A year sober, able to help others and feeling unstoppable

We all can heal –

Nov. 8, 2020 – I would never miss a happy hour or networking event — especially when there’s an open bar. I was also the one who would plan out a night of bar hopping and dancing with friends. But we would almost always start with “pregaming” at my place — a little drinking before we went drinking.

If it seems excessive, it was.

Binge drinking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is defined as four or more drinks in a single occasion for women and five or more for men. Heavy drinking is defined as at least eight drinks per week for women and 15 for men. I was a binge drinker and a heavy drinker at times.

But excessive drinking is actually not uncommon. Our society has normalized binge drinking, and it’s become popular culture for moms to turn to several glasses of wine to make it through the day. You can’t get on social media without seeing memes depicting exhausted women guzzling wine in giant glasses. Wine is also referred to as “mommy juice.” “Wine o’clock” has become a time that moms look forward to as a way to get through the stress of parenting.