Ben Higgins is using his platform to share an important message.
During a special episode of Addiction Talk, a Facebook Live series hosted by American Addition Center, the Bachelor Nation alum opened up about his past struggles with prescription pain medications following a knee surgery in high school. Ben, who starred in season 20 of The Bachelor, also recalled the moment he decided to make a change after stealing pills from his grandfather.
“The Bachelor gave me an insight into what vulnerability can do when done in an appropriate way,” he explained. “Sharing things that I’d never shared before, especially on national television kind of opened me up to a whole new world.”
Ben, who spoke about his addiction for the first time in his book Alone in Plain Sight: Searching for Connection When You’re Seen but Not Known, added that speaking out about his insecurities helped him connect with other people. “That gave me a new seeded kind of confidence in being vulnerable,” he shared, “and then I knew there was one other thing that was really sitting there on my heart that I’d never shared—like you said, with family, with friends—was my struggle with addiction. And not just the addiction piece, but my struggle on where the addiction came from.”
