aschiron

I want to write about the drinking culture in this country and how hard it was for me to get away from that addictive relationship.

How I needed a crutch for so long, needing the confidence it gave me to be sociable while battling severe anxiety.

I hit 100 days without a drink back in December (unfortunately the only thing that stopped that habit was replacing it with another one - weed - which I've now kicked too, yay!) and since then have gone out to dinner with friends and had a glass of wine followed by mini golf and two amaretto sours (YUM - my favourite cocktail) and then drove us home because I was still under the limit. That was a proud night for me because I finally feel that I have that addiction under control.

There was also a night in April when my parents visited and we had some drinks, I managed to consume an entire bottle of wine and felt so awful the next day that my partner and I both said we couldn't believe we used to do that on a regular basis.

While staying with my parents in the last couple of months I have tried non-alcoholic wine and love it as a replacement to sip on while the people around me are partaking so I don't feel left out or ostracized. Australia has a terrible culture where it's believed that if you're not drinking alcohol, you must be sick. Well, it made me very sick for a long time and exacerbated my depression.

I am so glad to be on this path of healing and learning to love myself, I will no longer put that poison into my body, and I'm finding that as I practice some radical self-love, I am becoming stronger and no longer need it to have fun![