Jessica Simpson Shares ‘Unrecognizable’ Photo From Day She Decided to Get Sober: ‘I Didn’t Love Myself’
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Jessica Simpson has opened up about her decision to get sober four years ago, sharing an “unrecognizable” picture of herself from before she stopped drinking alcohol.
The entertainer and fashion designer took to Instagram on Monday to share a 2017 photo of herself, in which she is sitting in a dark room with a ray of light shining on her face:
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“This person in the early morning of Nov 1, 2017 is an unrecognizable version of myself,” she wrote in the caption. “I had so much self discovery to unlock and explore.”
Simpson went on to reveal that this picture shows the “very moment” she decided to become sober, writing, “I would allow myself to take back my light, show victory over my internal battle of self respect, and brave this world with piercing clarity.”
“Personally, to do this I needed to stop drinking alcohol because it kept my mind and heart circling in the same direction and quite honestly I was exhausted. I wanted to feel the pain so I could carry it like a badge of honor,” she continued.
“I wanted to live as a leader does and break cycles to advance forward- never looking back with regret and remorse over any choice I have made and would make for the rest of my time here within this beautiful world.”
After celebrating hitting the four-year sober mark, Simpson lamented the stigma that surrounds alcoholism or “the label of an alcoholic.”
“The real work that needed to be done in my life was to actually accept failure, pain, brokenness, and self sabotage,” she wrote. “The drinking wasn’t the issue. I was. I didn’t love myself. I didn’t respect my own power. Today I do.”
“I have made nice with the fears and I have accepted the parts of my life that are just sad,” she concluded. “I own my personal power with soulful courage. I am wildly honest and comfortably open. I am free.”
This is not the first time Simpson has spoken candidly about her struggles with substance abuse, opening up about her addiction in her 2020 memoir Open Book.
“I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills,” she wrote, revealing that she got sober in November 2017 — the time the throwback Instagram shot was taken — and has not touched a drink since.
“I need to stop. Something’s got to stop,” she told herself after a 2017 Halloween party. “And if it’s the alcohol that’s doing this, and making things worse, then I quit.”
