Cara Delevingne is sober.
The English model sat down with Vogue for a candid interview, opening up about checking herself into treatment for substance abuse issues after seeing scary paparazzi photos of herself and realizing she was in a “bad” place.
“At that point, there was a lot of people who were very worried, understandably so,” she said in a video published Wednesday, “but I wasn’t really worried, though … but that is the nature of the disease.
“That is what addiction is.”
Eventually, Delevingne, 30, realized she needed to enter long-term treatment — a 12-step program — instead of subscribing to a “quick fix” such as a “week retreat” that she would not “fully do.”
“All I knew is if I was continuing to go down the road I was, I would either end up dead or, like, doing something really, really stupid,” the “Suicide Squad” actress shared.
“That was scary. … Treatment was the best thing. It was always something I was very scared of, but I think I needed that community. I needed that support group.”
Delevingne noted that she celebrated her first sober Christmas and New Year’s Eve this past December with her girlfriend, singer Leah “Minke” Mason, and shared that it was her favorite holiday season yet.
“I’m enjoying [sobriety]. It’s one of my favorite things to, like, go out and dance and have a good time but actually have, like, deep conversations and connections with people,” she said, adding that she prefers the term “healing” over “recovery” because it is something she is “constantly doing.”
Delevingne has been clean for four months and counting with help from therapy, yoga and ongoing treatment.
“This process obviously has its ups and downs, but I’ve started realizing so much. People want my story to be this after-school special where I just say, ‘Oh, look, I was an addict, and now I’m sober and that’s it.’ And it’s not as simple as that. It doesn’t happen overnight,” she explained.
“Of course I want things to be instant — I think this generation especially, we want things to happen quickly — but I’ve had to dig deeper.”