Sharon Hartley considered herself a fairly average drinker. She had followed a similar pattern to that of other people she knew in their mid-40s – teenage drinking that continued at university and in her 20s, then drinking at home in her 30s and 40s. “It crept up on me and I got to 44 and I thought: when was it deemed normal to be drinking a bottle of wine a night? And maybe opening it a bit earlier – not at 8pm, when the children have gone to bed, but 5pm, when you’re making dinner for the family.”
She didn’t consider herself to be addicted to alcohol, but says: “I knew my relationship with alcohol wasn’t going in a good direction.”
