Ari Lennox has shared an update on her ongoing sobriety by reflecting on her past self and how far she’s come over the one year since she switched up her lifestyle.
On Monday (December 18), the Grammy nominee posted a series of photographs of herself looking healthy, along with a lengthy writeup about the still-new change.
“You see, drinking was my ritual to combat my immense fear of flying,” she wrote before going into detail about a near-death experience wherein she drank far too much. “‘Just alcohol’ could’ve killed me. I had many guardian angels watching over me that day. Thank God there was nobody filming (I pray and hope [crying emoji, side-eye emoji]) it was pretty divine.”
She added: “I decided December 18th 2022, would be the day I got clean. You know what I realized after 1 year of many sober flights? I never needed alcohol to get through the flight. I thought I needed alcohol to escape my reality and to cope. I needed an excuse to drink and not feel the pain of every day life and trauma. It was my numbing vacation to avoid my purpose and my truth.
“Thank you to my fans. I love when yall share with me your sober dreams and fetes. It makes me so emotional. I’m so proud of you and I love you all so much. We can do this.”
Read the full post below:
— Ari Lennox (@AriLennox) December 18, 2023
Over the summer, the 32-year-old singer celebrated seven months of sobriety by looking back at her past and highlighting the life-changing benefits of being a teetotaler.
The Dreamville star took to Instagram in late July to mark the major milestone with another lengthy message detailing her journey to that point, once again referencing her fear of flying. It is worth mentioning that the post has since been deleted.
“7 months sober.” she began. “That’s a lot of sober flights. A lot of sober conversations. A lot of facing things raw and head on. Honestly I don’t know what will happen when I reach a year sober. Don’t know if sobriety is forever or not but I can’t imagine going back to how things were.
“Passing out in the airport or having my emotions more heightened than needed smh shit was bad. I feel more in control of my emotions. More stable. More happy. More alert. More safe. More accepting of things I can’t control and more responsible with things I can.
“I have less anxiety socially and when I’m ready to go, I go. I recognize my threshold with things and implement boundaries. I don’t find interest in partying anymore :/ maybe I’m changing and that’s deeper than alcohol. I like doing chill sweet things. I’m a chill bitch I realized.”
She continued: “Accepting help and realizing I’m not the best traveler on my own has been a game changer. So now I have help and that helps. Having help is ok.
“I like waking up with no hangover or embarrassment. I like waking up with no night terrors and panic attacks from liquor.”
