This is What Happened When I Stopped Drinking .  

 Yes, it’s a bit of a thing at the moment. This stopping drinking, taking a break lark.  Which I have to say I love.  I am not jumping on the bandwagon, I have been on it for years.  But I am super excited that it's starting to become a thing.

I am not a kill joy, or evangelical at all, I just want everyone to take a break and see how they feel, like an experiment.  If you want to go back to drinking after say, a 3 month's break you crack on. I just want you to know, to experience it.

In a world where we are talking about mental health, self-esteem, anxiety and depression, it’s a no brainer. Alcohol is going to make all these things worse.  I am not making it up, it’s a fact, alcohol is a drug, the side effects of which are anxiety and depression.  If emotions, how you feel about yourself, self-esteem, anxiety, depression, anything like that is an issue for you, seriously please take a break from drinking.  You will feel better about yourself and life will be easier.

This is how my life has improved. Well, the highlights. Because I'm sure you don’t want me to burst into song like Julie Andrews in the sound of music (seriously though that’s what it feels like sometimes).

I don’t call myself an addict, I don’t like that word.  I used drugs and alcohol and behaved badly at times. Sometimes I had a lot of fun, but I also made some very bad choices as a result of my emotional state due to my lifestyle.  Now I don’t use anything hardly ever and I've had a long period of complete abstinence, which I strongly believe in to get you started.  Very early on after my big change, I noticed the difference in my emotions. How I was able to see and feel things clearly, and the clarity was and still is amazing.  I very rarely get confused or am a slave to my emotions.  I get a kick out of being straight 99.9% of the time.

I rediscovered myself – I know it sounds corny but it's true. I am actually a nice person and that feels a lot nicer than berating myself for my bad behaviour.  You know that hamster wheel cycle of feeling really shit about yourself.

I have time and energy to live my life how I want and I don’t question that because I am emotionally stable and know what works for me.

I am a much better mum – this one rocks for me, I am sure it does for my kids as well.

Alcohol just isn’t an issue for me anymore. I can drink occasionally but I have respect for it. I know if I let myself I could easily drink every day, but I don’t let myself, because I don’t want to live like that, it’s a waste.  So, I choose not to drink, because my life works better that way.

I applied myself to my job and my training and did really well, I became a better mother and focused on my children and they gave me hell for years, deserved though.  I did up my home, paid off my debts and stayed away from the men with lots of free drugs and alcohol. I discovered partner dancing and that became my thing. I became a substance misuse worker, a bloody good one and really worked at it.  I am a master practitioner of NLP and coach now.  I love my work, I love helping people to live happier, healthier lives, it’s a buzz. It wasn’t all plain sailing though, my ex-husband continued to make me pay and made my life extremely difficult for years.  But living sober/clean was incredibly satisfying because I no longer enabled him to get the better of me; because I was straight, clear, in charge of my emotions and strong in myself.  I know who I am.  I continue to apply the techniques I have learnt in my training and I practice and push myself to be the best I can be, but I know that I need to be careful. Always checking my blind spot!!! 

The bottom line is if I hadn’t stopped drinking and taking drugs I would never had sorted my life out ,100%.

If you are curious and fancy giving it a go have a read of my e book There is No Magic Button