Jessica Simpson Celebrated 4 Years Of Sobriety With A Throwback Hangover Pic
Yesterday Jessica Simpson posted a throwback Instagram pic to honor four years of sobriety. In the caption of the pic, which is after the cut, she explained that the person in the photo is an “unrecognizable version” of herself who used booze to numb their issues. 41-year-old Jessica writes that she knew she had to take back her life and “brave this world with piercing clarity” by quitting drinking. And she actually did! I don’t know about you, but I’ve had more than one puffy-faced Scarlett O’Hara-esque “As God is my witness, I’ll never drink gin again!” moment, but I’ve never actually followed through. So good on Jessica!
Here’s Jessica’s post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVvfEL1rRIV/
The caption reads:
This person in the early morning of Nov 1, 2017 is an unrecognizable version of myself. I had so much self discovery to unlock and explore. I knew in this very moment 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. 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.
I can’t believe it has been 4yrs! It feels like maybe 2. I think that is a good thing. Ha. There is so much stigma around the word 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. 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. I own my personal power with soulful courage. I am wildly honest and comfortably open. I am free.
Last year, Jessica shared she was sober while promoting her groundbreaking, tea-spilling memoir, Open Book. In a People cover story, she revealed that she’d been sexually abused from age 6 to age 12. When she finally told her parents, the abuse stopped, but they never talked about it again. As Jessica got older she began using booze and pills to cope with her buried trauma, the pressures of fame, and the anxiety of dating smartie-pants asshole John Mayer.
Jessica says her rock bottom was four years ago on Halloween. She started drinking at 7:30 am and got so “zoned out” while dressed up as Willie Nelson that she couldn’t get her kids dressed for her family’s Halloween party. Here are pics of her husband, Eric Johnson, and her kids, son Ace, now 8, and daughter Maxwell, now 9. Since then she’s had another daughter, 2-year-old Birdie:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba7v5sWgFYQ/
That night Jessica took an Ambien to sleep, and the next morning she says, “I slept in, afraid to see them, afraid I had failed them. I hid until they left, then drank.” Then she asked her friends to come over, and she admitted she needed help.
Earlier this year, she went on The Tamron Hall Show and said she “hasn’t thought about alcohol” during the pandemic. She said, via People:
“It’s weird because alcohol was an easy thing for me to give up,” Simpson responded. “It was holding onto how I romanticized the pain I liked to hold on to.”
Whoa, deep. I never thought I’d say this, but… can Jessica Simpson be my therapist?
Pic: Wenn.com