Sex And The City star Kristin Davis calls her twenties “the worst time of my life” thanks to a vicious battle with alcoholism.

“I am an alcoholic,” the actress, who played straight-laced “Uptown Girl” Charlotte York on HBO’s iconic comedy, reveals to Globe Magazine.

Kristin says she started drinking to overcome her shyness as a teen growing up in South Carolina.

“Alcohol freed me,” said Kristin. “I was really shy and I didn’t know how to come out of my shell. People in the south drink a lot. From fifteen onward people hand you bourbon.”

“I drank for the same reason I loved acting. I wanted to feel things and express myself and be free – and I’m not naturally that way. I wasn’t outgoing. I wasn’t commanding attention.”

Kristin says she has been clean and sober for eighteen years following years of intense therapy.