Los Angeles, April 13 (IANS) Actor Dennis Quaid has revealed that his addiction to drugs almost cost him everything in life.

"My greatest mistake was being addicted to cocaine. I started after I left college and came to Los Angeles in 1974. It was very casual at first. That's what people were doing when they were at parties," Quaid wrote in Newsweek.

As he came from small-town, the "Soul Surfer" felt overwhelmed by the pressure to keep up with life in the fast lane.

"Coming from where I came from -- lower-middle-class life, from Houston into Hollywood -- and all of a sudden this success starts happening to you, I just didn't know how to handle that. Doing blow just contributed to me not being able to handle the fame, which, at the time, I guess I felt I didn't deserve," he said.

The actor said that his occasional party habit converted into a severe drug dependency when he began filming "The Big Easy" in the late 80s.

"I was getting an hour of sleep a night. I'd wake up, snort a line and swear I wasn't going to do it again that day. But then 4 o'clock rolled around, and I'd be right back down the same road like a little squirrel on one of those treadmills. The lack of sleep made it. So my focus wasn't really there, which affected my acting," he wrote.

Quaid said his addiction has taught him humility, reports usmagazine.com.

"That time in my life -- those years in the '90s recovering -- actually chiseled me into a person. It gave me the resolve and a resilience to persevere in life. If I hadn't gone through that period, I don't know if I'd still be acting. In the end, it taught me humility. I really learned to appreciate what I have in this life," he said.