How I Knew It Was Time To Quit Drinking #health #holistic

How do you know when it’s time to quit drinking or take a break from booze? It can be tough to tell.

For many people there’s never a dramatic, rock-bottom moment that forces them to stop.

In fact, the call to ditch alcohol can be much more subtle than you might think. So how do you know when you’ve got to that point?

I asked some of my students to share what made them decide it was time to quit. I’m sharing their answers in today’s video – I think you’ll find them surprising, fascinating and perhaps very relatable. 

Key points

Helen

“I found I wasn’t being quite as honest about whether I’d had a glass of wine… or I would think, ‘I’m retired, I can have a glass of wine with a sandwich at lunchtime’. I knew by the Christmas of 2022 that I was in trouble. My drinking was controlling me. I wasn’t controlling it. I was drinking at least a bottle of wine a day, more if we were socialising. But no one would have ever known, really, other than my very close family.”

Madeline

“I would say that in the decade previous, I’d probably have one terrible overdrinking episode a year. But then it started shifting to maybe two catastrophes a year. And in the last couple of years of drinking, it was going up to once a season. I would be drunk in a blackout. It was never my intention to drink like that. My intention at the beginning of the evening was to have 1 or 2 glasses of wine. It was like playing Russian roulette by the end.”

Marjorie

“There was no downtime. No matter how many times I would say, let’s not drink between Monday and Thursday, or not on a school night, or let’s take a week off – it just would never happen. One day towards the end of December, I sat and watched one of your videos, and I just had tears streaming down my face. And my husband Baz came in, and he said, ‘Whatever’s the matter?’ And I just said, ‘I really want to do something about drinking alcohol. I’ve just got to the end of what I can stand, and I want to make a big change.’”

Annette

“I knew I could not face another day of talking to myself in the shower and saying, ‘You’ve got to stop this, Annette.’ I’d looked at your blogs and had been circling around the outside like a shy child who wants to join the game but doesn’t really know how to ask. I cried every time I thought about it. I was in tears because I knew I really needed your help. And when I finally did it, it was such a relief.”

Alex

“Perimenopause and COVID hit at exactly the same time, and my drinking definitely accelerated. I don’t think I’ve ever felt lower in my life. When I think about the amount of time I used to spend bargaining with myself – the rules – it’s so hard. I was masking incredibly well. I’d been drinking at unhealthy levels for many, many years, but in 2022 I realised the cracks were beginning to show. I realised I can’t lie to myself anymore about where this was going.”

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