The Nashville star opened up about her experience with alcohol and opioid addiction in a frank interview about her substance abuse issues, and how they affected her personal life and career.

Panettiere, who shot to international fame as a teenager when she landed a role in the series Heroes and was acting from the age of 11 in soap operas and Remember the Titans, revealed that she was offered various substances from adults from a young age.

She was just 15 when someone on her team started offering her what she called “happy pills” before public appearances.

“They were to make me peppy during interviews,” Panettiere said in an interview with People. “I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing, or what door that would open for me when it came to my addiction.”

While her career was taking off, the actress was battling addiction privately.

“My saving grace is that I couldn’t be messy while on set and working,” she said. “But things kept getting out of control [off set]. And as I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn’t live without.”

Panettiere began playing the role of troubled country singer Juliette Barnes on Nashville in 2014, and her real-life pregnancy was written into the show.

She called those years “tough” and opened up about her experience with postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter Kaya.

“Those were really tough years,” she said. “I could relate to a lot of those storylines like the alcoholism and postpartum depression. They hit close to home.”

Panettiere said that she used substances to self-medicate during this time.

“I never had the feeling that I wanted to harm my child, but I didn’t want to spend any time with her,” she said. “There was just this gray color in my life.”

She admitted: “I would have the shakes when I woke up and could only function with sipping alcohol.”

A stern warning from doctors about the state of her liver prompted an eight-month stay in rehab and the beginning of her recovery.

“It’s an everyday choice, and I’m checking in with myself all the time,” she said. “But I’m just so grateful to be part of this world again, and I will never take it for granted again.”