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Jessie Hallett<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nAfter an 18-hour bender that finished at 9am, the “beer fear and anxiety” got too much, and Jessie Hallett knew she had to quit drinking.<\/p>\n For more than a decade, weeks would go by without a day of sobriety – but now the 29-year-old realised she had a problem, and may not make it to Christmas if she didn’t stop.<\/p>\n New figures from DrinkAware<\/a> show that 89% of drinkers in Wales are using at least one technique to moderate their drinking.<\/p>\n The statistics show a rise in 18 to 34 year olds who never binge drink, with more in the Generation Z<\/a> age group turning to “intermittent sobriety” where they want to give up drinking at least for periods of time. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n “I was burning the candles at both ends, I was working long days and instead of going home after those shifts I would go out after it,” said Jessie.<\/p>\n “I would drink the next day to avoid the hangover.<\/p>\n “Then all of a sudden weeks go by and you realise you haven’t had a day go by without a drink.”<\/p>\n Jessie, who lives in Cardiff, said she drank socially from a young age – but it’s when she started working in hospitality she noticed her drinking habits changing, going out after shifts finished.<\/p>\n Then the pandemic hit, which made her drinking much worse. <\/p>\n “I was severely depressed at the time, my mental health was in the bin,” she added.<\/p>\n “I was having panic attacks and anxiety and the only way to mask that was through drugs and alcohol.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Things came to a head on Beaujolais Day<\/a> 2022 – a French event that toasts the wine harvest every November, that has become popular in Wales.<\/p>\n Jessie said: “I’d gone on an 18-hour bender. I got home at nine in the morning after being out all day.<\/p>\n “The beer fear and anxiety was too much.<\/p>\n “After that moment, I knew. If I hadn’t given up drinking, I wouldn’t have made it to Christmas.”<\/p>\n The next day she told friends and family, and their reaction made her realise she had made the right decision. <\/p>\n “Not one person who was close to me questioned it,” said Jessie. <\/p>\n “That to me was alarm bells, everyone knew that was something I had to do.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n After almost two years of being sober, her whole life has changed.<\/p>\n “I could never have imagined the life I’m living now. I was really unhealthy when I was drinking,” she said.<\/p>\n “I’ve lost five stone [31.75kg], I go to the gym five or six times a week, I have a new passion for fitness. I get up at 5am every day.<\/p>\n “My career has absolutely taken off, I haven’t even had a cold since being sober.”<\/p>\n Jessie runs a social media company and says it’s quite “ironic”, because 90% of her clients are involved with alcohol.<\/p>\n “It empowers me that I can be around booze and the industry and say you don’t have the power over me anymore,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Non-alcoholic events are becoming popular in the UK, especially with students.<\/p>\n Intermittent sobriety is the new buzz term among Gen Zs who want to give up drinking, but not completely.<\/p>\n Chris Evans, 23, from Aberaeron, Ceredigion, has teamed up with business development service FOR Cardiff<\/a> to launch the My Drink, My Choice campaign.<\/p>\n It aims to promote alternatives to evening activities centred around drinking, while normalising the decision to avoid alcohol.<\/p>\n “I come from a small town, and coming to Cardiff it is easy to get into a culture of drinking alcohol,” Chris said. <\/p>\n “I didn’t even drink much until coming to university, it’s easy to get swept up in it all.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Although Chris still drinks he is aware of why people make the choice not to. <\/p>\n “International students who can’t or choose not to drink alcohol didn’t even cross my mind,” he said. <\/p>\n “Events like this gives a chance to give somewhere safe for people to socialise and to be confident to be yourself.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n GP Dr Will Mackintosh, who is based in St Clears, Carmarthenshire, believes younger people have better insight into how alcohol and binge drinking can affect them. <\/p>\n “Traditionally, older people, when they think of alcohol abuse, they think of liver disease,” he said. <\/p>\n “But younger people are more aware of the different harms alcohol can have on you.”<\/p>\n He added that while other generations think of alcohol issues as liver disease, which you get much later in life, younger people see the fuller picture of all the associated dangers – such as taking risks and acting impulsively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jessie’s best advice for anyone wanting to go sober would be to “de-clutter your social media”.<\/p>\n “Fill your feed up with people who inspire you. I still to this day, nearly two years on, take one day at a time,” she said. <\/p>\n “That’s why I still count how many days sober I am, because I don’t know what’s going to happen when I wake up tomorrow. <\/p>\n “But I do know I am going to wake up hangover-free.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you’ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the <\/i>BBC Action Line.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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Jessie Hallett<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Man](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/1294\/live\/914839e0-8ab8-11ef-a7c5-d35514b83a14.jpg.webp\")
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Jessie Hallett<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n