Pooja Bhatt she has never shied away from speaking honestly about addiction, emotional pain and her journey to recovery. Having grown up witnessing his father Mahesh BhattIn his battle with alcoholism, the actor-filmmaker thought he once understood the damage alcohol could cause. However, years later, at a difficult stage in his life, he found himself struggling with the same problem.Pooja spoke about the time when her marriage with Manish Makhija was going through the roof and alcohol gradually became an emotional escape for her. “I was using alcohol as a crutch at that point,” he admitted in an interview with Vickey Lalwani, adding that “at that time he was drinking a lot.”Reflecting on that emotionally turbulent phase, Pooja said, “I was at the lowest ebb of life, when marriages break up, and when an 11-year relationship collapses, it’s like a death. I didn’t give myself time to cry. I said I’m fine and people were happy to tell me I’m fine.” Before her marriage problems, Pooja described herself as a social drinker. But between 2014, when she realized she was losing her relationship and eventually separated, her addiction to alcohol escalated.“I used to be a social drinker, but that phase between 2014, when I knew my marriage was falling apart, to end me, those two years, I drank a lot, because I was trying to put out the fire with gasoline. Alcohol makes you more aggressive; it doesn’t calm you down. It’s not painful.” The turning point came in December 2016 after a very personal message from my father. around christmasWhile exchanging love-filled messages, Mahesh Bhatt told her, “If you love me, learn to love yourself because I live inside you.”Pooja revealed that those words completely transformed her life. “It’s been 10 years, I haven’t had a drop of alcohol. I started loving myself 10 years ago, and that love story is still going and it’s going very well. I’m very content,” he said.While she fully supported Mahesh Bhatt’s decision to quit alcohol, Pooja admitted that many people around her reacted differently in the industry. “When I quit alcohol, some of my friends, my inner circle… They said, ‘He won’t be able to do it.’ When they saw me continue, they said: “Come on, have a drink. It’s my birthday, have a drink, it’s my anniversary, have a drink. “After you quit alcohol you got bored,” he recalled.He also shared an incident that remained sober with his years. Once when he called a local liquor store to order wine for someone else, the man on the other end sounded nervous. “He was scared in that guy’s voice saying I heard you quit. I told him yes, I quit. He said I thought you called it that…”That interaction made him realize how empathy sometimes came from strangers rather than from people close to him. “A stranger, whose business is selling alcohol, had more empathy than some people in my circle. The industry was very judgmental. The world was not,” he said.Long before she faced her addiction, Pooja also suffered from the harmful effects of alcoholism through a past relationship. Speaking to Rohit Roy on his Inside Bollywood show, she had earlier revealed that she faced domestic abuse due to a partner’s addiction issues.“I was involved in a disastrous relationship with an alcoholic. Pooja Bhatt, who looks like a strong woman, suffered domestic abuse because of alcohol,” he shared.Pooja has been vocal about her sobriety ever since she decided to quit drinking on Christmas Eve 2016. In an interview with Mumbai Mirror in 2017, he reflected on inheriting his father’s vivacious personality. “I was born to a man who never did anything in moderation and I inherited that. So when I drank, I drank a lot. It increases your appetite, even though alcohol does terrible things to your body, it messes with your mind and it colors your opinion of the people you hang out with,” he said.Over the years, Pooja Bhatt has continued to celebrate every milestone in her sobriety journey, often speaking candidly about self-destruction by choosing self-love, healing, and peace.
