Why child stars like Hayden Panettiere fall into addiction - BBC News

Experts told the BBC the pressures of childhood stardom can put actors at an unusually higher risk of substance abuse issues.

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Hayden Panettiere's death at the age of 36 was announced earlier this week

Hayden Panettiere was 16 when drugs first arrived in her life in Hollywood.

Ahead of a red carpet event for the hit series Heroes, she has said someone on her team handed her a pill to help amp up her energy. The hit sci-fi NBC series had catapulted the teen into a household name - and that brought with it intense pressure and exhaustion she says felt overwhelming.

"Within minutes, a wave of energy washed over me, like I'd just woken up from the most refreshing night's sleep of my life," Panettiere wrote about that pill in her memoir, which was released just months before her death.

She called it "the gateway drug that ushered me toward the good of pharmaceuticals and the downfall of addiction".