Chiara de Blasio, New York Mayor-elect’s daughter, admits to battling substance abuse

Chiara de Blasio, the 19-year-old daughter of Bill de Blasio, the next mayor of New York City, has admitted to battling depression and substance abuse in a video her father’s team posted today.

In the five-minute video, Chiara talks straight to the viewer and said she dealt with depression nearly “her entire adolescence,” reports The New York Daily News. Substance abuse began during her battle with depression. “It didn't start out as a huge thing for me but then it became a really huge thing for me,” she said.

She goes to college in California and at first thought that her struggles would go away by moving there, but that was not the case. “It made it easier, the more I drank and did drugs, to share some common ground with people that I wouldn’t have,” Chiara said, notes The New York Times.

She has received support from her parents, de Blasio and Chirlane McCray. “My mom was trying really hard to help me … and my dad was doing the same, but obviously he was really busy,” she said. “They were both very emotionally committed to trying to find out some way to get me better.”

Now that she’s sober, Chiara said that many more doors have been open for her and she was able to help her father’s campaign. “Getting sober is always a positive thing and by no means is it easy, it's the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's so worth it,” she said.

De Blasio, who won in a landslide victory in November, will take office at the start of the New Year.

image: screenshot

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