Cara Delevingne’s First Hand Experience With Addiction and Mental Health
Everyone knows the glam, fame, attention, and parties that come with the entertainment industry, but there is a much darker side that the public does not always see. Cara Delevingne experienced the dark side of Hollywood and she had an in-depth interview with Vogue to go over what happened and how she is doing now.
Photo: Annie Leibovitz via Vogue
Delevingne has been in the industry since she was a teenager, and even before she entered the industry she struggled with mental health and substances. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon problem in the entertainment industry, but Cara’s bravery to share her story and her healing journey is admirable.
When Cara was a teenager, she already had confusing feelings as to who she was as a person, she felt lost. These feelings only continued and grew as time went on. She defined herself based on her work, what runway she was walking down, or which character she played in a movie. So, when COVID-19 forced a global shutdown in 2020, she did not feel like anything in her life was able to give her worth. These negative feelings about herself only progressed and she used partying and substances as a way to cope.
Photo: Annie Leibovitz via Vogue
When the world started getting back to normal, she protected herself from her own dangerous thoughts through the lifestyle of working and partying to the extremes. Later, in the fall of 2021, she started filming for a series based around her, Planet Sex. This was new territory for Delevingne because normally she plays a character, but now she had to “play” herself. Planet Sex was very uncomfortable because she also talked about her queer identity and intense love for women. Being open to the public is still a soft spot for Cara and having it broadcasted to so many people on this show was very overwhelming for her, but she was going to be open about her feelings and what she knows about her sexuality.
Photo: Annie Leibovitz via Vogue
Delevingne took her birthday celebrations seriously and booked a three-week trip in Ibiza to celebrate the start of her 30s. Although the location and celebrations were extravagant, she found herself isolating and not involving herself with the friends she had there. She told Vogue that at this moment she realized that she needed help with her mental health and substance use. However, you can’t just flip a switch on these things, she was still fighting with herself and not accepting the reality of what needed to happen. There is a grieving process when saying goodbye to a part of your life, and she knew that while she had to say goodbye to the extravagant party life, she was going out with a bang.
This “bang” came when the Burning Man festival arrived. She felt feral when she took the drugs since she would do just about anything once they were ingested. They gave her such a euphoric and invincible feeling that she had no regard for her own life and would climb and jump from place to place.
Photo: Annie Leibovitz via Vogue
Unfortunately, in September Cara’s life was very exposed without her permission. There were pictures and videos of her with very bizarre behavior that went completely viral at a Los Angeles airport. Seeing these videos on my social media feed was very hard to watch because I knew that this was a huge invasion of privacy and it was something that should not have been shared with the world the way it was.
Photo: Annie Leibovitz via Vogue
Although this was a very intrusive situation, it was a wake-up call for Cara. She realized in that month that she needs to reach out to her support system and lean on the friends and family that she has in her life.
In late 2022, Cara took the extremely brave step to check herself into rehab and make a genuine change in her lifestyle. This will forever change her life as the 12-step program that is learned while in rehab is one of her core values now. During her interview, she says, “The opposite of addiction is connection, and I really found that in 12-step.”
Photo: Annie Leibovitz via Vogue
Cara is now 4 months sober, and although I don’t know her personally, I couldn’t be more proud of her for finding something that helps her recover and sticking with it to watch that number grow each month. As for her future, she is going to make career choices with a lot of care behind them to make sure that it will be something positive in her life, and not something that will drag her back down.
The bravery and honesty that it takes to be so open with her journey is immensely respectable as not many people will agree to share that much. Thank you to Cara for helping the people who are silently struggling, those who need motivation, and whoever needs a reminder that you can reach out to friends, family, and any of the many mental health resources.