I gave up drinking alcohol almost three years ago. And when I say gave up, I mean I just stopped.
One day I was the kind of person who drank eight pints in a single sitting, and the next I decided I didn’t want to do it anymore.
It wasn’t a slow phase out. It wasn’t a careful weaning off process. It was me recognising, after decades of patterns that were compulsive, that alcohol wasn’t serving me in any meaningful way anymore.
Read more below.
I’ve never been someone who could take it or leave it. If I was drinking, it was all in. Eight pints or nothing. I never had an in between. If there was only time for one drink, I’d rather have none. That single drink would have flipped a switch in me, and I’d be agitated that the session couldn’t go on.
For me, it was all about obliteration or silence.
I started drinking young. Growing up in Australia, alcohol was everywhere. I was knocking back full bottles of spirits on my own by the time I was 15. It became a part of how I learned to handle myself in the world. I grew up in a turbulent family and drinking was a way of leaving that behind, of numbing it all out. It was never social sipping. It was blackout drunk, dissociation, and trying to escape what I couldn’t reconcile.
Those early habits followed me into adulthood. I didn’t always drink to the point of blacking out as I got older, but when I did drink, I drank far too much. It didn’t take long for a single pint to turn into a long night out that ended in complete inebriation. I don’t use the word alcoholic because I know people who are living that reality and it’s not mine. They wake up every day fighting the urge to drink. That wasn’t me. I could go months without drinking. But when I did, it was full-on, uncontrollable, and often embarrassing.
I realised that I couldn’t trust myself to moderate. And I didn’t even want to. I didn’t get joy out of drinking anymore. It wasn’t special or celebratory. It was a bad habit that would spiral the moment I let it start.
So I stopped. It was a few weeks after a night out in Soho back in 2022, where I sank around 12 pints. The night came back to me in fragments over the following days. I didn’t like what I remembered. There was no rock bottom, just a realisation that I’d had all the fun I was going to get from alcohol. I’d done the wild nights. I’d taken the risks. I didn’t need any more of it.
The decision felt enormous at the time. But once I made it, I was simply OK with the choice. I’m incredibly grateful for how that played out. I know how fortunate I am that I didn’t need outside help to stop. Not everyone gets that kind of easy break.
These days, I don’t miss it. I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything.
And there are plenty of things to drink for people like me who are opting out of booze.
I popped into vegan Unity Diner today and tried their new range of alcohol-free cocktails. They are truly spectacular. Flavour, presentation, and experience all without the baggage of booze. And the cherry on top? The restaurant is donating 50p from every mocktail sold to Made In Hackney to support their amazing work.
A drink that’s tasty, thoughtful and doing good in the world. That’s the kind of buzz I’m into these days.
Follow Unity Diner on Instagram and check out their mocktail (and food!) menu online.
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