I took my first sip of alcohol when I was 14. Well, that’s not strictly true. When I was younger I had, on a handful of occasions, been allowed to have half a sherry glass of wine with dinner on very special occasions like Christmas which always made me feel very grown up. But I was 14 when I had what I call my ‘first drink’ with the intention of getting drunk.

I was listening to a recovery podcast recently, and the speaker described her relationship to alcohol with a phrase that struck me - for her, alcohol was the lover that had turned into the liar. I instantly connected to these words because I could see and feel my story in them too. For many many years, I used to joke with myself that the most significant relationship I was in was with my bottle of wine.