Former The Bachelorette star Hannah Brown revealed that she had begun to rely on alcohol as a way to deal with the sudden fame and anxiety that comes with being in the public eye, according to Us Weekly.
During an appearance on The Tamron Hall Show, Hannah said, “I’d never really been a drinker before, and I was on TV, like, every Monday for an entire year and didn’t know how to handle how my life had so publicly been displayed.”
She added, “[I] have always lived with a smile on my face and, you know, tried to pretend like everything was OK. But then when I was at home by myself, the only thing that was really giving me comfort was a glass of wine.”
Hannah admitted that before long, a single glass of wine was not enough to ease the anxiety she was feeling. She added, “[I have] no excuses for mistakes that I’ve made, but also I was not in the best place . . . I didn’t know what resources I had to be able to get that help.”
Hannah explained that her drinking began following her split from Season 15 winner Jed Wyatt, after it was revealed that he had a girlfriend before coming on The Bachelorette. Things got worse when subsequent relationships with runners-up Tyler Cameron and Peter Weber also failed to pan out.
“It was really interesting to see how it goes from one glass of wine, two glasses of wine, three glasses of wine, tequila,” Hannah explained at the time. “I’ve definitely reassessed how alcohol is a part of my life . . . You just are not going to find what your heart needs in that. I think just a lot of people, we do that. We kind of fill a void. I was definitely finding myself in that cycle.”
Hannah previously documented her struggles with alcohol in her memoir God Bless This Mess. She shared that she “started drinking at 11 a.m. — and never really stopped . . . I’d been drinking more. Sometimes a lot more. It was another way of avoiding the big problems, I guess.”
The Dancing With the Stars Season 28 champion continued, “I’m really glad that I’ve gotten the help that I needed. The therapy, the emotional support that I needed to kind of deal with my own stuff going on inside my heart and mind, and just my mental health, so that [alcohol] is not something that I go to for any type of solace.”
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Giving her a new focus on personal growth and well being is Hannah‘s relationship with boyfriend Adam Woolard. As she told Tamron Hall, “We are people that do not find wholeness through each other, but through becoming whole people as individuals that can then amplify each other’s growth . . . And that is something that I don’t think that I’ve ever had is somebody that is equally encouraged and motivated by continuing to challenge and get better and move forward and grow in life as I am.”
Hannah added, “[I] can really see the progress I’ve made just in how I view my relationship and how I view my relationship with myself.”
If you or anyone you know is facing substance abuse issues, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for free and confidential information 24/7.
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