Demi Moore Details Past ‘Path of Real Self Destruction’ on Way to Recovery

Demi Moore opened up about personal struggles that led to a “path of real self-destruction.”

Appearing at the at the Peggy Albrecht Friendly House’s 29th Annual Awards Luncheon on Saturday, Moore gave a moving acceptance speech after being named woman of the year, opening up about her past struggles with her own recovery and the importance of the non-profit’s mission to create a “safe, structured and supportive home-like environment” for women recovering from substance use.

“I feel like there are defining moments in our lives that shape who we are and the direction we go, and early in my career, I was spiraling down a path of real self-destruction, and no matter what successes I had, I just never felt good enough,” Moore began, according to PEOPLE.

“I had absolutely no value for myself,” she continued. “And this self-destructive path, it very quickly … brought me to a real crisis point. And it wasn’t clear at the time the reason — maybe it was divine intervention — but two people who I barely knew stepped up and took a stand for me, and they presented me with an opportunity.”

“In fact, it was more like an ultimatum … unless I was dead, that I better show up,” she said. “They gave me a chance to redirect the course of my life before I destroyed everything. Clearly, they saw more of me than I saw of myself. And I’m so grateful because without that opportunity, without their belief in me, I wouldn’t be standing here today.”

“Life is certainly not a straight line and I think everyone here has dealt with not feeling good enough at some point in their lives,” she said. “I know in a moment of great struggle for me, I’ve reached out to a wise teacher and expressed my fear that I wasn’t good enough and she said, ‘You will never be good enough, but you can know the value of your worth. Put down the measuring stick.’”

“So today, I put down the measuring stick and I thank you for this beautiful acknowledgment and the opportunity to know the value of my worth,” she concluded.

The two-time Golden Globe nominee entered rehab in the mid-1980s for drug and alcohol addiction. In 2012, she sought treatment at the Cirque Lodge in Sundance, Utah for addiction and an eating disorder after she was hospitalized following a seizure due to smoking an “incense-like substance.”