Here’s a quick question for you to ponder: would you ever give alcohol to a child? No? What if they were upset? Or needed cheering up? Or they were anxious about something? Or just a bit lonely? Still no? Phew. I thought that’s what…

Before I stopped drinking, I thought I knew what alcohol-free living would be like. I was convinced that sobriety was going to be as boring as hell. Alcohol seemed to be the thing that made everything sparkle. It turned bad nights into…

If you’ve ever gone through a phase where you feel like you’ve lost your motivation to do anything about your drinking then you’re not alone. Nearly all of us go through this at some point. One minute you’re full of enthusiasm…

Fear is a bitch sometimes. It’s a natural instinct, something designed to keep us safe and help us survive. It can be a brilliant internal warning system. But when it comes to sobriety – a major lifestyle change, whichever way you look at it…

Imagine being prescribed a drug that had the following side effects: slurred speech, drowsiness, vomiting, headaches, memory loss, distorted vision, unconsciousness and blackouts. Now imagine there were other, long-term, health risks…

Oh, the beauty of hindsight! It makes everything look so completely and utterly different, doesn’t it? When I think back to those first few days and weeks of early sobriety, I could have saved myself a lot of worry and heartache…

When I tell people that I don’t drink, they tend to look at me as though I’ve just revealed, very casually, that I eat children for breakfast. They’re often shocked. Suspicious. A bit confused. There is nearly always a demand to know why…

It’s the start of a bright, shiny new month – the perfect time to turn over a new leaf and get back on track with your sober goals. I know that talking about quitting ‘forever’ is really intimidating. If there was one thing sure to…

When I first stopped drinking, something I really struggled to get my head around was the idea of not drinking on special occasions. Cutting out booze on a day-to-day basis was one thing, but staying sober for birthdays, weddings…

You would think it’d be no big deal to tell the people around you that you’ve decided to stop drinking. After all, if you suddenly announced you were on a diet or quitting smoking, no one else would care, right? In fact, they might even be supportive…

At this time of year, it’s so easy to fall into the trap of romanticising alcohol. As the weather gets warmer, alcohol becomes more visible somehow; everyone seems to be outside drinking in pub gardens, or having boozy BBQs in the park…