"It was the only thing that made me feel normal," the 'General Hospital' actor said
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/jacob-young-2-032026-e25ab6f412b344cdb2001c34973eb469.jpg "Jacob Young at the 'A Murder Between Friends' Screening at the AMC 15 on January 21, 2026 in Century City, CA")
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NEED TO KNOW
- Jacob Young revealed he was “wasted on opioids” for seven years after receiving a prescription following surgery
- “It was the only thing that made me feel normal,” the General Hospital actor said
- Young explained his substance use and addiction as trying to cope with the impact of his turbulent upbringing
Jacob Young is opening up about his years-long opioid addiction.
Appearing on Imperfectly Perfect Podcast, the General Hospital star revealed he had experienced opioid addiction after receiving a prescription after a surgery. The actor, 46, also shed light on his history of smoking, drinking and cocaine use — all of which, he reflected, seemed to be his way of coping with the impact of his turbulent upbringing.
Young said his first introduction to substance use was with marijuana, which he started smoking around age 14 with his friends. He wasn't much of a drinker of alcohol until his mid-20s, when he began experiencing fame from his numerous projects, including All My Children, General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful, and embracing New York City's nightlife, he recalled.
Young had also started using cocaine, which he attributed to the city and the crowd by which he was surrounded.
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But by the time he had married his wife, Christen Steward, he had primarily left smoking and drinking behind, he said.
After the couple had bought a house and moved in together, Young underwent dental surgery, for which he was prescribed Vicodin, he said. With the exception of his wisdom teeth surgery as a kid, Young had never tried opioids before.
"I went through seven years of my life, wasted on opioids — still trying to figure out what was wrong with me, but I didn't know," he said. "It was just needing to numb… It was the only thing that made me feel normal."
Young said no one knew about his addiction — not even his wife. He knew he needed help, but was afraid to get off the drugs because of the withdrawal symptoms. Still, he sat his wife down and told her the truth, and from there he was able to go to counseling and doctors to get the support he needed.
At the root of his substance abuse issues was his need to cope with his tumultuous upbringing, Young said, and in hindsight, there was a fair amount of trauma embedded in his early years.
Credit: Scott Garfield/ABC/Courtesy Everett
Young grew up with divorced parents, and the constant custody shift between his mother and father was unsettling as a kid, he said. He also came from a "humble upbringing," he said, with his family relying on welfare and food stamps to provide for him and his three older siblings.
Then, in his adolescence, Young went to live with his father and his wife, which was "great" at the time. But then, Young's stepmother — who had become "like a second mom" — died by suicide, and as a result, he and his father also fell out of touch. Coupled with a challenging relationship with his mother at the time, Young was left without a stable parental figure for some time in his teen years.
"I was going through stuff that I didn't realize that I was ever going to go through, emotionally," he said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.