Lucy Hale celebrates 3 years of sobriety: 'Deeply grateful every day'

Lucy Hale is marking a major milestone.

The actress, known for her roles in TV's Pretty Little Liars and Life Sentence, as well as the 2011 movie Scream 4, noted Thursday on social media that she's been sober for three years.

"Damn," she began in the post. "3 years ago today, I began my journey in remembering who I am. Since then, I’ve experienced moments that can only be described as pure miracles and magic. I am deeply grateful every day — for the people who have been guiding lights, for a power greater than myself that loves me unconditionally, and for my own perseverance in not giving up. To all of you who have supported my journey, I have felt your love and it means everything to me."

Hale's PLL costar Janel Parrish was one of many people congratulating her in the comments. "You're absolutely amazing," she wrote.

Demi Lovato, who's spoken about her own struggles with addiction, wrote, "so proud of you."

Hale, 35, didn't expect to "be the poster child of sobriety," she told PEOPLE in September. "But when I began speaking about it, it came from a place of needing to heal and take my power back."

The actress said she has to remain diligent about her decision to give up alcohol.

"I still have to make the choice every day like, 'Okay, today I'm staying sober and today I'm choosing me,' but that goes deeper than just not drinking," Hale said. "My life feels so good now that I wouldn't give that up for anything."

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

That wasn't the case in January 2022, when she hit what she calls "rock bottom." It gave her new motivation.

"I always had a desire to change, but with any form of addiction, you become powerless to this obsession," she told the magazine. "I definitely had to go through my own process of getting sober. It took many, many, many years, many relapses, many dark moments, many falling on my face quite literally, but figuratively as well to figure out what was working in my life, finding out why I was drinking, because removing alcohol is just one part of it."

Related: Pretty Little Liars cast: Here's where Shay Mitchell, Lucy Hale, and the other liars are now

Hale credited the series, which aired for seven seasons between 2010 and 2017, with keeping her engaged in life.

"If I'm perfectly honest," she said, "without my career and without that creative outlet, I don't know if I would've made it. I think that show and my love of what I do was my North Star truly, it really gave me purpose, and still gives me purpose. But I was constantly in this cycle of extreme depression and anxiety while having to show up to work and be on. And that 'being on' fueled even more drinking… I was caught in this cycle that I couldn't get out of."

Hale's latest project is the movie F Marry Kill, which came out last month. In the movie, she plays a true-crime junkie who finds herself in the middle of a murder case.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly