Alcohol It a Day: Alcohol Defined My Past, Limitlessness Defines My Future

Waking up on a Sunday morning in a police cell is not an experience I would recommend - nor is waking up in a police cell on any day, for that matter. Upon managing to stumble to the room's intercom, still very much intoxicated and with a school orchestra playing their first attempt at Beethoven's Symphony No.5 in C minor in my frontal lobe, I pressed the "talk" button to ask what the bloody hell had happened to land me here. The last memory I had of the previous night was entering a club, desperate to get my hands on that first drink.

"Sam, you attempted to jump from the balcony of a club roof and had to be restrained by four of our officers."

I was aware that alcohol had negatively affected my life in pretty much every way possible, but this scenario was one of the more dramatic issues alcohol had caused. It wasn't my first drunken brush with the law, and it wasn't my last. Aside from this antisocial side of my drinking, I was on the verge of losing my job due to absences and arriving hungover (yes, weeknight drinking was incessant), had less than 800 to my name to cover rent and all other expenses for the next month, and had lost all of my friends through my obnoxious, drunken escapades. My mental health, which wasn't in tip-top condition anyway, was taking the brunt of the trauma. (Sorry, mental health. I'll make it up to you.)

I needed to turn things around, otherwise, bleakly, I couldn't see a way out. I tried limiting my alcohol consumption; this quickly failed. I tried limiting the days I drank; again, fail. I tried removing all alcohol from the house, so it wasn't easily accessible to me: I had a car and almost every shop sells alcohol, so I'm not sure why I thought this option had any chance of working. The only option left?

How do you become totally sober as a twenty-something, after experiencing a decade of dependency on alcohol? Good news, my friends; it IS possible, and this book will tell you how I succeeded. Through the cravings, the mental ill health, the sneers by acquaintances who thought I just 'couldn't handle my drink'. And, on a brighter note, through the financial benefits, time benefits (Saturdays and Sundays don't begin at 2 p.m., I quickly realised), new-found freedom and a craving to explore new hobbies, this book will bare my struggles and, more importantly, my wins for all to see.

Whether you're curious about sobriety or reducing your alcohol consumption, or resonate with anything I have been through, this book will capture your attention and hopefully open your mind, even just a little.

So, grab a juice, water or any other 0% alcohol beverage, and get ready to read about the girl who hit rock bottom then fought her way to the top. (That's me, I'm the girl.)