How Could I Be An Addict If My Dad Is Dr. Drew? | Paulina Pinsky

How Could I Be An Addict If My Dad Is Dr. Drew? | Paulina Pinsky

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol, food rules, or other people’s approval? Writer and performer Paulina Pinsky talks with host A.J. Daulerio about what self-esteem actually looks like when you’ve grown up under a very public spotlight as Dr. Drew’s daughter. Early on, Paulina describes self-esteem as “the ability to be able to look at myself in the eye… and actually see myself accurately,” calling it being “right-sized” rather than inflated or self-loathing.

From there, the conversation moves into disordered eating and the difference between body positivity and body neutrality. Instead of forcing herself to love her body, she learned to “look at my body and not make any judgment,” training herself to stop feeding the constant stream of negative thoughts. Paulina shares raw memories of extreme restriction as a teen figure skater, purging in college, and being praised for thinness while her illness was quietly celebrated.

She talks about how diet culture shows up now in pharmaceutical trends like weight-loss injections, and why she’s “very allergic to contemporary diet culture stuff” after all she’s lived through. Sobriety and addiction run through the conversation too. Paulina describes how her father finally seemed to fully understand her when she identified as an addict, recalling the moment he told her, “I’m really proud of you. That was like a really brave thing to do,” after her first meeting.

She also unpacks how sex and performance once masqueraded as self-esteem, and what it’s like to be constantly asked to account for her father’s public choices. If you’ve ever wrestled with body image, shame, famous parents, or just trying to like yourself without going to extremes, this honest chat might leave you wondering: what would accurate self-appraisal look like in your own life?