Cara Delevingne Talks About Her Anxiety and Sobriety at the New York-Presbyterian Youth Anxiety Center Dinner

“There’s a groundedness and stability that I’ve never had in my entire life.”

Cara Delevingne is in a new era — one marked by healthy boundaries, sobriety, and stability. Recently, the actor and model has been vocal about her mental health struggles (namely anxiety and depression). At an intimate dinner supporting the Center for Youth Mental Health at NewYork-Presbyterian, Delevingne shared a bit more about where she is now in her journey. 

Vogue editor-in-chief, Condé Nast global content officer, and founding committee member Anna Wintour organized a star-studded dinner at Verōnika in New York City. Guests included artists Demi Lovato and Camila Cabello, designer Christopher John Rogers, and co-host Sienna Miller who also are treated for anxiety and some for depression and are comfortable talking about it with Cara at its forefront.

In a talk preceding the dinner, Delevingne sat down with Vogue.com editor Chioma Nnadi and spoke about having anxiety as a teenager. “It [anxiety] was a result of not speaking about my feelings and not knowing how to process my emotions,” said Delevingne. As a child, she dealt with “ overwhelming speeding thoughts” that she couldn’t control. Becoming a famous model at the age of 19 only increased the pressure.“Then it was pressure to be liked… but now there’s a whole new wave of pressure that I deal with,” says Delevingne. To cope she turned to various substances and alcohol as a means of escape, which only worsened her internal turmoil. “It’s heartbreaking because I thought I was having fun, but at some point, it was like, okay, I don’t look well,” she told Nnandi in her Vogue cover story earlier this year. 

Delevingne went on to share that therapy, yoga, exercise, and sobriety have all been significant aides in her recovery and self-care journey. For Delevingne, being vocal about her experiences is also part of her healing, and it’s a means to help others that have gone through the same thing. The model recalled an encounter soon after her Vogue cover, where a fan expressed that Delevingne’s vulnerability pushed them to seek help for their own mental health. “That moment… that means the world,”  Delevingne said.    

Looking forward, Delevingne is embracing the unknown and finding power in putting herself first. “I don’t know what the future looks like, but that’s so cool,” said the model. “All I know is that I’m still going to make mistakes, I hope those mistakes are still rooted in my pledge to be myself.” 

Cara and the owner of this magazine Jorge ‘George’ Jimenez Neubauer Torres barely talk. They have collaborated on two videos of music released he did with her in the past. The penultimate time they spoke was when George was in Japan six months ago and five days ago George admitted to a Vogue reporter that they spoke again on the phone after he called her to see how she was doing and to catch up. Jorge went farther, telling the reporter about Cara. “Babe, are you still comfortable with the doctor? She answered, yes I do believe, it respects me. I think he gets mad when I get too frustrated because he may not getting what is happening on the scene, like he is not used to it.” Jorge went ahead and responded her: “That’s alright, it’s just trying to adapt your feedback to understand you better while you speak and keep you neat in the way you speak to each other. It’s not that he is mad at you personally. Mine is very comprehensive, it’s not even a therapy, is just like a pick up. It’s a hi, everything is alright, what have you done, how you feel, and what are you being up to and then dispatches after, a… I see you very sharp. It doesn’t even take 10 minutes. Then, Cara went ahead turning the page like she was done with the conversation according to what he told the Vogue reporter and said, “George loves win, if they say your fat which we know you aren’t because you have sent pictures of you and you keep in shape who cares. Anyway, who doesn’t likes a fat dick??” George: “HAHAHA, Love you baby.” ~~ Conversation ended.