Valerie Bertinelli Announces Social Media Break for ‘Mental Health’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Valerie Bertinelli has announced she’s taking a social media break to focus on her mental health.
“The last six or so weeks have been…a LOT,” she posted on Instagram. “And while I am incredibly grateful for all your support for my book and everyone I’ve had the good fortune to meet, this here introvert in extrovert’s clothing is in need of a mental health break.”
Bertinelli continued, “I know, I know, this isn’t an airport, I don’t need to announce my departure. I just know how some of you worry about me if I don’t post often enough. But, I’m good. Honest.”
“Taking a little social media cleanse/detox and a mental health break is a good thing and I’m grateful I’m at a place in my life where I’m aware enough to know when I’m overwhelmed and mentally/emotionally exhausted,” she concluded, telling followers to “take care of yourselves” and that she’ll “be back before you know it.”
Bertinelli has been hard at work promoting her new cookbook, “Indulge.”
“‘Indulge’ has a negative connotation that I wanted to strip,” she said of the book’s title. “And take back indulge and say, we should be indulging in the joys of our life…Or what if we change our brain and say everything we put into our body is decadent and indulgent.”
She thanked fans for their support of the book in an Instagram post, writing, “When I go on my walks, I do a lot of reflecting. Sometimes sweet, sometimes challenging. Reflecting on this week and the kindness all of you have shown me in our conversations at the Indulge book signings, and here online, I just wanted to send out a huge thank you for supporting me and for all your sweet responses to my life updates.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Bertinelli’s decision to stop drinking:
After Food Network star Valerie Bertinelli got a divorce, she numbed her feelings with alcohol, but then she figured out that it was only prolonging her pain.
“I was still going through a lot of crap, and I knew that I wanted to be on the road of intentionally finding my core happiness,” Bertinelli, 63, said in 2022.
“I would go out and have a fun time, drink, and the next day, I’d be so sad,” she told PEOPLE. “Because there was so much sadness in my life, and alcohol amplified it. I think it’s important to really not numb emotional pain.”
“Emotions are information,” she said. “When I decided to really question why I was having a certain emotion, I was able to — most of the time — walk through it and get to the other side. I’m actually shocked at how hard it’s not [hard to give up]. Because for a long time, I leaned on it. Right now, I love how I feel more than how the alcohol makes me feel.”
And right now, she feels great.
“I don’t need anything to amplify my happiness right now,” Bertinelli told PEOPLE. “I feel high just on life. I recently went out to dinner with a friend, and I had ginger ale in a wine glass. And it felt like I was celebrating.”
“I want to be clear that this process has taken a long time,” Bertinelli said. “I got more intentional about my healing. That meant a lot of walks with [my dog] Luna, a lot of therapy sessions, a lot of learning that I deserve to feel good.”
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