Jamie Lee Curtis proud of recovery

Jamie Lee Curtis credits her recovery from painkiller addiction - which started after she began to have plastic surgery - as the ''greatest accomplishment'' of her life.

Jamie Lee Curtis regards her recovery from painkiller addiction as the "greatest accomplishment" of her life.

The US actress - who previously admitted she became dependant on prescription medicine aged 35 following cosmetic surgery on her eyes - thinks her life would have "fallen apart" if she had not beaten her problem.

She told 'The Today Show': "My recovery is the single greatest accomplishment of my life. And without that, the rest of my life would have fallen apart.

"Recovery and motherhood are the two single greatest things in my life."

The 'Freaky Friday' actress also singled out Robert Downey Jr. - whose drug fuelled younger days almost led to his career being irredeemably wrecked - as another example of someone coming back from the brink.

She added: "Robert Downey Jr. was in prison for a year. And he is not only the greatest movie star in the world, he's a fantastic representative of someone who can repair the damage of their life."

The 51-year-old star - who has adopted children Anne, 24, and Thomas, 15, with her husband Christopher Guest - also admitted she used to drink to battle her loneliness and turned to plastic surgery when her body started to change shape as she grew older.

Jamie wrote in more detail of the problems her addiction caused in the wake of pop star Michael Jackson's death in June 2009 - from acute Propofol intoxication, although pathologists found a number of different prescription drugs in his system.

She wrote: "I too found painkillers after a routine cosmetic surgical procedure and I too became addicted, the morphine becomes the warm bath from which to escape painful reality.

"I was a lucky one. I was able to see that the pain had started long ago and far away and that finding the narcotic was merely a matter of time."

Jamie has now been sober for over 10 years.