Youth Wolf‘s Dylan Sprayberry opened up about his journey to become a Scientologist after battling drug addiction.
Sprayberry, 28, spoke about her encounter with Scientology in an Instagram video on Sunday, July 12, after fans saw her sharing “really cool videos” about the organization.
“I am a Scientologist. I have been a Scientologist for three years now. It was a historic event for me,” said the actor on Sunday. “It was a lot of fun.”
Sprayberry explained that he discovered Scientology after being drunk. “Earlier in my sobriety, I had this feeling where I was proud of myself and felt the difference of quitting drugs,” he recalls. “But I started to really think back on my life and the decisions I had made and I said, ‘Okay, well, the reason I started using drugs was because when I was a teenager, I had a lot of anxiety and depression.'”
After her mental health challenges became “too crippling,” Sprayberry began “self-medication.”
“When I made that decision, I was a chronic drug user for about 10 years. I was about 23 years old when I started to come to my senses. “About two years ago[to sobriety]I was trying to handle that anxiety and depression with these medications. Now that I was sober, I realized that it was still there. It is simply suppressed. That was difficult, but I had to deal with it.”
Sprayberry’s search for solutions brought him to the Church of Science.
“I’ve been lucky enough to meet some amazing Scientologists and the first thing you do as a Scientologist – when you start doing your services – is something called a purification rundown,” he explained. “A rundown cleanse is exactly what it sounds like. It’s basically a detox program that gets the drugs and toxins out of your body for good. I did that and it was amazing. It was really fun, because I’m a very active person, so doing a detox program with running and sweating in the sauna feels really good.”
Sprayberry is also recommended L. Ron Hubbarda book The Path to Happiness to help change his perspective. “I had a big realization – which sounds silly to say now – but it was that happiness is not something I have to earn,” she said. “It’s something I create within myself. I’ve been creating my own state of existence this whole time. The whole reason I was depressed and anxious and all of that was because I wasn’t the person who created happiness for myself.”
He continued: “I was causing stress and anxiety with my behavior, with my actions, with my view of the world.” So when I read that book, it really helped me to see the power of that. It’s not just something you do in your mind, but something I do in my actions to speak the truth, take care of your body and not use drugs and help your parents and not judge other people’s religions.”
Sprayberry insisted he is “doing fine” now. (The actor and his wife, Pruette KarlThey are currently expecting their first child.)
“I just wanted to share that with you, because it was something very special for me,” he concluded. “I have to put myself in such a good place in life and I am doing very well.”
