‘COPING MECHANISM’

Selma Blair Says She Got Addicted to Alcohol When She Was Just 7

The first time Blair got drunk was during a Passover celebration, she writes in her memoir.

Actress Selma Blair has revealed in her memoir that she has had a lifelong battle with alcoholism that began when she was just 7 years old. In Mean Baby, she recounts a host of other traumatic experiences, including suicide attempts and sexual assaults. “I don’t know if I would’ve survived childhood without alcoholism,” Blair, 49, told People. “It really is a huge comfort, a huge relief in the beginning. Maybe even the first few years for me because I did start really young with that as a comfort, as my coping mechanism.” She said she used to take sips of alcohol during Passover but when she she was 7 “we basically had Manischewitz [kosher wine] on tap and no one was paying attention to my consumption level.” Blair got so drunk her first night that she couldn’t remember how she got to bed and, from then on, became dependent on sips of alcohol to assuage her anxiety, a reliance she said later turned into adult alcohol abuse.