Valerie Bertinelli, the actress who rose to fame in the mid-70s playing Barbara Cooper on CBS’s hit sitcom “One Day at a Time,” has celebrated a milestone in her sobriety journey.
In a subsequent post on July 2, Ms. Bertinelli listed some of the other changes she is focused on making in her life.
“I want to lead a full authentic life, with my heart open to experiencing everything. No more judging. Accepting who I am, flaws and all. What makes me, me,” she continued.
In her lengthy message, Ms. Bertinelli addressed the downfalls of unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as binge eating and drinking excessively “to numb/avoid the pain.”
“When we don’t allow ourselves to feel the pain, we can’t allow ourselves to get to the other side to where we can feel the joy,” she candidly offered. “I believe there is always joy and relief on the other side. At some point, we just have to slay that dragon and trust that joy will meet us there because the way we’ve been going about it just isn’t working anymore.”
Ms. Bertinelli concluded her post by encouraging her fans and followers to continue sharing their personal struggles.
Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
In addition to using alcohol to mask her pain, Ms. Bertinelli—who finalized her divorce from businessman Tom Vitale in November 2022 after 11 years of marriage—has previously discussed her battle with emotional eating.However, she noted that she no longer wanted to “get through the hard times” by eating her pain away.
Healing Journey
On the heels of her sobriety commitment, the Food Network star—who has appeared in several of the network’s cooking shows, including “Valerie’s Home Cooking”—took to social media early this summer to elaborate on her decision to embark on her healing journey.Ms. Bertinelli chronicled many of the hardships she has had to overcome in her life in her memoir, “Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today,” released in January 2022. The book explores the loss of her father, who died in 2016, and her mother, who passed away in 2019, and the struggles she faced in her marriage to the late rock legend Eddie Van Halen, who died in October 2020 at the age of 65 after a years-long battle with cancer. The former couple, who were married from 1981 to 2007, shared a son, musician Wolfgang Van Halen, born in 1991.
A month before the release of her cookbook, the actress took to Instagram to reflect on the progress she has made over the years.
“And hey, thank you all for staying on this ride with me,” the actress added. “Sticking with me through the tears to get to the joy on the other side.”