For some people, a few drinks mid-week might not seem like a lot, but pretty quickly that can escalate from a couple of glasses of wine in a night to a bottle.
This toxic relationship with alcohol is most prominent among women in midlife, but is there a reason for this?
Media personality Maz Compton joins Jess Rowe for a chat about how to recognise when it’s time to take a break from alcohol.
BIG Question with Maz Compton: How do I know if I need a break from alcohol?
As an advocate for sobriety herself, even writing a captivating book on the topic, Maz said there was a specific moment in time when she knew it was time to give up the drink.
“So, in 2014, Jess, my life looked really epic on paper,” she said.
“But I was drinking every single day and I wasn’t drinking every single day consciously in the sense that I didn’t realise I was doing it until I kind of got through a few weeks and I was like, hang on a second, I think I’ve had a bottle of wine every day.”
It was around this time Maz wondered whether it was time to test the waters – literally.
“When I realised that I was drinking all the time, I started asking myself questions like, well, could I go to my friend’s party and not drink?” she said.
“The answer I came up with was, No, I didn’t feel like I could exist in my life, that I was loving, that I created for myself with all of my talent and choices.”
Maz closes the book on common misconceptions people have when it comes to giving up booze, explaining why you don’t need to wait until “rock bottom” to reassess your relationship with alcohol and why your journey to sobriety does not need to look like everyone else’s.
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