Former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell says he 'felt like a rat in a cage' before he went to rehab
Drake Bell - who shot to fame as a child on Nickelodeon but was subjected to abuse during his years of early fame - felt like a "rat in a cage" before he went to rehab.
Drake Bell felt like a "rat in a cage" before he went to rehab.
The 38-year-old actor shot to fame as a child on Nickelodeon but was subjected to abuse at the hands of dialect coach Brian Peck during that time, and after opening up about the ordeal publicly last year, he reluctantly took himself off to a rehabilitation clinic for the sake of his mental health.
Speaking on 'The Good Guys' podcast, he told his former 'Drake and Josh' co-star Josh Peck: "I went to rehab in Nashville. I think it was just exhaustion.
"And just being...nowhere else to turn, feeling like a rat in a cage. Feeling like I couldn't do it anymore. Everything was public, man, it was just crazy.
"It got hard. I'd just had my son. Things were going on with my marriage and it was all happening at the same time, all publicly and all of that.
"I think I just got to a point where i was like 'I don't know what...I don't know how to do this. This is just something that I don't know what to do.'
"'I know how to survive, I've been doing that my whole life. So I knew I could do that but I didn't know...you can survive but have made really bad choices, survive and end up somewhere not too great or die or whatever it is."
The former 'Amanda Show' star - who is three-year-old son Wyatt with ex-wife Janet Von Schmeling - knew that he was going to survive his trauma no matter what, but admitted that it was only once he had got to rehab that it dawned on him that seeking professional help was the "best" thing he could have possibly done for himself.
He said: "I was like 'All right, I know I'm gonna survive, I know I'm gonna be all right. I know I'm not gonna be that headline.' But I didn't know what the hell was going on or how to navigate through it or do what I love again or be a father.
"I had to go somewhere...it was like this battle where I was kicking and screaming and I was like 'No I don't wanna go!
"And then finally I got there, it was beautiful. It was Nashville, Tennessee, it was just rolling green hills. Johnny Cash went there, they built a wing for him. There was just this peace. It was trees and silence. And rolling hills and a lake.
"It was the first time in so long - and I didn't even realise it - that I'd walked out, I just got my papers, I walk out and I see where I'm at and I just [exhaled].
"It was the first deep breath I'd taken in, I don't know how long.
"It was this sudden 'Oh my God...this feels like it's gonna be all right. You made the best decision you could have possibly made."
