DON'T TELL ME I CAN'T… ...give up drink

Tracy Cassidy’s summer of sobriety changed her life

- BESS BROWNING

Opening my eyes at 6am on a Monday morning is now a moment I relish. I’m always energised and ready for a productive day and week ahead. But a few years ago, Monday mornings meant one thing – trying to battle my way through a terrible hangover after a weekend spent drinking. If you’d told me back then that I’d now be living an alcohol-free life and feeling better than ever for it, I’d never have believed you.

Growing up in Dublin, I was a stereotypical party girl – out every night with my friends, and alcohol was the focal point of socialising. Dinners in restaurants always involved a bottle of wine and I always had a glass in my hand at weddings and parties.

In 1998, I reunited with my childhood sweetheart, Andrew, and we bonded over our mutual love of partying. But after we married in 2004 and had our three children over the next five years, our drinking habits changed.