(CNN) — Cara Delevingne revealed she’s been sober for four months and says that “sometimes you need a reality check.”
“Obviously this process has its ups and downs,” the 30-year-old British model and actress told Vogue while discussing her experiences with addiction and depression.
“People want my story to be like a teen show where I’m like, ‘Look, I was addicted and now I’m sober and it’s over.’ And it’s not that simple. It doesn’t happen overnight. . Of course I want things to happen immediately – I think this generation especially wants things to happen quickly – but I had to dig deeper.”
Delevingne checked into rehab late last year, encouraged in part by photos taken by paparazzi at Los Angeles’ Van Nuys Airport in September.
The photos, which showed her disheveled, were a source of overwhelming embarrassment and a wake-up call, Delevingne told Vogue in an interview published Wednesday.
“I hadn’t slept,” he said, recalling having just returned from Burning Man after a summer of intense partying and going on a work assignment. “It’s heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point it was like, well, I don’t look good.”
“You know, sometimes you need a reality check, so in a way, these images were something to be grateful for,” she said, adding in an accompanying video that press attention “is the whole cycle for the people who they go through, aggravates.”
Delevingne is photographed for Vogue. Credit: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue
That moment, along with depression made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic, the death of her grandmother, lifelong struggles with addiction – she recalled her first experience of alcohol abuse at the age of seven – and recognition of her identity throughout filming Planet Sex, culminated in Delevingne seeking support and therapy.
After the photos were released, Delevingne says her friends supported her and that she committed to The 12-Step Program, a peer-to-peer support group first developed by Alcoholics Anonymous that includes joining one to surrender to higher power, in whatever form.
“This time I realized that the 12-step treatment was the best thing, and it was about not being ashamed of it,” she said. “Community has made a huge difference. The opposite of addiction is connection, and I truly found it in 12 steps.”
Delevingne said she spent Christmas and New Year’s sober with friend Leah Mason, “had a blast,” and incorporated meditation and movement into her twice-daily yoga practice.
“I still have a lot of energy,” she said, “but it’s not unpredictable. I’m calmer. I’m more stable.”
Delevingne shared the Vogue interview with her Instagram followers on Wednesday and said in an accompanying caption: “Every story matters and this is mine. We are all human. Of course we will fall and make mistakes. We’re going to go through some really tough things in life, but this is how we get back up.
“To all those still struggling, don’t give up, you are not alone,” he added on Instagram.