“Six months ago I quit alcohol

A woman who quit alcohol six months ago says she has lost one stone, feels better and managed to save £5k. Kassie Barker-Jones, 28, thought she was purely a social drinker, but it wasn’t until her mental health took a toll that she re-examined her relationship with alcohol. She has now been sober for six months and since she quit her “anxiety dropped like a cliff.” Kassie has been able to indulge in activities she had put off doing before because she would “prioritize socializing and drinking”. She has taken up running, painting and baking. Before quitting alcohol, Kassie would regularly go out for post-work drinks on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. When the weekend came, she would do it all over again, but this time with her friends. On nights out, Kassie would drink on average two bottles of wine and have several shots. And by the end of the weekend, she would have easily spent between £200 to £300. One day after waking up to “horrendous anxiety” and “not fully remembering the night before,” she decided to restrict her alcohol consumption for her mental health. When Kassie first began cutting back in October last year, she would stick to just drinking on the weekends. After limiting her alcohol intake for about two months, she recalls making a decision around the Christmas season to cut it out completely. She said: “I had been cutting back my drinking anyway just from not being in London, to be honest. “I was exercising a lot more and just being a lot more conscious of things so I felt I had been [weaning off] a bit slower in general. “Then I just went cold turkey.” Her partner, Toby Wilmot, a 27-year-old product manager, followed suit two days later, and together they haven’t looked back. Through their lifestyle change, the couple have estimated saving a combined £4.7k (€5.5k). Giving up drinking also came with numerous physical health benefits. She said: “I have heaps more energy. I’ve lost a lot of weight, lower heartbeat and blood pressure, better sleep. “Generally, just in a lot better health. “I felt constantly run down when I was drinking and whilst I get it now it is nowhere near as frequent.” Kassie, a product marketing manager, has been posting about her sobriety journey since 2022 on her TikTok page (@kassiebarkerj). Also sharing her move from London to Amsterdam, Netherlands, in March, she explained that moving away from the toxic drinking culture in the UK helped her cut back. She said: “If you go to a networking or work event, unless you’re pregnant, people don’t take the fact that you don’t drink seriously.” Kassie thinks that society is to blame for a large part of the problem. “It’s been ingrained into us by society that we should be able to manage drinking alcohol, despite the fact it is an addictive substance. “That’s is a failure”. This is Kassie doesn’t think she can ever go back to drinking. She said: “I just never had the ability to just have one or two. I also think if I can live without it. Why would I then reintroduce it?” Kassie believes the term ‘alcoholic’ is “too black and white” and explained that there’s a “big grey area there”. “If you continuously do something that hurts you, you’re still addicted to that thing, in a sense, because you can’t give it up even though it’s harming you.” Saving up both money and time, Kassie has been able to pursue activities she had put off doing before. She said: “I’ve taken up running, and I’ve got really into painting and baking. I just like doing things that bring me joy.” Kassie’s sobriety also came with an unexpected positive: empowerment. She added: “I didn’t realize how much alcohol gives you a fake confidence. And when you don’t have it, you have to completely build it on your own. “You’re showing up for yourself every single day by choosing not to drink, so then you expect other people to treat you with the same level of respect that you’re treating yourself.”