Growth gets talked about like it’s a big, dramatic makeover. New year, new you. Reinvent yourself. Become a completely different human by next Tuesday. But real growth? The kind that actually sticks? It’s usually quieter than that. It’s the tiny choices you make when nobody’s clapping. It’s the boring, unsexy stuff you do on a random Wednesday evening because you’ve decided your life is worth building. And honestly, giving up alcohol cracked growth wide open for me. Alcohol-free life didn’t...

If you’ve found yourself repeatedly searching things like “am I an alcoholic?”, “signs of alcoholism”, “is my liver damaged?” or “how much is too much alcohol?” - you’re not alone. And you’re not “dramatic” or “attention-seeking” for checking. That late-night Googling is usually a sign of something deeper: your brain is trying to reduce uncertainty and soothe anxiety… while also trying to keep alcohol in the picture. That tug-of-war has a name. It’s called cognitive dissonance, and it’s...

If you’ve noticed that alcohol and menopause are a particularly rubbish combination, you’re not imagining it. There comes a point where alcohol stops feeling like your glamorous little mate and starts behaving more like an absolute knob. What used to be a couple of drinks and a slightly fuzzy morning can suddenly turn into 3am dread, a mouth like a flip flop, anxiety for no bloody reason, and the sort of sleep that feels less “restorative” and more “lightly haunted”. If you’re in...