1986-1990

Drew had reached an awkward stage and her career slowed down. Eventually she landed the lead in the TV movie Babes in Toyland, which was filmed in Germany. Being back on a movie set made her feel confident and she didn’t use quite as much. However she had a big blowout with her mom when Jaid would not allow her to travel to Vienna with Rod Stewart’s tour crew. As Drew began to see her mother as an obstacle to her partying, their relationship started to deteriorate. Back home, Drew was enrolled in 6th grade at Cal Prep, a private school which taught classes up to the 12th grade. She instantly fell in with the older students, which meant mobility because they could drive, and easier access to drugs and alcohol.

At the beginning of 1988, Drew and Jaid went to New York so Drew could film See You in the Morning. The distance between them was increased further as Drew spent all of her time off work going to clubs and hanging out with an older crowd, including a serious boyfriend. Drew had been wanting to try cocaine and back in LA at her school’s prom, she finally got the opportunity. Immediately she was hooked. One night that June, Drew was out getting wasted with friends when she decided she didn’t want her mother to be in the house. She called Jaid and demanded she get out. When Drew returned home to find Jaid still there, she went on a rampage. Jaid had finally reached the end of her rope and reached out to a friend whose daughter (one of Drew’s former partying pals) had recently been through rehab. They came over and Drew was taken to the ASAP Treatment Center in Van Nuys.

Drew was extremely resistant to treatment at first, but slowly she started to engross herself into the program. After a few weeks, she left to film Far From Home and was able to remain sober during the shoot. However after returning for only a few short days, a trip to New York was made for an audition and to loop dialog on See You in the Morning. While there, Drew went back to her old ways and when offered some coke, she gave in. Once her sobriety was broken, she didn’t see a reason to stop. Drew and her friend bought more cocaine, stole Jaid’s credit card to use at their disposal, and took a plane to LA with plans to fly to Hawaii the next day. After a coke-fueled shopping spree and car crash, private investigators hired by Jaid caught up with them and took Drew back to ASAP.

Drew went back and forth with her progress in treatment. There were breakthroughs and set backs but this time she really committed to being sober. Issues with her self esteem, absent father, and manager mother were all explored. At the end of the year, she was finally given her discharge date, only to have the story broken in the press by the National Enquirer. Drew was angry but decided the best thing to do was to come forward and tell her story herself, and hoped it would help other young people struggling with similar issues. Once released from rehab, Drew decided to move out of her mom’s house and live with a friend. She worked odd jobs to pay her bills and tried to live a normal life, but things quickly went downhill. She had quietly broken her sobriety twice by smoking pot, and the strain of keeping the secret was too much for her to handle. On the 4th of July 1989, she was alone and deeply depressed. She attempted to reach out to her mom without luck. In a final, desperate cry for help and attention, she slashed her wrist with a kitchen knife and was once again taken back to ASAP.

This time there was no messing around and no leaving for filming. Jaid underwent her own treatment for her co-dependency and inability to have a functioning mother/daughter relationship with Drew. Telling her story had been so cathartic that Drew decided to write her autobiography, Little Girl Lost. Once released from rehab, she lived with her sponsor Jan Dance and her husband David Crosby for 3 months, where she finally had structure and rules. With her life finally back on track, Drew began to focus on her acting despite all of the struggles she would face trying to revitalize her career.

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Biography text written by The Drewseum and accurate to the best of our knowledge.
Information and photos compiled from various sources. Please do not reproduce this content without permission.
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