Drew Barry says being locked up in a mental institution at the age of 13 was good for her

DREW Barrymore says being locked up in a mental institution for 18 months as a troubled teen was ultimately good for her.

The actress has revealed more about her youth — which included battles with cocaine and

alcohol abuse — in her new book Wildflower.

The 40-year-old mother of two recounts how her own mother, Jaid, used to bring her to Hollywood parties where drink and drugs were freely available.

The former child star’s estranged father John Barrymore — of Hollywood’s Barrymore acting dynasty — was an abusive alcoholic

By the time she was 13, Barrymore told The Guardian, her parents were unable to cope and her mother “locked me up in an institution”.

“They (Barrymore’s parents) were pretty out there! But I realised, honestly, yeah, my mom locked me up in an institution. Boo hoo! But it did give an amazing discipline,” Barrymore told The Guardian.

“It was like serious recruitment training and boot camp, and it was horrible and dark and very long-lived, a year and a half, but I needed it. I needed that whole insane discipline. My life was not normal. I was not a kid in school with normal circumstances. There was something very abnormal, and I needed some severe shift.”

Barrymore described her stay in the facility as a “very important thing to experience for me.”

“It was very humbling, very quieting. Maybe it was necessary, because I came out of there a more respecting person,” she told The Guardian.

Barrymore said after her release she was then advised to legally separate from her parents and she moved into her own Hollywood apartment at the age of 14.