We meet so many people who say they didn’t know what to do about their drinking.

It gets confusing. Alcohol is everywhere and it’s promoted as grownup fun and rewards.

But what to do when you’re drinking too much, or too often, or missing out on things that don’t involve drinking?

When I started telling my friends I was thinking about getting sober, ALL of them said ,” Why? You’re not an alcoholic.”

I decided to trust my gut and quit anyway. I knew something was wrong with how I drank and I was getting really uncomfortable.

We need a complete shift in our culture. We’ve been conditioned that we need alcohol around for fun. So of course we will tell our besties “Don’t be ridiculous, sure you can drink.” Because then everyone can carry on like there’s no problem.

Society would call me a functional alcoholic. One thing that helped me finally quit was to stop worrying so much about labels. I felt unsteady and uncomfortable. Whether you identify as an alcoholic or not, a label isn’t a requirement to take care of yourself.

I had a problem. I was numbing, and self medicating, and sleeping awful, and my anxiety was getting worse, and I’d rather drink my dinner than eat it.

So why would I keep doing it?

For me, it’s so much better on this side.