by Gill Kenny | May 13, 2022 | Acceptance & Commitment, Addiction, Anxiety, Benefits of sobriety, Commitments, Compassion, Connection to others, Drinking, Empathy, Envy, Integrity, Mental health awareness, Negative mindset, Pain & vulnerability, Recovery, Shame, Sobriety, Staying sober, Unhealthy behaviours
It was on Mother’s Day 2019 when I decided I’d had enough. I was sick and tired of living my life under a cloud of guilt, regret, and fear. What was I guilty about? I felt guilty for not listening to that part of me that knew better. The part that had been trying for...
by Gill Kenny | Oct 18, 2021 | Addict, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcohol & cancer, Drinking, Sobriety
The Irish playwright, novelist and essayist, John B Keane famously said that, Drink in moderation is one of the most ridiculous statements ever made. You must drink a little more than moderation. Sadly, he passed away in 2002 at the age of 73 after an eight-year...
by Gill Kenny | Feb 22, 2021 | Calling it out, Drinking, Justice, Pain & vulnerability, Rape, Recovery, Risk taking, Shame, Supporting young people, Vulnerable girls, Women's Rights, Youth Drugs & Alcohol
This is the face of my 19-year-old self, free and innocent, at a party in Italy with a heart full of hope and excitement about the future. Just a few weeks after that photo was taken, I was raped. I have chosen to write publicly about this for the first time in 35...
by Gill Kenny | Jul 6, 2020 | Addict, Addiction, Drinking, Mental health, Mental health awareness, Sobriety, Staying sober
What word links a pandemic and an alcoholic drink? Corona! And what do they have in common apart from a word? They can both do hardly any damage at all to us, or they can kill us. While the virus continues to wreak havoc on lives across the world, pubs are re-opening...
by Gill Kenny | May 11, 2020 | Addict, Addiction, Alcohol & cancer, Anxiety, Attitude of gratitude, Benefits of sobriety, Compassion, Connection to others, Drinking, Empathy, Mental health, Mental health awareness, Negative mindset, Recovery, Self-love, Sobriety, Staying sober, Support groups
For as long as I was drinking to excess, I wondered what it would feel like to be completely sober for a whole year. I had done many the stint of abstinence and completed a couple of one-hundred-day challenges over the years, but it never felt as though l was giving...
by Gill Kenny | Apr 13, 2020 | Addict, Addiction, Caving in, Drinking, Sobriety, Staying sober
Vulnerable kitten in Bangkok If you’ve been following my story these past months, the title of this week’s blog might have you worried. Today marks eleven months since the first day of my journey into sobriety (May 13th 2019) and it has been a little bit of a...