CNN
 — 

Sharon Stone is looking back on a difficult period in her life.

In an interview with the The Hollywood Reporter, the actress talked about her 2001 stroke which resulted in a life-threatening brain bleed for nine days and a lengthy recovery.

“Everything changed,” Stone said. “My sense of smell, my sight, my touch. I couldn’t read for a couple of years. Things were stretched and I was seeing color patterns. A lot of people thought I was going to die.”

Stone said it took her seven years to recover and “people took advantage of me over that time.”

“I had $18 million saved because of all my success, but when I got back into my bank account, it was all gone,” the “Basic Instinct” star recalled. “My refrigerator, my phone — everything was in other people’s names.”

And while Stone said she had “zero money,” she also said she “decided to stay present and let go.”

“I decided not to hang onto being sick or to any bitterness or anger. If you bite into the seed of bitterness, it never leaves you,” she said. “But if you hold faith, even if that faith is the size of a mustard seed, you will survive. So, I live for joy now. I live for purpose.”