Flic didn’t drink in any great quantity and only planned to quit alcohol for a few months. But two years on, she has beat any cravings and is still teetotal.
At the start of 2018, I woke up one morning with my face flaming and a poisonous headache drilling into my temples. Looking in the bathroom mirror, I was horrified to see that my cheeks were crimson. “That’s it,” I called to my partner, Andy. “I’m done with drinking for now.”
There and then, I decided to quit – not for any set length of time, just for as long as I could. But as the months passed it became easier, and two years on I’m still sober. “People are more driven towards wellness now, which has pushed them into examining some of the more negative consequences of drinking,” says psychologist Dr Elena Touroni.
These nights out seldom ended badly for me, and no matter how much I drank, I rarely seemed drunk, unlike some friends who can reel off a string of anecdotes that begin with: “I shamed myself after too many vodka tonics.” I never did anything terrible, didn’t have blackouts and, compared with some people in my circle, my alcohol consumption was pretty average.
I didn’t intend to be teetotal forever, however, and I worried I’d be bored and feel more socially anxious without the warmth of a glass of merlot in my hands. I had quit for short spells, a month or two, in the past, but this time I fully intended to stick it out for longer than that. It helped that I don’t go out a great deal these days, so it was simply a matter of not opening a bottle in my kitchen.For the first four or five days it was easy.
Eleven months into sobriety came the biggest test: the Christmas season. It was nerve-racking; I simply couldn’t imagine getting through all those parties without alcohol powering me along. I braced myself, but in the end fake alcohol did the trick.I never set out to go teetotal forever, but two years on, I feel much better. I sleep more deeply, I’m less moody, the facial flushing has vanished and the headaches have stopped.
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