Sonja Sohn's Drug Abuse Wiki: Now Implies She Is Healing

Sonja Sohn endured a problematic early life riddled with domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, drug use, and a nightmarish environment outside the house. And among those aspects, her drug use would take over her life in the future.

Sonja Sohn’s Wiki: Early Life Difficulties Pushed her Towards Drug Use

Sonja Sohn was born on May 9, 1964, to a Korean-American mother and an African-American father. Her father was a veteran of the Korean War. Her mother was a war bride- whom her father brought back from South-East Asia.

Sohn’s family lived in a public housing project in Newport, Virginia. And it was not a good life from the very beginning for Sohn. Her father suffered from anger issues, and that led him to mistreat her mother with uncontrolled rage.

The pain was only added to this already-bad situation when Sohn’s babysitter started taking advantage of her. Her babysitter was an older girl, and she used to molest her.

When Sohn went through all of this, it traumatized her and pushed her to search for a way to let out her anguish—the search for an outlet to her pain led her to start writing poetry. She began her writing journey by scratching the walls of the street she lived in with bricks. However, she had not started writing actual poetry just yet.

She initially wanted to run away after the molestation incident. However, she later started to feel responsible for her mother. She wanted to make her sufferings stop. But, at that age, she couldn’t.

Failing to stop the violence, she turned to words and drugs. She started to use and sell drugs even before she graduated high school.

Sonja Sohn’s Drug Use Continued even After her Success in the Film Industry

Despite drug and familial problems, Sonja Sohn graduated high school. Then, she moved to New York and attended Brooklyn College. It was at this time that she started doing slam poetry.

Her poetry was noticed by Marc Levin, an independent film producer and director, after which he incited her to work on his independent film Slam.

The movie, in which she acted and worked as a writer, won awards such as the ‘Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film’ at the Sundance Film Festival and the ‘Caméra d’Or’ at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998.

Sohn also met her ex-husband, Australian musician Adam Plack before her acting breakout. They had two daughters: Sakira in 1986 and Sophia in 1990. They tied the knot in 2003, after giving birth to two daughters together.

However, despite her success in acting and a fulfilling family, Sohn could not let go of her drug use. And it started to harm her marriage and life in general. Her continuation of drugs eventually parted her away from her husband.

In addition to her husband, Sohn also lost her brother in 1988 in an incident that resembled her mother’s life story. Her brother was involved with a woman who had a past similar to her mother. The woman’s violent husband killed her brother in a rage.

Sonja Sohn began Helping Others while Facing Difficulties Herself

Sonja Sohn committed to becoming sober when she gave birth to her second daughter Sophia Wang. She also started to work hard to mend relations with her ex-husband and daughters that had been broken over the years due to her drug use.

In 2002, she was cast in The Wire (2002-2008). The role of Detective Shakima ‘Kima’ Greggs changed her life, as did the shooting location of the series: Baltimore, Maryland.

During her time in the series, she had to see young people live through the exact situations that she had lived through in her early life. This prompted her to do something to change their predicament.

In 2009, Sohn started a non-profit organization named ReWired For Change to help at-risk young people sort their lives out and make better decisions.

However, it does not mean that someone who is helping others is free from the problems themselves. Sohn, too, was not over her drug problems even until mid-2019.

Cocaine and Paraphernalia were Found inside Sonja Sohn’s Car 

In July of 2019, Sohn was arrested for having illegal drugs in her possession. The car in which the actress was a passenger was pulled over at noon by police near the Washington Baum Bridge on Jul 22 2019.

Upon searching the car, police found cocaine and paraphernalia inside the car. After that, she was registered on a felony charge for possession of cocaine and misdemeanor charges. However, she was later released on a $1,500 secure bond.

Sonja Sohn Implies that She is Healing

In an Instagram post in July 2020, Sohn wrote that she “was still on the mend” after she spent a year healing. She thanked everyone who supported and cared for her throughout the entire process.  

“Know that your care never went unnoticed. The hours of listening. Of riding with me through my exuberant emotions & deep sensitivity. Your support has been invaluable. I can only hope my friendship has been the same for you. Let’s see what the future holds,” Sohn expressed.

Her story shows that she—who was dedicated to helping other people live better lives—herself has been trying to sort out her life and has had a hard time moving on from her drug-addled past.

It will be a great day for everyone around her when she finally manages to do that.