4 min readNew DelhiMar 10, 2023 06:11 PM IST
First published on: Mar 10, 2023 at 02:10 PM IST
Actor-Model Cara Delevigne has opened up about her struggle with substance abuse and how she entered rehab and did a 12-step program to overcome it. In an interview for the cover of Vogue magazine’s April edition, Cara shared that the viral paparazzi photos from last year were a wake-up call for her. “Sometimes you need a reality check, so in a way, those pictures were something to be grateful for,” the Suicide Squad actor told the publication.
The 30 years old said she cried with her friends after realising she needs help. “From September, I just needed support. I needed to start reaching out. And my old friends I’ve known since I was 13, they all came over and we started crying. They looked at me and said, ‘You deserve a chance to have joy.’ ”
Talking about her recovery journey that included a 12-step program, she shared, “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…. 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.”
She added, “Before, I was always into the quick fix of healing, going to a weeklong retreat or to a course for trauma, say, and that helped for a minute, but it didn’t ever really get to the nitty-gritty, the deeper stuff. This time I realised that 12-step treatment was the best thing, and it was about not being ashamed of that. The community made a huge difference. The opposite of addiction is a connection, and I really found that in 12-step.”
What is a 12-step program?
The 12-step approach for drug abuse therapy is a structured programme designed to help people overcome addiction and sustain long-term sobriety. Talking to indianexpress.com, Ulhas Gondhali , Lecturer at Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences who teaches a specialised course on “Illicit drug abuse and implications” in the institute said, “The 12-Step concept was developed by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in 1938 and has subsequently been adopted by many other addiction treatment organisations”.
“When founder Bill Wilson laid down the thoughts that had been forming as a result of his experience with and vision of alcoholism, he wrote about the good benefits that persons battling with alcoholism had when they shared their tales with one another,” Gondhali said.
Below are the original Big Book’s 12 Steps, as given by AA and shared by Gondhali :
1. Recognising one’s powerlessness over the addiction
2. Belief in a higher power (in whatever shape it may take).
3. Choosing to delegate authority to a higher power
4. Doing a personal inventory
5. Acknowledging wrongdoing to a higher authority, oneself, and another person
6. Being willing to allow the higher power to repair any flaws in one’s character
7. Asking the higher power to eliminate such flaws
8. Creating a list of wrongs committed against others and being prepared to make amends
9. Contacting individuals who have been harmed, unless doing so would endanger the individual
10. Continue to conduct personal inventory and acknowledge mistakes
11. Using prayer and meditation to achieve enlightenment and connect with a higher power
12. Bringing the 12 Steps message to people in need
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Cara Delevingne opens up about overcoming addiction. (Pic source: Instagram/ Cara Delevingne) 
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