Susannah Constantine has opened up about her addiction to alcohol in a brutally honest essay in the hope of helping others struggling with the disease.
The journalist and TV star, who has been sober for seven years, has admitted her battle with booze in the past, but has not shared details about her struggles until now.
Susannah admitted that hearing "statistics about alcoholism and the pandemic" encouraged her to speak up and share her story "in the hope that the things I have learned along my journey might make theirs a little easier".
Susannah penned for The Daily Mail: "I thank God I never let my drinking slip into the day and never reached the point where my behaviour put others in danger: I can only think my maternal instinct was stronger than my addiction. While I put a value on other people’s lives, however, I did not put one on my own.
"Despite never drinking before 6pm, I looked forward to that first glass of wine too much and then it became an unconscious reflex. Evenings were so much more fun with booze. I was more entertaining — or so I thought.
"One or two glasses soon became a bottle and a half, and I’d wake up in the morning struggling to remember the night before."
She added: "After years of waking up filled with shame and guilt and asking God for the four horsemen to take me away and not bring me back, I knew it was time. Drinking had ceased to be fun. I had ceased to be fun. I was no longer in control, it was controlling me…
"When I stopped drinking I found I had more of everything — more time, energy and enthusiasm. I’d been frightened about what would happen if I let alcohol go, what would replace it, but I see now that life replaced it. I got my life back."
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