If you’ve quit drinking but after a period of around 3-6 months found you’re looking back thinking ‘I wasn’t that bad’ you may be experiencing Fading Affect Bias. A sort of reshuffling of memories so the painful, shameful ones of hangovers and bad nights fade back and the joyful ones around alcohol are front of mind. You start to forget the crushing anxiety and regret and remember instead fun nights and the rush of feel- good dopamine in that first glass.

Fading Affect Bias can derail your sobriety – if you let it. It’s also really common and happens to nearly everyone at some stage in their sober journey.

There are 3 stages of sobriety. The first stage is the most intense, and you may find yourself white knuckling your way through it. The second stage can feel euphoric and blissful – welcome to the pink cloud. And the third stage is where the personal growth starts to happen, and we peel back the layers on why we started drinking in the first place… Let’s take a closer look at the 3 stages of sobriety and how to get through them.

Do mothers actually enjoy the festive season? Well, sort of. Mothers rush at this time of year. While the pressure to create magical moments builds, we shove our own needs down the list. Until we start to fray. Feel exhausted. Drink too much. Get cranky. And resentful. Sounds enjoyable? Hmm. Not so much. So, how can mothers actually enjoy the festive season this year?

When you create a life you don’t want to numb from, the urge to “take the edge off” with alcohol gets weaker and weaker. You create a life that’s healthier and more meaningful. You don’t get to the end of each day feeling desperate to unwind, switch off or simply go numb.

Friday night is a huge trigger to drink. That’s because we’ve conditioned ourselves to believe Friday night means drinking as a reward or celebration that the working week is over. It’s also a habit that’s deeply ingrained and promoted in our society. So, what to do instead? How to distract, treat, enjoy, and pamper yourself instead of drinking?

Have you ever asked yourself: Is it time to stop existing and start living? It’s a question I asked myself before I quit drinking. I kept thinking ‘Is this it?’ ‘Is this all there is to my life?’ I wasn’t living, I was existing, getting through, numbing my way along.

Ever had hangxiety? You may have felt a jumble of nerves the morning after heavy drinking. You may have felt irritable, paranoid, and filled with dread. That’s hangxiety. It’s hangover-related anxiety experienced the morning after a drinking session.

When you come from a boozy family tackling sobriety can be difficult. Your family may not understand your decision not to drink. They may get defensive. They may doubt your decision. They may erode your confidence. How to tackle it? Especially when Christmas and family gatherings loom closer and closer?

When women pour themselves a glass of wine after a stressful day they probably aren’t thinking about the impact of alcohol on mental health. They are thinking alcohol helps them to relax, unwind and relieve stress. The opposite is true. Alcohol has a negative impact on mental health, exacerbating symptoms of anxiety and depression, causing dopamine to spike then fall and increasing our cortisol levels (the stress hormone).

You may have asked: “What can I do to relax instead of drinking?” If alcohol is your “switch off” or the only way you can unwind after a big day at work, it can feel like there’s no other way to soothe your nervous system. The only trouble is, alcohol makes us feel more anxious and exhausted than we were before. It impacts our mood, sleep, and our mental health.

Sober and love a morning routine? The two go hand in hand. When women give up alcohol they often incorporate exercise into their daily routines. When that exercise is scheduled for early morning, they know they need to be bright-eyed for it. Often they’ll create a strict morning routine with exercise, journaling and affirmations as part of their sober pillars. Routines bring structure, a lifestyle framework and can help you achieve your big life goals.

It’s Christmas morning and you wake up fresh, energized, feeling organised and ready to be present and enjoy the day. You’ve taken a break from alcohol and you’re feeling fitter, lighter and more in control. You’re less anxious about the holidays and having everything done – because you’re approaching it lightly this year, from a place of calm and you feel organised, efficient and you’re still including plenty of ‘me time’ in your schedule.

If you’ve experienced slip-ups in your sobriety, you may have felt regret, shame and defeat. It can feel like ‘it’s all over – you blew it’. But it doesn’t have to feel that way. In fact, we can learn from slip-ups and better prepare ourselves for next time. We can take a slip-up and let it show us how it feels when we drink alcohol – the nausea, headaches and exhaustion. We can see a slip-up as simply part of the journey. No sober journey is linear, after all. It can take many failed attempts at sobriety before it sticks.

Ask most middle-aged women how they are, and they’ll say “busy”, “stressed” or “overwhelmed”. Many use alcohol to “take the edge off”, not realising alcohol releases cortisol, which adds to stress. Middle-aged women are drinking more than ever before. One in 5 women aged between 45 and 60 is a binge drinker. Why? Simply: They have more life pressures than ever before.

If you’ve suspected drinking alcohol has an impact on menopause you’d be right. The hangovers are worse, mood swings more severe and sleep is more compromised than ever before.

If you’ve asked yourself “When does sobriety get easier?” chances are you’re in the early stages of sobriety. You’re battling withdrawal, cravings and mood swings. Triggers pop up out of nowhere and everyone wants to know “Why aren’t you drinking?”

What comes to mind when you think of the term 'alcoholic'? Homelessness, drinking out of a paper bag, shaking hands reaching for a drink every morning and shadowy, shameful addiction meetings in the basement of a church? That’s what most people think about the term alcoholic.

If you’ve decided to quit drinking for 30 days here’s how you can prepare yourself – emotionally and physically. If you’ve decided to quit drinking for 30 days read this first for your best chance at success.

If you’ve suspected alcohol affects women differently to men you’d be right. Here’s why.

If you’re recently sober and can’t sleep you need a sleep schedule, extra supplements and exercise.