Actress Reflects on 2.5 Years Sober: ‘My Whole Life Has Changed’
Movieguide® Contributor
Lucy Hale is celebrating two and a half years of sobriety — a decision that changed her life drastically.
“When I got sober, my intention was never to be the poster child of sobriety,” said Hale, a soon-to-be recipient of the 2024 Humanitarian Award from Friendly House, an addiction recovery center for women. “But when I began speaking about it, it came from a place of needing to heal and take my power back.”
The 35-year-old says what was previously a path straight toward tragedy has turned into “the biggest gift” as people relate to her story.
“When women are together healing and growing, it’s just…it’s palpable. It’s just the best feeling to witness women blossoming and overcoming the impossible,” she said.
“I can’t believe I’m at a place in my life where I can talk about the things that used to bring me so much shame,” she said.
Since her teenage years, Hale used alcohol as a way to become numb and avoid her loneliness and problems.
Movieguide® reported:
Hale had her first drink at 12 years old, and it quickly became her way of coping with life’s problems.
“I wasn’t always sloppy blacking out – a lot of the time I was – but it was very clear I was drinking to escape something even at a young age,” Hale said.
“And it worked for me for a while, until it turned really dark,” she said.
“I always had a desire to change, but with any form of addiction, you become powerless to this obsession,” said Hale, who battled addiction through her 20s. “I definitely had to go through my own process of getting sober. It took many, many, many years, many relapses, many dark moments, many falling on my face quite literally, but figuratively as well to figure out what was working in my life, finding out why I was drinking, because removing alcohol is just one part of it.”
She says her time on PRETTY LITTLE LIARS prevented her from sinking deeper than she would have otherwise.
“If I’m perfectly honest, without my career and without that creative outlet, I don’t know if I would’ve made it,” the actress said. “I think that show and my love of what I do was my North Star truly, it really gave me purpose, and still gives me purpose. But I was constantly in this cycle of extreme depression and anxiety while having to show up to work and be on. And that ‘being on’ fueled even more drinking…I was caught in this cycle that I couldn’t get out of.”
She hit “rock bottom” at 32 and decided that she wouldn’t let her addiction control her anymore.
“I made the choice on the morning of January 2, 2022 that I was going to do everything I could to get sober,” she said. “I knew if I continued on that path, I would’ve lost everything I cared about. It was the scariest choice in my life, but also it’s been the best gift. When I made that change, everything else changed. My whole life has changed.”
The actress said in a podcast last year that she had to try a lot of different methods to stay sober.
“I had tried so many different things: rehab, out-patient, in-patient, trauma center, therapy, medication, you name it,” she said.
“I still have to make the choice every day like, ‘Okay, today I’m staying sober and today I’m choosing me,’ but that goes deeper than just not drinking,” she explained. “My life feels so good now that I wouldn’t give that up for anything.”
She enjoys the newfound peacefulness in her life that freedom from addiction brings.
“My life was always chaotic so my brain chemistry has been recalibrating,” she said. “What sobriety has taught me is to take things as they come and enjoy every moment of every day. I have big dreams, big aspirations, but where my life is at now is just trying to be as present as possible.”
“I love that I am just showing up as myself and not having to paint a pretty picture of what people expect me to be or expect me to say,” she says. “It just felt like the right time to finally show up as me because that’s all I’ve ever really wanted. It’s been a crazy journey, but I’m very grateful.”
Hale frequently finds ways to motivate herself in her sobriety journey. She shared a positive quote on her Instagram story Thursday:
You can start over at any time. Any age. You have more choice and control in your life than you’ve been told.
Most of our limits exist within our own thoughts.
Thoughts are not truths.
