'Shahs of Sunset' 's Golnesa 'GG' Gharachedaghi Reveals She Started Using Drugs at Age 11

In 2005, she sought professional help and checked into rehab

Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi’s battle with drug addiction began in her adolescence.

“I have a big drug past, massive drug past,” the Shahs of Sunset star said during a sit-down interview on E!’s Just the Sip. “I started when I was 11 years old.”

Years later, she sought professional help, checking into rehab in April 2005. “It was quite some time, it was almost 14 years I was using,” she explained.

Reflecting on her past, the Bravo star admitted that weed and cocaine were among the drugs she used.

“I haven’t gone back to those hard drugs that I did do. I don’t want to scare anyone — I didn’t do heroin or crack. I was born and raised in L.A., babe. You know, it’s cocaine and weed. That was the way it went,” she said.

When Gharachedaghi began using, she was still a child. But instead of hiding the drugs from her parents, who had immigrated to the United States, she lied to them and said that her American friends were allowed to use.

“I was first generation. So the easiest mechanism for me and my sister to our parents was, ‘Well, our American friends’ parents let them do it. And my parents are like, ‘Oh.’ So they didn’t want to be wrong as like they’re too strict on us,” she shared. “Everything was like, ‘Well, our American friends’ parents let them do it.’ We got away with everything.”

Instead of giving Gharachedaghi a high, the drugs took her to a low place.

“It was a pretty much low dive. Very, very, very long low dive at age of 11 for me for quite some time,” she said.

Gharachedaghi, now 36, said that it took more than 20 years for her to reach her “breaking point” in 2016.

“Two years ago. I think the breaking point just happened for me, I think,” she said. “I hope that was it, because I think I was at my lowest. I think I was at the point where I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I want to keep going anymore.’ ”

Now, Gharachedaghi uses weed to help with her rheumatoid arthritis — and credits her mother for getting her “into cannabis.”

“It’s because of my mommy,” she said.

“My mom got me into it because she was tired of seeing me going through all the side effects of western medicine and my mom’s very eastern style when it comes to remedies and she just wants to find the natural, most healthiest approach,” explained Gharachedaghi, who later added, “We went to a specific doctor, we got started. It started working immediately to where my western doctor is saying, ‘Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.’ “