The Heaviness Of Hiding Your Drinking #health #holistic

I saw a news headline the other day that said: “How doctors and dentists know when patients are lying about their alcohol intake.”

Even though I’ve been sober for over a decade, reading that touched a nerve. 

I remember what it felt like to sit in the doctor’s office, being asked about my drinking, trying to decide, “Do I tell the truth here or should I round it down?”

The article itself talks about all the telltale signs medical professionals look for, but that’s not what got to me. What really struck me was remembering the sheer heaviness of having to worry about little things like a trip to the doctor’s.

And that’s exactly what I’m talking about today – the heaviness of hiding (and managing) your drinking.

Key points

The hiding doesn’t stop at the doctor’s surgery

Every single woman I work with hides her drinking to some extent. Even if you live alone and think you’ve got nothing to hide at home, I bet there are still people in your life you’re hiding from.

Maybe it’s the friend whose evening calls you never answer because you might sound drunk. The invitations you turn down because they’d mean driving or staying relatively sober when you don’t want to. Emails you draft late at night but don’t send because you can’t quite trust what you’ve written.

It’s the small things that become heavy

Perhaps you worry whether your colleagues can smell yesterday’s wine when you walk into the office in the morning. Maybe there’s that familiar panic when you wake up and realise you sent text messages or called someone last night, but you can’t quite remember what was discussed.

Or perhaps it’s the clink, clink, clink of wheeling your recycling bin to the curb, hoping the neighbours don’t notice it’s full of empties. Perhaps you’ve started rotating between different shops because you’re worried the cashier is somehow keeping count of what you buy.

None of these things feels like a big deal on its own, but can you see – or feel – how all these little worries accumulate into something much heavier? That’s the real problem here. Not any single thing, but the cumulative weight of carrying them all.

An invitation for you…

First of all, be honest with yourself. How many of these little worries and challenges are you navigating each week? How many small things are you hiding, managing, calculating, worrying about? Make a list somewhere private – maybe on your phone – so you can see it all laid out clearly. You’re not doing this to shame yourself or beat yourself up, but just to see it properly.

Then, after you’ve made that list, close your eyes for a moment and imagine not having to manage any of it. Imagine it all just… going away. Imagine not having to worry about or hide anything, because there’s nothing to get caught out by. 

That relief you’re imagining? It isn’t wishful thinking – it’s your intuition telling you something important. You’ve been carrying all these little things for so long that you’ve forgotten how heavy they are. You don’t always notice the weight until you finally get the chance to put it down and step back.

Sobriety can feel like relief

We tend to assume there’s a heaviness to not drinking – that it’s going to be hard work in and of itself. But I promise, alcohol-free living does not have to feel like white-knuckling and deprivation. Not when you’re doing it the right way. It can just feel lighter. 

Remember, more often than not, there isn’t a big rock-bottom moment that changes things. It’s just the accumulated heaviness of all the little things that one day, becomes too much to carry. 

Ready to create an alcohol-free life you love? Click here to learn more about my Getting Unstuck course.

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What These Sober Women Want You To Know #health #holistic

There are so many things I wish I’d known about alcohol-free living before I quit. 

Back then, I was convinced my life was basically going to be over, if I couldn’t drink. 

Without alcohol, I thought I’d either die of boredom or I’d become a sad sober loser –  abandoned by all her friends – and the loneliness would do me in instead. 

(Dramatic? Me? Just a bit…)

With those kinds of beliefs, it’s no wonder I was a bit resistant to quitting drinking. And I know I’m not the only one who anticipates the worst.

So here’s my attempt to put your mind at rest. 

I’m going to pass on some messages for you, from a few of my Sober School students.

I met up with them in person last month and asked them to write you a message. Watch the video to see what they have to say!

Key points

Their biggest wins

These aren’t small achievements. These are life-changing moments that happened because these women put down the wine glass:

• “749 days sober. My big win? Being effortlessly alcohol-free. No mental chatter, ever. An upgrade indeed.”
• “399 days sober. Thousands saved. My big win? I like myself.”
• “1076 days sober and £10,000 saved. My big win is that I got myself back.”
• “Seven and a half years sober. Saved enough to buy a car and get a mortgage on my own. My big win is that my partner has never and will never see me drunk.”
• “£6,000 saved in 1,120 days. My big win? Dealing with the sudden death of my husband without returning to drinking.”
• “I’m 3.5 years sober and I saved enough money in sobriety to get my teeth fixed – and I overcame my agoraphobia.”

What they want you to know: 

• “Sobriety doesn’t need to be boring. Sobriety rocks.”
• “What a life upgrade it is.”
• “How good a nine-hour sleep feels. Life is bloody good fun without booze. People don’t really care if you’re not drinking.”
• “I wish I’d known there was nothing wrong with me because I was struggling to stop, and I didn’t have to be ashamed about being addicted. That I wasn’t broken.”
• “I wish I’d known that I could still be fun and interesting without alcohol.”
• “I didn’t know that I could be successful. I was so worried about failing after so many Dry Januarys.”
• “The importance of education. You need to know the truth about alcohol and the power of a community.”

These are just a few messages from some of The Sober School graduates who attended my event in Birmingham. As I said in the video, I know you might not believe me when I tell you how good alcohol-free living can be. But I hope these real, heartfelt notes do strike a chord with you, and perhaps you’ll be able to believe the women who wrote them. 

Not one of these women described sobriety as a sacrifice. Not one said they missed drinking or wished they’d waited longer to quit. What they talked about was freedom, sleep, money, confidence and getting themselves back.

Ready to create an alcohol-free life you love? Click here to learn more about my Getting Unstuck course.

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My Name’s Kate And I’m Not An Alcoholic #health #holistic

In my drinking days, I must have googled “Am I an alcoholic?” so many times. 

I didn’t think I actually was an alcoholic, but my drinking certainly didn’t feel “normal”. I was stuck, not finding anything that described me or what to do next. 

Fast forward to today and an awful lot has changed. 

Not only am I happily sober, but my thoughts on the whole “alcoholic” label are a lot clearer. I wanted to share them here, in case you’re feeling as confused as I was. 

Key points

What exactly is an alcoholic anyway?

It’s a genuine question. How do you define that? Is it someone who regularly drinks above the recommended guidelines or often has more than they intend to? Or is it someone who feels they have to drink every single day? It’s so hard to define.

Some studies have found that only ten percent of excessive drinkers are officially ‘alcohol dependent’. Even if you fill out an online questionnaire about your drinking, it won’t tell you that you’re an alcoholic – it will refer to an alcohol use disorder instead.

Alcohol vs other drugs

When it comes to other substances, we’re not so obsessed with labels. Smokers never wonder if they are nicotine-oholics or whether they have a disease. They’re never going to question why they can’t just ‘control’ their intake of cigarettes or why they can’t smoke ‘responsibly’. 

The difference is that we recognise nicotine as a drug. We understand that if you use an addictive drug, then you’re probably going to get addicted to it. That addiction won’t be a reflection on you or your morals or your inner strength – it’s just what happens. 

A controversial opinion

Some people will come at me for this… but honestly? I think the only people who like to use the word alcoholic, are those who benefit from labelling others. It suits the alcohol industry to pretend that there’s such a thing as ‘normal’ or ‘responsible’ drinking. 

Other drinkers benefit from this too. They want to believe that they’re fine, they’re normal, they’re not doing anything wrong… and people who “have” to quit are different from them. It suits the system to keep perpetuating the myth that there’s just a small group of people out there who can’t use alcohol “responsibly”. 

No need for labels

As you might have guessed, I don’t call myself an alcoholic, I don’t think I am at all. I think I had a very normal relationship with alcohol, because it’s normal to get addicted to addictive substances, especially when they’re romanticised and glamorised. 

Unless the “alcoholic” label empowers you to change, feel free to ditch it. If you quit drinking, all it really means is that you’re a non-drinker. You’re alcohol free. You’re a teetotaler. You’re enjoying a hangover-free lifestyle. And you’re awesome. That’s it!

Ready to create an alcohol-free life you love? Click here to learn more about my Getting Unstuck course.

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Forget Dry January – February Matters Just As Much! #health #holistic

February is here. If you did Dry January, how did it go?

Maybe you sailed through and plan to continue… or perhaps you’re not sure what to do next. Maybe you’ve already had a drink or struggled to make it through the month.

I’ve had ALL of those experiences at some point or another, so I know what it’s like. 

And here’s the thing: it’s what you do next that matters just as much as what happened in January. I explain why in this video.

Key points

No matter what you do next, reflect first

It’s really important to capture how you’re feeling right now – the good and the bad. (Download the Dry January Debrief to help with this). Some of my biggest breakthroughs came from reading something I’d written months earlier and realising: “I forgot how good I felt back then.” Or I’d look back and notice a pattern to my drinking that I hadn’t spotted before. 

For example, if you completed Dry January but it felt like an endurance test – akin to being on a diet, perhaps – then let’s capture why sobriety feels like hard work right now. Why does it feel like deprivation? What do you think you’re missing out on? This information is key to changing those beliefs and how you approach alcohol-free living in the future. 

If you’re going to drink again…

Put a note in your diary first! I wish I’d done this after my breaks from drinking. I was so determined that everything was fine (“Look – I stopped! No way do I have a problem…”) that I conveniently overlooked what happened next. Somehow, it didn’t register how quickly I slid back into drinking in a way that didn’t work for me.

So set a reminder to check in with yourself at the end of February. Put another reminder on your phone for the end of March. On each occasion, grab your Dry January Debrief to remind yourself where you were at the end of January. Have things got better, worse or stayed the same? This is how you collect proper information about your drinking – don’t rely on your memory (which always distorts over time). 

If you had a tough month, you’re not alone

In 2013, I attempted Dry January with a group of friends. I lasted a week before giving up. (They all made it through the month and I had to pretend I was still doing it too. It was awful). But do you know what else happened in 2013? That was the year I quit for good.

So if you need a reminder that all is not lost and this year isn’t a write-off – then hello: I’m it. I’m living proof that you can turn things around. All that matters now is moving forward with intention. The key is capturing how you feel right now. Then you’ll have real data to work with – not just vague memories or wishful thinking.

Ready to create an alcohol-free life you love? Click here to learn more about my Getting Unstuck course.

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