Jessica Simpson celebrated eight years of sobriety on Instagram, reflecting on how alcohol “sabotaged[her]dreams.”
“Eight years ago today, I chose to face, confess, and let go of the self-destructive parts of my life,” Simpson wrote on Saturday, alongside a smiling selfie.
“By making that decision, I was able to live fully in pursuit of God’s purpose for my life. Alcohol silenced my intuition, blocked my dreams, and chased away the cyclical fear of complacency.”
“Today I am clear. Today I am driven by faith,” she continued.
“Fear and faith are both things we feel and cannot see. I am so happy I chose faith over fear. It was in surrender, not in battle, that I found my strength,” Simpson, 45, concluded her message.
The singer, who announced her separation from husband Eric Johnson in January, told People magazine that her sobriety has helped her write songs as she returns to music after nearly 15 years.
“I started drinking too much in 2016 when I started writing music. It made me go places and feel pathetic,” she told the magazine.
“I don’t know why I wanted to feel sorry for myself other than the alcohol was lying to me and saying, ‘You’re brave because you can stand by me,'” she continued, adding that the sentiment was “not true.”
“I’m actually more honest without alcohol, and I actually believe in myself more without alcohol,” she said.
“Personally, I feel like it quieted my emotions. Instead of facing them, dealing with them, and getting over them, I just let them be.”
The Dukes of Hazzard actress previously revealed in her memoir Open Book that she decided to quit drinking because she could no longer dress her children in drunken costumes for Halloween that year.
“I was scared they would see me like that,” she wrote. “I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know who dressed them that night.”
Simpson was also addicted to diet pills for 20 years.
