Dennis Quaid Reveals ‘Daily’ Cocaine Usage in New Discussion of Addiction

Dennis Quaid opened up about his years of cocaine addiction on Monday during an interview on Megyn Kelly Today.

Quaid appeared on the Today Show, where he discussed everything from his new Hulu series, Fortitude, to his spiritual quest for happiness. Along the way, he spoke quite freely about cocaine, which dominated his life for many years.

“It was even in some movie budgets,” Quaid revealed. “I was basically doing cocaine pretty much on a daily basis during the ’80s.”

Quaid did not try to suggest that it was all fun and games for those long years, either.

“I spent many, many a night screaming at God to ‘Please take this away from me and I’ll never do it again, cause I’ve only got an hour before I have to be at work.’”

He succinctly captured the mindframe of those suffering from addiction as he described the cycle of self-loathing and justification.

“Then at 4 o’clock in the afternoon I’d go, ‘Oh it’s not so bad,’” he went on.

Quaid also said that “there was a completely different attitude” toward substances like cocaine in the 1960s and 70s, when he was growing up. He implied that this contributed to his normalized use of the drug.

After suffering for years with his addiction, Quaid said that there was one singular moment of clarity that turned his life around.

“I had what I call a white light experience where I saw myself either dead or losing everything that meant anything to me,” he said. “That was the end of the love affair with me and cocaine.”

Quaid said he began by admitting the severity of his addiction to Meg Ryan, whom he was dating at the time. He then checked himself into rehab, and hunkered down to work on himself. Quaid admitted that the adjustment took a toll on his creative output, but said that it left room for him to do some other self-exploration.

“I didn’t play music for a while, because it was so connected to music,” he said. “I meditated for ten years straight. I read the Bible, I read the Dhammapada, I read the Bhagavad Gita, I read the Quran. I just started really delving into the mystery. Because that’s what addiction is about, it’s about trying to fill up a hole inside of yourself.”

Quaid said that there were real-life consequences for his years of drug abuse and sudden sobriety, as well. He said that he had trouble finding work, and his unlikely savior that turned it all around was The Parent Trap in 1998.

Quaid summed up his roller coaster ride of a life in fame and addiction with one simple quote on the nature of happiness.

“What I finally found out is that happiness is a decision,” the 64-year-old actor said. “It really is.”