Good Lifestyle

Sophie, 29, is a mother who lives outside London. She also directs an instagram page called@SOBER_AND_HAPPYwhere she writes onstop drinking And maternity. Like any other person who did it, Sophie's trip to sobriety was not easy. But she says it's important that if alcohol has a negative outfit on you, "it's worth having a difficult aspect of your consumption" and ask you "Am I an alcoholic?"That's what she did about two and a half years ago - and it completely changed her life.

Sophie knows her long-lasting vision of an "alcoholic" - "The old man with the brown paper bag" - something she could not be further. But now she knows that it does not mean that she had not had a serious problem. "Alcoholics come from all shapes and sizes and levels of severity. That's all about how you use it," she saidBetter life. "I did not realize how much I attached myself."

She had grown up in a moderate house of drinking and had her first drink at the age of 15 at Christmas. "I drank a bottle of whole wine and I woke up covered with Christmas dinner," she said.

Things worsened once she started university, where intensebeverage Has made him feel in a hurry of alcohol to have fun. "When I went to my first party of the house, I heard some girls say," Get the geek and smoke: "Referring to me," she said. "Drink made me feel cool and popular, and I started to believe that I should not befun without alcohol. '

What followed was several years of strong celebration most of the days of the week and acting imprudently. "I spent all my student loan on alcohol and I did not even really think about it," she said. "I scraped in my diploma. I did not eat because" eating cheating ", as we say here, so I was constantly ill. But I did not think about that as a problem because Every person around me was doing the same thing. "

Once Sophie is a graduate, she had a job in sales, where culture was "Work hard, play strong. "She was coming out every" series of Thursday "and from the weekend. Although she was constantly struggling to meet the two tips, she never had italcohol. "If I wanted to buy a dress for 40 pounds, I would think it was too steep," she said. "But I would fall 200 pounds on an evening as if it were a necessity of life."

In addition, Sophie said she had experiencedPanic attacks and constant anxiety, of which it does not have a link with its beverage habits, even if it now knows that one of the effects of aThe hangover can be feelings of anxiety.

But everything changed for Sophie when she met it now-fiance at 25 years old. To his surprise he did not appreciateabusive consumption of alcohol, who quickly became a problem in their relationship.

"We went to a champagne afternoon tea once, and he did not drink the champagne, and I was so angry at him," she said. "I would say that I would tell him really nasty things when I was drunk, otherwise I would be aggressive, or I just vomited anywhere on the floor. He became more and more obvious that he did not like that when I did not like that when 'drank. I told him, he was boring and controlling and he did not understand me and broke with him. "

For the next eight weeks, she separated stronger than ever, but they ended up together once Sophie realized how much she missed.

Then she discovered that she was pregnant.

Sophie was rolled up, until she realized that it meant nine overall months of sobriety. "I did not drive the gap of occasional champagne swing, but it was horrible," she said. "I hated all my friends to drink. I could not enjoy events. I felt like a boring and miserable loser andMy brain shouted for alcohol. "

Once his son was born, Sophie moved directly into "wine wine"Culture, waiting up to 5 hours. To start" wine O'Clock ".

"You would see cards in stores saying that the wine is" Mom juice ", she said." Then you would look at shows likeGoodwoman where the main character, who is a first lawyer with a family, always has aA glass of wine in his hand. So, it just said that it seems that moms need wine to spend the day. "

Sophie also believes that a lot of alcohol marketing in U.K. - orAlcohol abuse has been constant upwards women-It targeted in women.

"We have pink gin now, and many of my friends use it to make their cocktails with martinis and straws and take boomerangs," she said. "We see the boomerangs at the beginning of the night, but not in the end when you lost your keys and you shout to your husband."

Sophie always booms strongly on special occasions and sometimes wake up if the hippover, she could not change the layer of her son. "I felt like aterrible momAnd the worst no one in the world, "she says." I would look at it and cry and think how he deserved a better mother. "

In addition to anxiety and depression, Sophie also started migraines, her skin spared and she was the heaviest she had ever been. So she decided to stop drinking, just to see what it would look like like. And while she was lit and out of the wagon for the next 18 months, she is now sober for eight months and she could not be more numerous about it.

"Ilosing weightMy skin has faded, migraines are parties, "she said." But, above all, my mental health has improved. I do not have negative thoughts as if I used to. I feel lighter and more patient and like a much better person. "

For others wondering if their relationship with alcohol is in particular unhealthy, moms and young women in particular, Sophie says, "I think so ifAlcohol affects you negatively In any way, it is worthwhile to look at a difficult aspect of your alcohol consumption. If you think you can not do30 days without drinkingThere could be a problem there. "