Sharon Stone Revealed Shocking ‘Drug Struggle’

Sharon Stone is opening up about a brutal health battle she says left her feeling like she was going through heroin withdrawal.

The Basic Instinct star revealed that she became severely ill after deciding to stop taking a medication she had been prescribed following her devastating 2001 stroke. Stone, now 68, said the decision came after years of trying to reclaim her body and live what she described as a “drug-free life.”

Stone suffered a life-threatening brain hemorrhage 25 years ago, an ordeal that nearly killed her and dramatically changed the course of her career. For years, she relied on prescription medication as part of her recovery. But last September, she said she decided to stop taking one of those medications despite being told she should never come off it.

“I got off one of my medications that I was on for my stroke last September, and they said I couldn’t go off of it,” Stone said. “They said, ‘You can’t go off of it. You can never go off of it.’”

Stone said she pushed forward anyway.

“I’m like, ‘I’m going off it,’ and it was like going off of f—— heroin,” she said. “I was sick as a frigging dog for four and a half months.”

The actress said her goal was simple: she wanted to feel like herself again.

“I just thought, ‘I want my life back,’” she said. “I had gotten off the majority of the drugs over the years that they had put me on. But I was like, ‘I want a drug-free life.’”

A source close to Stone said the actress had become increasingly determined to find out who she was without depending on medication every day.

“Sharon felt she had reached a point where she wanted to know who she was without relying on medication every day,” the source said. “It was an intensely difficult process, but she believed reclaiming her independence was worth enduring months of illness.”

But Stone’s health ordeal did not end there.

After getting off the stroke medication, she said she also decided to stop smoking cannabis. That decision, she claimed, triggered another rough stretch of illness.

“Once I got off that, I decided I’m going to quit smoking pot,” Stone said.

The actress said she believes modern marijuana is different from what people may remember from decades ago.

“Because I think they put so much stuff in it now — they really do — when I stopped smoking pot, I also got sick,” she said. “It’s not like you’re pulling it out of the ground anymore. It’s not like when we were kids. I got pretty sick for a month.”

Stone said she later spoke to her neurologist about what happened.

“I went to my neurologist, and he said, ‘Sharon, I’ve had people dying in the emergency room from marijuana,’” she said.

Another source said Stone is not urging people to stop taking prescribed medication or make sudden medical changes on their own. Instead, the source said, she hopes her experience serves as a warning about how serious those decisions can be.

“She is not telling others to stop their medication,” the source said. “Sharon simply wants people to understand how physically demanding the process was for her and why those decisions should always be taken carefully and with professional advice.”

Stone has spoken often about how her near-fatal stroke transformed her life. At the height of her fame in the 1990s, she was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, known for films including Basic Instinct, Casino and Total Recall.

But after the stroke, Stone said everything changed.

Speaking to the Today show in 2025, she reflected on stepping away from the spotlight.

“In the ’90s I think it would be fair to say I pretty much owned the ’90s as an actress,” she said.

Then came the medical crisis that forced her to stop.

“I stopped when I had a stroke,” Stone said. “I had a massive, massive stroke and nearly died, so I couldn’t work.”

Stone said the health scare made her rethink what mattered most. Instead of chasing the same Hollywood career she once had, she focused on raising her three adopted sons.

“When I reconsidered what value things had to me in life, I really wanted to have children and spend my time with them,” she said. “And I only really worked as much as I needed to to support my family.”

Now that her children are grown, Stone said she is ready for a new chapter.

“But now my children have left the nest,” she said, “and now I’m back to work.”