People who have reduced – or completely cut out – alcohol tell us how it has improved their health and outlook
“So when we’re out to dinner or something, I can’t really order a bottle of wine, because she won’t have any and then will be cross if I drink it all, so I end up ordering a glass or two. But, along with the selection not being as good by the glass, she’s then giving me the eye when I think about ordering another.
“That is what comes naturally to me – I listen to my body when it tells me that I’ve had enough and I found that from that point onwards, it doesn’t taste so good – so I stop.” “I was never an alcoholic by the stereotypical definition as I didn’t black out or throw up, but I drank enough to not think sensibly any more. Alcohol puts you in an endless cycle of depression and self-loathing, which leads to drinking to ease the depression and need for distraction then back into depression and self loathing again.
The 42-year-old, who is the founder and director of a national social enterprise, Count on Us Recruitment, gave up alcohol almost two years ago and although she has experienced a “pain-in-the-chest fear” that she would fall back into “self-destructive ways”, and also tried but gave up attending AA meetings, she found support through the HSE and also from cognitive behavioural therapy , and these tools have been instrumental to her success in staying away from alcohol – and she now feels in a...
“In Ireland it’s still considered very odd not to drink alcohol, so zero-alcohol drinks gives the chance to still socialise and be part of a night out without everyone asking why you’re not drinking.