For many years, alcohol was simply part of my life. What started as weekend partying in my teens and twenties gradually became a habit that followed me into adulthood, parenthood and my career. From the outside, everything looked great. I had a good jobs in financial services, a nice home, a nice car and was financially secure. By most people's standards, I was successful.
Behind closed doors, though, alcohol was quietly taking control.
As I got older, the aftermath of drinking became harder to ignore. The hangovers lasted longer, the anxiety became overwhelming, and my confidence, motivation and mental wellbeing suffered. When my children came along, everything was magnified. Instead of enjoying weekends with them, I found myself planning activities around when I could have a drink—or recovering from the night before.
I wasn't physically dependent on alcohol, but I was absolutely psychologically addicted. I couldn't break the cycle.
The turning point came when I left my career in financial services to retrain as a driving instructor so I could work around my children. For the first time in years, I had very little structure in my day. Without the routine of an early morning commute, what started as the occasional weekday drink soon became drinking most evenings.
Looking back, it reminds me of what many people experienced during the COVID lockdowns. When routines disappeared and the days blurred together, drinking became easier to justify. I know now that structure had been protecting me more than I realised.
Some days my anxiety became so overwhelming that I struggled to leave the house. I knew what would make me feel better—another drink. Every morning I'd promise myself I wouldn't drink that evening, only to find myself pouring a glass at 4pm. I desperately wanted to stop, but I didn't know how to.
In November 2018, everything changed.
I discovered online sober communities and immersed myself in learning about alcohol, addiction and behaviour change. I committed to a 90-day alcohol-free challenge, and as the weeks passed, I began to realise just how unwell I'd been feeling for years.
It was like someone had handed me a brand-new life.
I experienced a brief lapse in December 2019. It didn't take long to realise I was right back where I'd been 12 months earlier, feeling exactly the way I'd worked so hard to escape. I poured the remaining alcohol down the sink, and I haven't touched a drink since.
Sobriety didn't just remove alcohol from my life—it gave me my life back
One of the biggest surprises has been discovering that life without alcohol isn't remotely as boring as I feared. My social life didn't disappear, my personality didn't change, and I haven't missed out on anything that truly mattered.
In fact the only thing I miss out on nowadays is spending Sundays battling hangxiety, fear and an unhealthy amount of fast food.
And trust me when I say this, there is ZERO FOMO.
