Josh Peck Recalls Past Battle With Drug and Alcohol Addiction

Josh Peck is opening up about the personal struggles he faced while dealing with drug and alcohol addiction, and disordered eating.

During a conversation with People published March 9, the Drake & Josh actor, who weighed almost 300 pounds as a teenager, shared that he used comedy as a “natural defense mechanism” growing up. 

Josh, 35, told the publication, “I spent most of my life dying to be typical, but I grew up with a single mom, I was overweight and I was a musical theater kid who really had no social status.” 

In time, the How I Met Your Father actor decided to change his eating habits, losing more than 120 pounds. However, despite the drastic weight loss, Josh said something was still missing from his life—and that’s when he began using drugs and alcohol.

“It became clear that once I lost the weight that I was the same head in a new body,” he added. “What is really clear is that I overdo things. And then I discovered drugs and alcohol. And that became my next chapter. I used food and drugs to numb my feelings.”