Zach Braff opens up about struggles with binge drinking

Zach Braff has opened up about his past struggles with binge drinking amid a battle with anxiety and depression.

Braff shared his journey while appearing on the latest episode of Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast.

"I definitely have had binge drinking problems in my life," he revealed.

"My problem with alcohol was never, 'Oh, I want to drink at noon.' And so, I rationalised that just drinking a f**k tonne on a Saturday night until you blacked out wasn't an alcohol problem."

The Scrubs star said he struggled with anxiety, depression, severe panic attacks and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which amplified his desire to drink.

He revealed that he came upon help thanks to a podcast by endurance athlete Rich Roll.

"The programme was called One Year No Beer, and it was a guy (Ruari Fairbairns) who was in the business world and his whole career was drinking," Braff continued.

"It was pints. Every day, he had to go for pints at lunch, and pints after. And his episode really spoke to me, not because I had that kind of relationship with alcohol, but because he said, 'Go on this journey and see what your life is like without it.'"

Braff said he went a month without alcohol, followed by another month, at which point he noticed a change in his mental health.

"Everything he was saying started to come to fruition. I was feeling better overall, less depression," he shared. "I started to feel everything that he was talking about."

The A Good Person director emphasised that he did not give up alcohol completely, as he still drinks socially. However, he doesn't "get drunk" anymore.

"I'll sip wine at dinner. I'll have a mimosa at brunch. I don't get hammered anymore because I just didn't like myself like that."