After surviving a stroke that left her with a 1% chance of survival, Sharon Stone has revealed why she defied doctors’ advice, quit her medication and later gave up marijuana in pursuit of a “drug-free life.”
Keep reading to learn more.
Nearly 25 years have passed since Sharon Stone suffered a devastating stroke that changed her life.
In 2001, Basic Instinct star reportedly experienced a ruptured vertebral artery that bled into her brain for nine days, leaving her with just a 1% chance of survival. The stroke forced her to step away from acting for two years as she focused on recovery.
“I had a death experience and then they brought me back. I bled into my brain for nine days, so my brain was shoved to the front of my face,” Stone, 68, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2024.
“It wasn’t positioned in my head where it was before. And while that was happening, everything changed. My sense of smell, my sight, my touch. I couldn’t read for a couple of years. Things were stretched and I was seeing color patterns.”
The stroke affected far more than her physical health.
In a 2023 interview with People, Stone explained she still needed medication to prevent seizures and had accepted that the experience permanently changed her life.
“For a long time, I wanted to pretend that I was just fine,” she said. “I need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep for my brain medication to work so that I don’t have seizures. So, I’m a disability hire, and because of that I don’t get hired a lot. These are the things that I’ve been dealing with…and I am open about that now.”
Despite those challenges, Stone recently revealed that in September 2025, she made the decision to stop taking the medication doctors had prescribed after her stroke.
“They said, ‘You can’t go off of it. You can never go off of it,’” she told Variety. “I’m like, ‘I’m going off it,’ and it was like going off of f***ing heroin.”
“I was sick as a frigging dog for four and a half months. I just thought, ‘I want my life back.’ I had gotten off the majority of the drugs over the years that they had put me on.”
Suffering through withdrawal symptoms, Stone said she remained determined: “But I was like, ‘I want a drug-free life.’”
Her decision, she explained, was largely motivated by personal tragedy.
While hosting the ART HOUSE Gala in 2023, Stone reflected on losing several people close to her because of drug abuse.
“A lot of my friends are dead,” she said, warning guests: “Do not cross the line between health and healing and abuse.”
After stopping her stroke medication, Stone said she decided to quit smoking marijuana as well. “Once I got off that, I decided I’m going to quit smoking pot,” she told Variety, explaining that withdrawal made her really sick.
“And because I think they put so much stuff in it now – they really do – when I stopped smoking pot, I also got sick. It’s not like you’re pulling it out of the ground anymore. It’s not like when we were kids. I got pretty sick for a month.”
According to Stone, her neurologist was not surprised by her reaction. “Sharon, I’ve had people dying in the emergency room from marijuana,” the doctor told the star of Casino.
After overcoming those setbacks, Stone has poured her energy into painting, discovering a new creative outlet that first took shape during the COVID-19 lockdown. Her passion quickly outgrew her bedroom, eventually prompting her sons – Roan, 26, Laird, 21 and Quinn, 20 – to step in.
“They come in and they say to me, ‘Mom, we just think that you should wear a bra.’” Stone said. “I’m like, ‘This is the same conversation my dad had with me in the 70s.’ Didn’t work then. Not going to work now. Thanks for your concern. Have a lovely day.”
They were however successful in convincing her to move her art studio to the guest house, and now, she said she’s selling her “work in galleries all around the world.”
She has also spoken about wanting to perform on Broadway, describing this stage of her life as one of renewal. “This has been a period for me in this last year of really reclaiming my life,” she added.
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