Kristen Johnston pours out her "Guts" in new memoir

Kristen Johnston attends the TV Land holiday premiere party for "Hot in Cleveland" & "The Exes" on Nov. 29, 2011, in New York.

/ Getty

(CBS News) Actress Kristen Johnston opens up about her struggles with drug and alcohol use in her new memoir "Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster," due out Tuesday.

The "3rd Rock from the Sun" star, details her long battle with substance abuse, including her 2006 stomach ulcer rupture, which inspired the title of the book.

"It felt like I was speeding on the Autobahn toward hell, trapped inside a DeLorean with no brakes," Johnston explains in the book. "And even if I could somehow stop, I'd still be screwed, because there's no way I'd ever be able to figure out how to open those insane, cocaine-designed doors."

Johnston, who currently lives in New York, said she wanted to get her story out.

"Many people have to write that 'mea culpa book,'" Johnston, 44, told the New York Times, referring to other celebrities. "I'm revealing something by choice, not by need. And I think that's important, because then more people can do it. I just want the honesty to be OK."

Now sober for five years, Johnston stars in the TV Land show "The Exes" with Donald Faison and David Alan Basche. She recently launched her own organization dubbed SLAM (Sobriety, Learning and Motivation).

[Shelbird]

Thank you Kristen Johnston for this profoundly insightful message! I have just finished reading your book and have bought three more for a couple friends and family members. I have also been recommending it to EVERYONE I know! It is the most amazing story of a real life situation that I have ever read. Thank you for sharing this part of yourself with the world.