Drew Barrymore Talks ‘Liberating’ Sobriety Journey: ‘So Much Peace’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Actress Drew Barrymore opened up about her journey to sobriety in a recent edition of her magazine Drew.
Separation from alcohol “has been one of the most liberating things in my journey of life,” Barrymore shared.
“It was something I realized just did not serve me and my life,” she said of the decision.
“One of the bravest things you can do is slay those dragons and finally change an awful cycle in which you’ve found yourself stuck. For me, it was to stop drinking,” she wrote.
While much of her life is public, Barrymore wanted to keep this journey private.
“I just want to figure this out and go about this with no profession, no public anything. Let me do this quietly and privately,” she reflected. “And now it’s been long enough where I’m in a lifestyle that I know is really working on a high road for my little journey, and there’s so much peace finally being had where there were demons.”
Sobriety has allowed Barrymore “to finally become free of the torture of guilt and dysfunction.”
“Take a moment, take a breath, and give yourself a squeeze,” she encouraged her readers. “We’re all just doing our best out here. And that in and of itself is something to celebrate.”
Several celebrities are publicly embracing their sobriety.
Movieguide® previously reported on the freedom actress Lucy Hale found from alcohol:
In a recent interview, Lucy Hale opened up about her struggle with alcoholism and the freedom she has found since getting sober.
“I have never talked publicly about being sober—I have a little over a year of sobriety,” Hale said. “I have been working on getting sober since I was 20; I’m 33. It took time. It took patience with myself.”
Hale has struggled with alcohol since her first experience drinking when she was only 14.
“I just held on to that belief that the real Lucy came out when she was drinking,” Hale said. “It also quieted my mind…my brain just doesn’t shut off and it’s exhausting. I was a textbook binge drinker, blackout, wouldn’t remember what I did or what I said, which is scary.”
Hale found escape through alcohol, which made her unable to break the addiction for a long time. Her family and friends had tried to stage interventions, but nothing helped.
“I tried to change for boyfriends, I tried to change for my mum, I tried to change for my career, I tried to change for vain reasons—‘I’ll look younger and look skinnier. I’ll stop drinking for that.’ One of my best friends died of alcoholism and that still didn’t make me want to get sober,” she added.
Ultimately, the change came when Hale committed to cutting alcohol out of her life on January 2, 2022, because she realized she “deserves more out of this life.”
Hale celebrated her first year of sobriety with a festive cake and “1 Year!” written on the top in yellow frosting. Posting on Instagram, she wrote, “this is a post about self-love and about the greatest thing I’ve ever done. On Jan. 2, 2023, I celebrated one year of sobriety.”
Sharing her sobriety journey has been “freeing” for Hale, and she said being alcohol-free feels “peaceful.”
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