Sanaa Lathan Reveals What Led Her To Quit Drinking

If you didn’t know, Sanaa Lathan doesn’t drink. Her reasoning? Health.  

“I stopped drinking about three years ago. Alcohol was not going well with me physically. Just, it was not working anymore,” the 49-year-old actor told PEOPLE.

Lathan, who will be starring in the upcoming Netflix series Hit & Run, says it was part of the steps she’s been taking to improve her overall mental and physical health. Alcohol began to affect all aspects of her life and the change has worked.

“It affects everything, and that’s part of the reason why I stopped, because even if you’re going out a couple of times a week and you’re drinking, it was starting to affect me throughout the week. It wouldn’t be necessarily a hangover, but it definitely dimmed my energy. I didn’t feel as good. It was affecting anxiety,” she continued. 

The Love and Basketball and Best Man star also spoke on the revelation she’s experienced since her journey of sobriety, noting that the culture of and societal projections of getting a drink and the fact that her mom never drank both contributed to her decision. 

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“I have a mother who has never drank, and she’s probably the funnest person, the happiest person, because there’s this whole belief that you can only have fun with alcohol. I had to really reprogram that aspect, because it’s just all over in our culture,” she added. 

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Lathan now mediates and, through therapy, found that there was a lot of unpacked trauma that led to her panic attacks and needing to drink. “I haven’t missed it,” she tells PEOPLE.

She plays a journalist named Naomi Hicks alongside actor and creator Lior Raz in the Netflix thriller and says she feels “blessed” for where she is now and life and the opportunities she still lands. 

Hit & Run premieres on August 6 on Netflix.