Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of grunge legends Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, has experience with addiction. Both of her parents were notorious for their drug use back in the early '90s.
Unfortunately, she also knows just how difficult it can be for the person living with an addiction, since she's experienced it herself. In a revealing Instagram post from two days ago, Cobain shared that she marked two years of sobriety on Tuesday.
"It's an interesting and kaleidoscopic decision to share my feelings about something so intimate in a public forum," she wrote under a video of her gleefully soaking up the sun in Oahu. "The fact that I'm sober isn't really public knowledge, decidedly and deliberately. But I think it's more important to put aside my fear about being judged or misunderstood or typecast as one specific thing."
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Cobain admitted that before she made the decision to live a sober lifestyle, she relied on substances "to escape" from life and all of the emotions that come with it.
"It is an everyday battle to be in attendance for all of the painful, bazaar [sic], uncomfortable, tragic, fucked up things that have ever happened or will happen," Cobain wrote. "Self destruction, toxic consumption and deliverance from pain is a lot easier to adhere to. Undeniably, for myself and those around me choosing to be present is the best decision I have ever made. How we treat our bodies directly correlates to how we treat our souls. It's all interconnected. It has to be."
No longer afraid to feel, Cobain said that she would now invest her energy into honouring her "vibrant health and the abundance of happiness, gratitude, awareness, compassion, strength, fear, loss, wisdom, and the myriad of other messy, raw emotions" she feels "constantly."
"As cheesy and cornball as it sounds life does get better, if you want it to," she concluded.
Cobain's message comes at such an important time. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the number of deaths and overdoses in the United States has never been higher. In 2016 alone, CDC Wonder determined that more than 64,000 deaths were attributed to drug abuse. The problem has gotten so bad that the White House declared in October there was a "health emergency" in the US. Though the FDA is working on a "game-changer" drug to help people with opioid addictions, a quick cure could be a ways away.
Fortunately, there are many ways you can help a loved one — or yourself — with an addiction. As Cobain eloquently stated, no one is this alone, and there's always hope for a happier, healthier future.
If you are struggling with substance abuse, please visit FRANK or call 0300 123 6600 for friendly, confidential advice. Lines are open 24 hours a day.