Mackenzie Phillips talks about the National Rural Institute on Alcohol and Drug Abuse

Born into rock and roll royalty to the legendary John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, Hollywood and the world took notice of the charming, talented, precocious child actor after her star-making turn in American Graffiti. Mackenzie Phillips’ life-changing role in the acclaimed 1975 sitcom One Day At A Time, with recent roles in Orange is the New Black, the new One Day at a Time and many others, has provided her experiences throughout her acting career to reach others. Mackenzie Phillips is an accomplished book author, video copywriter, script writer, singer, actress and valued public advocate.
She is also an educator for addiction recovery, healing the family system, and healing from trauma. In addition to her public advocacy, she has taken her education in Addiction Studies and applied it to countless improvements in program enhancement, case management, and family/referent support during treatment at Breathe Life Healing Centers. Mackenzie’s diligence and understanding of what it takes to support the total client recovery experience is beyond reproach. She has been a part of the Breathe Life Healing Centers team for over 4 years. Mack works with clients at Breathe Life Healing Center in Los Angeles, bringing with her a unique perspective, much of which has been shaped by her own battle with substance use, in addition to her ongoing professional training and Director of Referent Relations.
Not long before her fiftieth birthday, Mackenzie Phillips walked into Los Angeles International Airport. She was on her way to a reunion for One Day at a Time, the hugely popular 70s sitcom on which she once starred as the lovable rebel Julie Cooper. Within minutes of entering the security checkpoint, Mackenzie was in handcuffs, arrested for possession of cocaine and heroin.
Flying in Lear jets to the Virgin Islands at five, making pot brownies with her father's friends at eleven, Mackenzie grew up in an all-access kingdom of hippie freedom and heroin cool. It was a kingdom over which her father, the legendary John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, presided, often in absentia, as a spellbinding, visionary phantom.
When Mackenzie was a teenager, Hollywood and the world took notice of the charming, talented, precocious child actor after her star-making turn in American Graffiti. As a young woman she joined the nonstop party in the hedonistic pleasure dome her father created for himself and his fellow revelers, and a rapt TV audience watched as Julie Cooper wasted away before their eyes. By the time Mackenzie discovered how deep and dark her father's trip was going, it was too late. And as an adult, she has paid dearly for a lifetime of excess, working tirelessly to reconcile a wonderful, terrible past in which she succumbed to the power of addiction and the pull of her magnetic father.
As her astounding, outrageous, and often tender life story unfolds, the actor-musician-mother shares her lifelong battle with personal demons and near-fatal addictions. She overcomes seemingly impossible obstacles again and again and journeys toward redemption and peace. By exposing the shadows and secrets of the past to the light of day, the star who turned up High on Arrival has finally come back down to earth -- to stay.