ERIK THOMSON MY ADDICTION STRUGGLE'

The Packed To The Rafters star opens up about his secret 14-year battle with alcohol

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Erik Thomson has revealed for the first time that he's been battling addiction issues for more than a decade. In a new interview with Rae Bonney on her Men's Health podcast, the former Packed To The Rafters star spoke candidly about what led him to turn to alcohol and other substances.

"I think I really hung my identity on my profession," the 57-year-old explained.

"As long as things were going well in my profession, things were going well for me. If things slowed down, I started slowing down, I started feeling like, 'Oh, hang on, there's something wrong with me.”

UNHEALTHY HABITS

The Scottish-born, New Zealand-Australian father of two admitted that the often-precarious nature of his profession would see him seek solace in a bottle.

“Right now, things are pretty slow careerwise,’ he said.

“There’s a healthy way to manage it and an unhealthy way to manage it. And I've done both.

“The unhealthy way, I've had struggles with addiction, I've had struggles with alcohol. It's something I've been dealing with. I started to turn and face it in about 2011, so quite a long time, and I’ve had long, long periods of sobriety.