When I had my first ever kiss, I was drunk. When I lost my virginity, I was drunk. When I said “I love you” for the first time, I was drunk. And when I met the guy who I’d end up having the longest, and arguably the most significant relationship with - you guessed it - I was drunk. In fact when he called the next day, I didn’t even remember meeting him, let alone giving him a drunken pash in the middle of the dance floor. The worst part is that I didn’t even drink because I liked the taste of alcohol. I drank because I didn’t like myself. And I didn’t think anyone else did either - unless of course, I was at the bar buying them tequila shots. They say that the opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety, it’s connection. I found my first sense of connection when I found the gym. But I found my second sense of connection when I found my Dad’s whiskey bottle. And when I look back now, it’s easy to see that early on, almost all of my most significant relationships and friendships were initially built off the back of being drunk. So it should have come as no surprise that when I stopped being drunk, I also stopped being connected. It still amazes me sometimes how confrontational it can be for the people you’re surrounded with, when the decisions you make about your own life seem to indirectly challenge their own lifestyle choices. And the sad reality is, that even if someone recognises that they might need to make some different choices, they often won’t until the consequences are so bad that there is no other option. You can’t shame someone out of addiction. You can’t guilt them out of it. You can’t even love them out of it. For me, the turning point wasn’t when I cheated on a partner, it wasn’t when I almost lost my job, it wasn’t when my friends tried to stage an intervention and it wasn’t even when I ended up in hospital with a black eye and a drip. It was when I watched my Dad die from alcoholism and realised that if I didn’t stop, I’d be next. I chose sober because I needed a better life. I stay sober because I got a brilliant one. You can listen to the full podcast with @katiewilliams on all major platforms, I’ll pop the link in my stories. #sobriety