About Me
Lea Watson
I deliver Mindful Drinking Courses to organisations of all sizes to help them have open and honest conversations about the impacts of alcohol.
I work with individuals to help them identify and action a pathway that will help reduce or omit alcohol from their lives.
I review alcohol free drinks, literature and podcasts that support sobriety.
I work with schools and charitable organisations to talk about the long terms effects of alcohol on young people’s lives.
My own relationship with alcohol has been long and complicated. I have used it to over the years to both stimulate and self-medicate. I hadn’t considered myself to have a drinking problem but I never went out socially without drinking and would frequently blackout with little or no knowledge of the night before.
In January 2018, my only son, Jack was killed when he go in to a car with a drunk driver. As a consequence, my already unhealthy attitude to alcohol escalated to dangerous levels as I could not stand the pain of the loss. I was at a point where if I didn’t stop, I know it would kill me.
On 12 July 2020 I stopped. And I haven’t looked back since. I made the decision that I wanted to live a life that my son would be proud of and do something that would honour his memory.
And here it is. Glowsober is the legacy of my beautiful and I aim to help and support as many people as I can in his name.
Is it just a question of moderation?
If it is, then why do so many of us struggle. When you say it, moderation sounds so easy, but in reality, we all know it isn’t. Firstly, it is open to a variety of interpretations. For instance, do we mean cutting back on any given day, or are we cutting down of the type of drink we are having? Are we cutting out school nights and hoping only to drink at the weekend? Is the weekend Friday to Sunday night or does all the fun stop after Saturday night? Are we not drinking at lunch times (unless it’s a special occasion, airport, holiday birthday, working lunch, ladies that lunch, and list goes on) What are our own exceptions for our own moderation rule?
Secondly, moderation, by its definition is the avoidance of excess. What does that mean in reality? That we can drink every night but only if we have one or two? That if we choose to drink at the weekend only will we be moderate then and only have the one sherry? And why are we trying to choose the Holy Grail of Moderation. Financial? Not to spend more than a third of your income on booze. Self-preservation? Not to embarrass yourself in front of your boss/mother in law/random stranger ever again? Physical? Not to spend all your calories on wine on one day only to have such a bad hangover the next that you triple your original calorie intake with MacDonald’s, KFC and two litres of full fat coke (and that’s just for breakfast).
Moderation can end up being so flexible that it doesn’t mean anything at all. That’s the problem. Commitment. It some ways its easier just to give up all together. When giving up smoking it is rare to say you are going to try and moderate or decide to only smoke at the weekends. That is because it doesn’t work. In short, most people are very aware of the addictive draw of cigarettes, their extortionate cost and most of all their detriment to health and much is now done by the government to curb the take up of smoking. This cannot be said of alcohol and while the overwhelming majority of drinkers are not chronic alcoholics, many will admit to drinking too much but not being addicted. Why is that?
Giving up drinking is not easy. Staying sober is even harder. In a world where in many countries drinking alcohol is more acceptable than not then, how do you keep going?
Well, that is why we are here. Providing reviews, resources and information on how to stay alcohol free or moderate your drinking. This is a place to dip in and out of as and when you need it. We only review products we have actually tried and none of the reviews are sponsored or paid for. It is just a place to help you navigate the plethora of resources out there.
Long gone are the days when the grown-up alternative to alcohol was a syrupy coke or a sweet lemonade or maybe even a Bitter Lemon if you were that way inclined. Although the pubs and supermarkets are taking a while to catch up, there is a huge range of fantastic alcohol-free alternatives out there to try and that’s not all. Along your journey you will find thousands of like-minded souls from all walks of life who want the same thing as you. An alcohol free and fun filled life. There are books, podcasts, bloggers, support groups, Facebook groups, Insta stars and Twitteratti all of whom want to share their story and here’s why. Because once you do find your sober self, there is a whole new world out there just waiting for you.
If you think you have a severe problem with alcohol DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GIVE UP WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING YOUR DOCTOR.