Supermodel Speaks About Addiction Battle

Feb. 23, 2004 -- -- Supermodel Naomi Campbell says cocaine addiction drove her "to the bottom of the barrel," and that if she hadn't stopped, it would have led to "some self-destructive thing."

"I was very, very low to the bottom of the barrel ... because of that drug," she told ABC News' Diane Sawyer in an interview airing Thursday night on "Primetime Live."

Campbell says if she had kept on using, her habit might have even killed her.

"Something would have happened. Some self-destructive thing," she said. "I mean, there are kids now having heart attacks at 21 years old. So you don't know."

However, the British supermodel says she never thought of hurting herself. "I think that's a cry for help," said Campbell. "I am a fighter in the respect I don't want the easy way out."

Campbell, 34, described her addiction as "a rebellion in a certain way." She said she's glad she's recovered, but acknowledges it's still difficult.

"I don't want to be in that pain again. I don't want to be in that place," she said. "But there's always that moment where you want to self-destruct, and I don't know what it is."

Campbell said she first tried cocaine when she was 24. "I was living this life of traveling the world and having people just give you anything," she told Sawyer. She described the life she led as "unrealistic ... I thought 'OK, I'm a rock star too ' ... [I was] living into this fantasy, which is really scary."

The supermodel described some of the dangers of the drug habit: "I think what is very scary about cocaine is that you start to feel too confident and you start to feel indispensable, although none of us are indispensable," she said. "You become short-tempered ... Your little charm goes. The little glow in your face goes."

Campbell says cocaine was the only drug she did and it was easy to come by. But she says she'd never do cocaine while strutting on the catwalk.