Category: Uncategorized

Me, aged 20 something being ‘not that bad’ in Ibiza This morning I was hoovering up play sand and thinking about Kristi Coulter. Pretty much a normal morning in my house. Specifically I was thinking about how she shares (in Nothing Good Can Come From This, her collection of brilliant essays about sobriety) that she drank a bottle of wine a night. I was also thinking about an Instagram post I saw from Club Soda linking to a blog written by someone who went back…Continue Reading “It doesn’t look like just one thing” →

Flashback Soberistas blog from 10 months sober OK, so maybe the next month and a half will be a bit harder than I anticipated! By way of a bit of background in every year of my adult life except the two when I was up the duff, from basically now until 1st January was always open drinking season for me. One of the reasons I love being sober so much is the freedom from all the ‘rules’ I surrounded my drinking problem with and the…Continue Reading “Taking a stand against the Christmas booze bullshit” →

Image credit: Daria Kopylova at www.unsplash.com I’m sat at my desk (home office, it’s not quite that bad) and it’s a quarter past midnight. I’m exhausted, hormonal and emotionally drained. I worked for 15 hours today. I cried in couples counselling. I’m 21 months sober in just under a week. And as I sit here these words have come floating into my head and I need to write them down even though they might be disheartening to someone in the early days (yeah, sorry about…Continue Reading “Finding my way back home” →

The longer I’m sober the more frustrated I become at this idea of the ‘normal’ drinker. Despite everything we now know about the detrimental effects alcohol has on health, the language of sobriety and recovery still abounds with it. This is my take on that now, from the perspective of 20 months sober, with a vastly happier and more meaningful life to show for those 20 months. 1. It is not normal to drink alcohol. It just isn’t. Alcohol is a carcinogenic, neurotoxic, addictive drug. This isn’t…Continue Reading “It’s not you, it’s them” →

Flashback Soberistas blog from 5 months sober When I look back at my adult life for as far as I can remember there has been a fundamental lack of contentment. My bookshelves in my 20s and 30s were a testament to this – Be Your Own Life Coach, Authentic Happiness, The Life Audit, The Road Less Travelled, The Surrendered Wife (WTAF?!). I always felt like I was searching for something outside of myself that would finally make me happy, but happiness always seemed to dance…Continue Reading “Chasing happiness” →

Image credit: www.hipsobriety.com Sober is a feminist issue. I say this as a survivor of sexual assault. As a mum of two little girls. As a now sober woman with a history of very problematic and often dangerous binge drinking. As a woman living in a world where women supposedly have equal rights but also where a man who thinks it’s acceptable to say things like ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’ is the leader of the most powerful country in the world and (alleged attempted)…Continue Reading “Sober is a feminist issue” →

Most of my blogs are thought about, written and posted within the space of about 30 minutes. But this one has been simmering for days, and I’ve never taken so long to write, edit and rewrite a blog post. Because this topic feels so important and I want to do it justice. I am a mum of two little girls, aged 2 and 5, who are simultaneously one of the main reasons I used to drink too much and also one of the main reasons…Continue Reading “Wine mummy wakes up” →

This is why I feel lucky to be where I am now, with the exact history I have. I would honestly say (from the perspective of 18 months sober) that in stopping drinking I have found my true self and found my best life. I spent most of my adult life worried about my drinking, feeling ashamed of my behaviour when I drank, feeling like it was a dirty secret and feeling terrified that I was an alcoholic and would have to stop drinking. I…Continue Reading “Why I feel like a winner” →

The longer I’m sober the more I realise how utterly bonkers the way alcohol is viewed in western society is. The main thing I remember now from my drinking years, which are already starting to feel like the dim and distant past, is shame. I was so ashamed of how I behaved with alcohol. I was ashamed that I didn’t know when to stop. I was ashamed that I couldn’t contemplate a weekend without at least one bottle of red. I was ashamed that I…Continue Reading “Swimming against the current” →

Flashback Soberistas blog from 14 months sober At 440 days sober today (just saying!) I rarely have any nostalgic or romantic thoughts about alcohol. But the odd one does sneak in under the radar from time to time. This morning I was looking at my new picture wall I’ve made of loads of our old holiday photos and the thought occurred to me that I will never drink alcohol on holiday again. Never again will I drink a mojito in Old Havana, red wine in…Continue Reading “Alcohol… or everything else” →