Sharon Stone Opens Up About Enduring a 'Massive Brain Hemorrhage'

— -- In 2001, Sharon Stone suffered what she describes as a "massive brain hemorrhage."

Her recovery was brutal.

"I spent two years learning to walk and talk again. I came home from that stroke stuttering, couldn't read for two years," Stone revealed in an essay published in the Hollywood Reporter. "I don't need someone to make me feel bad about growing older. I'll tell you what makes you feel bad: when you think you might not."

Stone, 56, said that now, she's doing well, which she credits to her hard work and determination to thrive. She tries to hit the gym four or five times a week and eats cleanly because, "people don't want to see a fat Sharon Stone."

"Perhaps another reason for the way I look is that I don't drink. Any alcohol," she wrote, adding that she was inspired by Madonna, who she was told also abstains from alcohol. "I've watched actors and actresses go off the rails with drugs and alcohol for years. Particularly when it all happens so fast when you're young. I want to feel all my feelings, to have every feeling a person can have and never not feel it. Now I'm a big tea drinker, though rarely ones with caffeine. I have an apothecary of tea."

"The key to looking good as you get older is, it all comes from the inside. You have to do what you like to do. If you hate to go to the gym, don't put yourself on a gym regimen," she continued. "Do what you like to do, but do it every day. I love to dance, and I dance hard. When I started thinking about aging, I thought, 'Who do I want to look like as I age?' And the answer was dancers."

Now, the actress is looking and feeling her best -- and others are noticing too, both personally and professionally. Not only is she unafraid to audition for roles that aren't originally meant for a 56-year-old actress, but also, younger men hit on her all the time.

"I believe there can be a movie plot where the leading hot guy who's 43 falls for me instead of the 25-year-old girl," she wrote. "Jesus, every time I go into a Starbucks, some 20-year-old guy throws himself at me! Although it might be because he knows there's a meal at the end of it. But these young guys know the sex would be better."