The author, who used to have a substantial drinking problem, shares her personal experiences and insights on the topic of alcohol consumption, including her struggles with addiction, the impact of alcohol on her life, and her journey to finding a solution through medication.
As someone who used to have a substantial drinking problem, I've been torn about certain topics in the news lately. Last week, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary called for airports to ban serving alcohol before early-morning flights, and New MP Hannah Spencer had a proper whinge about other MPs being too boozy.
I've been drunk plenty of times on the clock, especially in my early 20s when I was working in the advertising industry. With my bosses, I should add. Britain has a bold, long-standing, far-reaching drinking culture, and I recall being horrified the first time I had a big family meal with my husband's German relatives and there was not a drop of alcohol on offer. It was dinner!
On a Saturday! At 39, I'm a millennial, and we started getting wasted in our early teens on lurid-coloured alcopops in local parks. There wasn't a single non-drinker among us. Ditto at university, where there were either students who could or couldn't hold their alcohol.
No one refused altogether – even if it did make them sick most nights. I've been smug about what a 'good' drinker I was, but I've also been known as the 'designated drunk driver' among friends. My tolerance crept ever higher as the years went on, and I got away with it for a long time. I've been drinking more than ever, and starting earlier and earlier in the day, during the Covid pandemic.
Alcohol was, and still is, the fastest remedy I've found to calm down my 'monkey mind' and make the show tolerable. But it also made me look puffy, get combative when challenged and feel wretched the next morning. I only accepted that I may have to abandon my beloved tonic when I got pregnant with my son. Around then, I came across a medicine that cured my lifelong drinking problem very quickly.
Often touted as the 'Ozempic for alcoholics', naltrexone is a drug that kills your desire to drink. If you continue taking it every time you drink, your mind quickly learns to stop expecting the hit, and wine has the same allure as apple juice. I hardly drank at all for years after using the method, but I have slipped back into bad habits a few times since.
Because of the naltrexone, I pretty much have to force alcohol down like medicine, but there are still situations in which I refuse to be sober, so don't take the pill. Long-haul flying, for example. And parties. Travelling for work, on the rare occasion I don't have my children with me.
Christmas. Birthdays. Certain people trigger the urge to drink, too – like my father
Alcohol Addiction Drinking Culture Naltrexone Ozempic Designated Drunk Driver Monkey Mind Calming Down Drinking Habits Alcohol And ADHD Alcohol And Autism Alcohol And Motherhood Alcohol And Certain Triggers
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