Drew Barrymore recounts the struggle of being a teenager growing up under spotlight

Drew Barrymore came forth laying bare the harrowing experience of spending up to 18 months in a psychiatric ward as a teenager.

During a recent chat on The Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM Monday Drew recounted the ordeal of being a young person in the spotlight.

"I was going to clubs and not going to school and stealing my mom's car and, you know, I was out of control."

"So, you know, sometimes it was as humorous as that and sometimes I was just so angry that I would go off and then I'd get thrown in 'the thing.'"

Drew elaborated that “the thing” meant a “full psychiatric ward” where she was institutionalized for 18 months.

"I used to laugh at those like Malibu 30-day places. Malibu was sort of the opposite of the experience I had," Drew recounted. 

"I was in a place for a year and a half called Van Nuys Psychiatric. You couldn't mess around in there and if you did, you would get thrown either in a padded room or get put in stretcher restraints, and tied up," she added.