marsden of the beginning of his opioid addiction. "And I ended up getting a prescription for Vicodin. This is something I've never been completely open about. I started getting hooked on opioids and I went through seven years of my life wasted on opioids."

Young recalled "just needing to [feel] numb," claiming that at the time he believed the pills were "the one thing that made me feel normal." He also claimed his drug use "never affected my work," adding, "I always showed up, I always did my lines. I was always well-studied."

"I was living a lie. I was living an absolute lie. There was no two ways about it," he continued. "And I would show up pretending that I'm completely normal, that everything is fine in my life, and then go home [and] realize that I just completely lied to everyone that entire day."

Jacob Young on 'All My Children'.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty

The addiction was far from Young's first experience with substance abuse, which he revealed began with marijuana when he was "like 14 years old," amid his being cast on *The Bold and the Beautiful *in 1997.

"And I think that was one of the ways I was coping, right? I'd hang out with my friends, we'd go camp, chill by a river, fish... we'd smoke our weed and hang out," Young recalled.

The actor shared that he had a "humble upbringing," claiming there were times when his family — including his three older siblings — was "literally starving." His parents divorced when he was young, and the constant custody shift between his mom and dad was unsettling as a kid, he said.

After his father remarried, his stepmother "quickly became like a second mom." But after she died by suicide when Young was 16, he recalled feeling "a whole new understanding of who I was, why life exists, how things can suddenly change in a second... I was going through stuff that I didn't realize that I was ever going to go through."

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As a result, Young and his father fell out of touch, which was doubly hard for the young actor who already had a challenging relationship with his mom at the time. The emotional upheaval of his many job changes — from *The Bold and the Beautiful* to *General Hospital* and *All My Children *— led the actor to more hard-hitting substances like alcohol and cocaine, which he attributed to the city and the crowd that surrounded him.

"It became very easy because I wasn't driving, right? I was always taking a taxi or public transportation, and so [I] started getting into really drinking a lot more excessively," Young recalled. "I don't think I realized the trauma that I had been through. I was drinking a beer or two, or three, four [and] that started becoming a habit to help ease the anxiety, all untreated from earlier years of my life. So I started leaning heavily on alcohol."

And when it come to the drug use, Young admitted, "Because I was going basically undiagnosed. I was dealing with resentment, depression, old wounds that were still bleeding inside of me. And [the drugs] seemed to just knock all that out."

By the time he had married his wife Christen Steward in 2007, Young said he had primarily left smoking and drinking behind. The couple welcomed son Luke in 2008, and daughters Molly and Grace in 2013 and 2016, respectively.

Jacob Young at the CBS Daytime Emmys after party in 2017.

Matthew Simmons/Getty

Young said no one knew about his addiction, not even his wife, until he made the decision to tell her the truth. "I finally broke down... I was like, 'Look, I'm addicted. And I can't get off this because I don't want to get sick, but I need help,'" he recalled of the moment.

The answer, Young shared, came to him through extensive therapy. "I wanted to get to the root of why. Why am I needing to do this?" he noted. "[I was] working my way out of it... That was a journey, to get off of that. That was really tough."

Young credited his support system for encouraging him to seek out the help he needed and delve deeply into the underlying issues that drove him to various substances for solace. "I'm not afraid to talk about it. We are all going through something in our lives," he told Marsden. "Whether it's raising children, trying to navigate that, whether it's just trying to raise yourself and figure out, 'Where am I in my headspace today?'"

Watch Young's appearance on the *Imperfectly Perfect Podcast* above.

*If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at **988lifeline.org** 24/7.*

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