Jessica Simpson commemorated four years of being alcohol-free by taking a look back at how far she’s come.

On Monday, the former pop star posted a photo of herself to Instagram taken four years prior, moments after she decided to embark on her sober journey. “This person in the early morning of Nov 1, 2017 is an unrecognizable version of myself,” Simpson wrote alongside the image of herself sitting in her living room in a pink tracksuit. “I had so much self-discovery to unlock and explore. I knew in this very moment I would allow myself to take back my light, show victory over my internal battle of self-respect, and brave this world with piercing clarity.”

She continued, “Personally, to do this I needed to stop drinking alcohol because it kept my mind and heart circling in the same direction and quite honestly I was exhausted. I wanted to feel the pain so I could carry it like a badge of honor. I wanted to live as a leader does and break cycles to advance forward- never looking back with regret and remorse over any choice I have made and would make for the rest of my time here within this beautiful world.”

After remarking how quickly the last four years have flown by, the fashion designer added, “There is so much stigma around the word alcoholism or the label of an alcoholic. The real work that needed to be done in my life was to actually accept failure, pain, brokenness, and self sabotage. The drinking wasn’t the issue. I was. I didn’t love myself. I didn’t respect my own power. Today I do. I have made nice with the fears and I have accepted the parts of my life that are just sad. I own my personal power with soulful courage. I am wildly honest and comfortably open. I am free.”

In her 2020 memoir Open Book, Simpson also opened up about her struggle with addiction to both alcohol and pills, revealing that she believes her dependency stems in part from trying to numb the trauma surrounding her childhood sexual abuse. During an interview on The Tamron Hall Show in March, Hall asked the billionaire how she coped staying sober throughout the pandemic, to which she replied, “It’s weird because alcohol was an easy thing for me to give up. It was holding onto how I romanticized the pain I liked to hold on to.”

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