“Alcohol is a drug, and was my drug of choice,” says Pooja Bhatt as she completes almost 4 years of being sober

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Pooja Bhatt has been vocal about her alcoholism phase and how she got out of the addiction. Today, as she completes three years and nine months of being sober, Pooja took to her Instagram handle and shared a heartfelt note.

“Three yrs & nine months sober today. One more quarter and I will be four. As someone who drank openly, I chose to recover openly. I truly felt it was important to share my journey to tell others, women especially, who might be struggling that they are not alone & if I could do it so could they. Was ridiculed by some but lauded for being courageous by most,” she wrote.

“I wondered why people termed speaking openly about addiction issues courageous. And also why there is an ‘anonymous’ attached to groups that help you recover. I understand more than ever today that it’s because people simplify/stigmatise addictive behaviour & tend to criminalise it without attempting to understand why someone used a substance to begin with. Alcohol is a drug, and was my drug of choice. Just because it is socially acceptable does not mean it is not. I have had to make more excuses for NOT drinking in the last few yrs than I ever have for drinking-to friends, foes and ‘well’ meaning acquaintances alike. A fractured society can only heal & evolve when we attempt to ‘understand’ instead of constantly standing in judgement. When we empathise instead of vilify. Until then and even beyond, I will continue to speak from a place of compassion & truth, in the hope that there is ONE person out there I could goad to start on their own journey of sobriety and stay on their path. So help me God!,” she wrote.

This is not the first time the actress has spoken about her addiction. She has spoken about it regularly in the past several years as she battled it. Back in 2017, speaking about it, she said, “I stopped drinking by first acknowledging that I had a drinking problem. Because you are a woman and you live in a society where they are always taught or forced to brush things under the carpet. We tend to bury this shameful habit that we have of covering it up and say, 'Oh, we don't have a problem, it is somebody else's and I am not that drunk'."

ALSO READ: Pooja Bhatt highlights the plight of people who use drugs to make the pain of living go away 

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