Addiction has affected Jada Pinkett Smith's family on multiple levels over the course of her life, so she dedicated her latest "Red Table Talk" to a candid discussion about the challenges the coronavirus pandemic presents for people struggling with addiction.
In "Coping With Addiction During COVID-19," Jada, 48, who's spoken openly about her parents' substance abuse issues, praised her 19-year-old daughter for cutting back on the amount of marijuana she smokes.
"Willow, I'm really proud of you as well, because you have decided to curb your excessive weed smoking," she told her daughter as her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, listened.
That's when Willow surprised her mom by revealing Jada was actually the main reason she took a break.
"You always were telling me, you'd be like, 'Gotta stop that smoking,'" Willow said, according to Complex.
"Only because as your mother, I could see the effects of it that you couldn't," Jada explained.
Adrienne, who quit heroin three decades ago and is now 30 years sober, agreed with her daughter, adding that it was "driving [her] crazy" to watch Willow use the drug given the family's history with addiction.
As Willow recalled to her relatives, once she gave up pot for three months, she suddenly saw certain aspects of her life in a way she had not before. Specifically, some of her friends appeared to lose interest in her once she was no longer getting high.
"When I stopped smoking it was a really big, like, eye-opener because I was like, there are so many people that I called friends in my life who kind of like…," she said. Before she could finish her sentence, her grandmother offered, "drifted away."
"I know it sounds so cheesy but around the time I stopped smoking I started doing a lot of yoga," Willow added, saying she's been less anxious and feels more productive now. "And I just excelled because I was putting all of my energy into that. Like I wasn't doing anything else and I was like, wow, what if I was doing this with everything?"
Adrienne, meanwhile, told Jada and Willow she's reconnected with her sponsor to stay safe, addiction-wise, during the quarantine.
Speaking to ET after the episode aired, Jada said she thought it was an important issue and that she found herself "dealing with old fear patterns" since the quarantine began.
"I haven't had a drink in a long time but those psychological patterns that once would make me drink or make me look for solace outside myself are creeping back in. These times are so uncertain," she said.
"I think after this there's just going to be a lot of recalibrating and that's just part of it," she added.
"Change is never easy. All those concepts and ideas that got us to a place of sobriety are the places we need to return to and hold onto even more fiercely than we have before."