Diego Loyzaga on rehab experience: ‘It was eight months until I got to see the sun’

Diego Loyzaga is not scared to admit he once entered rehab.

While it was the saddest thing he ever experienced, On Friday’s “Fast Talk with Boy Abunda,” the actor also said rehab changed his life for the better.

Diego even said he now wants to be an advocate for mental health.

“I’m so happy I have this platform now para lang lalo ko, I guess, i-explain ‘yung pangyayari or nangyari sa nakaraan, sa past ko, kung bakit ako umabot sa rehab,” he said.

“I was very, very depressed. I was on the brink of [being] suicidal and I will not deny that substances had a part to play with my mental state,” Diego continued, acknowledging the substances he took when he was down did not help.

According to Diego, his “life changed after” rehab.

“It affected also with being an actor. Like I said, hindi ako iyakin na tao. Pero ngayon, kung balikan ko ‘yung isang araw ko dun sa loob ng rehab, naiiyak talaga ko. It was so difficult,” he admitted.

“It was eight months until I saw the moon, it was eight months until I got to see the sun.”  

Diego said it was the saddest thing he had experienced. “You’re kinda trapped inside,” he said, as he acknowledged he “owed them my life.”

“Hindi ka makakalabas until you get to meet your family again and that was the saddest thing. They take everything away from you, so you appreciate all the things that are given back when you get to go out. And that broke me, you know.”

“When I explained it to my dad, ‘yung mga ginawa ko sa loob, ‘yung mga pinapagawa sa’kin, I learned from each and every single thing that we had to do inside and it changed me as a person, it changed me as an actor. Yes, it made me deeper as a person probably, yeah, pero again, I’m not saying I’m perfect,” he said.

In the interview, Diego shared how “for a time, I could counsel people” but made it clear that he is not currently sober.

“Once you have a sip of alcohol, it’s counted as relapse. So, relapsed ka na,” he explained.

Still, he is in touch with his counselors every day. “Every single day, I’m still in touch with my kuyas, you call them kuyas and ates from my rehabilitation, and they still monitor me all the time. I’m always still very open with them,” he said.

Diego plans to create his own YouTube channel to further explain what happened to him, what happened inside the rehab center, and “how my life changed after.”

When asked how he plans to explain this difficult episode to his daughter someday, Diego said, “I guess I’d say, ‘Anak, in life, people make mistakes.’”

“And I think naman if you don’t make mistakes, you don’t really grow. Bata ako nag-start mag-showbiz eh, sobrang bata. And everything I did, whether good or bad, it was publicized eh kasi your life is literally an open book for the public to see,” he said.

“I’d just say to her na ‘I hope you don’t judge me for my past. I hope you don’t look at me differently for the mistakes I’ve done and maybe might still do in the future but just know that I love you. And I promise that I’ll give you a life that I never had.’”

In the same interview, Diego was asked why he didn’t give up.

In response, he recalled what his dad once told him: “Adversity makes a man.”

“It’s all the hard things that you go through in your life and how you get back up that makes you who you are,” he said.

Diego is Cesar Montano’s son with Teresa Loyzaga.

Diego has a baby girl, Hailey, whom he first posted a photo of in June last year.

— Carby Basina/LA, GMA Integrated News