Best known to daytime television enthusiasts as Rick Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, Lucky Spencer on General Hospital, and JR Chandler on All My Children, Jacob Young has been a prominent figure in the soap scene since 1997. Having been a major player on big-name soaps for the better part of three decades, the Daytime Emmy-winning actor showed a different side to fans recently while talking about his past: vulnerability.
While a guest on the Imperfectly Perfect podcast, Young opened up about his difficult childhood and substance abuse problems that ultimately led to a seven-year battle with opioid addiction.
“Mental health has been a priority in my life for a long, long time,” Young told host Glenn Marsden before he spoke candidly about his past.
Before he burst into the soap scene, Young had a fractured family life. “I grew up in a divorced family. I didn’t ever know my parents together, as a young lad,” said Young. He had a “humble upbringing,” which included government assistance, welfare, and food stamps when needed, which also sometimes resulted in him not knowing where his next meal might come from.
After his father remarried, Young bonded with his stepmother, which led him to live with his father as a teen. However, when he was 16, his stepmother took her own life. “It was a whole new understanding of who I was, why life exists, and how things can suddenly change in a second.”
It was after he found soap opera success that Young’s dependency on substances began in earnest, and he started to spiral. “I started smoking weed when I was like 14 years old,” the actor explained. “I wasn’t even interested in alcohol until I got into my mid-20s.”
“I was drinking a beer or two or three, four, just to kind of lower the anxiety or the feeling of what I needed to do and get in front of the cameras and be interviewed. So that started becoming a habit to help ease the anxiety,” explained the actor.
“I got into my mid-20s, you know, then it was cocaine … and there was Molly. I was a single guy. I was making a ton of money in New York,” continued Young. “I was dealing with resentment, depression, old wounds that were still bleeding inside of me.”
“I started getting hooked on opioids, and I went through seven years of my life wasted on opioids,” admitted the actor. “Still trying to figure out what was wrong with me, but I didn’t know. It was just needing to numb [to] just feel normal.”
Young continued to work, so no one suspected that anything was wrong. “I always showed up, I always did my lines,” he said. “I was living a lie. I was living an absolute lie; there was no two ways about it. And I would show up, pretending that I’m completely normal.”
Eventually, he reached his breaking point and turned to his wife for help. “Nobody knew. Even my wife didn’t know. I finally broke down. I told her the truth, and I was like, ‘Look, I am addicted. And I can’t get off of this because I don’t want to get sick, but I need help.'”
Young sought treatment for his substance abuse issues and went to counseling. “I wanted to get to the root of why I am needing to do this?”
Now recovering, Young is focused on sharing his story with others to help those who might need to hear it. “We are all going through something in our lives. Whether it’s raising children, and trying to navigate that, or whether it’s just trying to raise yourself and figure out, ‘Where am I in my headspace today?’ It’s just coming to: finding peace.”
“My old manager, who passed away, he would always say be a peaceful warrior; be a fighter, but be peaceful.”
If you or someone you know has addiction issues, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration‘s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.
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