Why this article for Fabulous at The Sun took me ten whole years to write

A bit of a personal one from me today (deep breath!).

For a while now I’ve wanted to write about stuff that really means something to me.

And so… an article that’s taken no less than ten years to pull together.

Not (for once) because I procrastinated wildly about starting it, but because it’s about something that, until now, I’ve found too scary to put down on paper — the story of my own battle with — and recovery from — alcohol addiction.

In the end, and once I got started, it only took a day to write. But it’s taken me far longer to feel able to rake up memories and put myself out there in such a vulnerable way.

Anyway, here it is in all its glory — penned for Fabulous Magazine at The Sun. There’s a video too — something that took me way out of my comfort zone but that I actually found I didn’t mind doing in the end (as they say, feel the fear and do it anyway, right?!).

Feeling the fear and doing it anyway…

I’m chuffed with the end result — I want to take more of my writing in this direction and penning this article was an important (if slightly terrifying!) step on that journey.

If you're planning a piece of work with an addiction or mental health theme, and would like to work with a writer who has walked the walk, I'd love to hear from you — just drop me a line using the form below. 👇

Most importantly, if my story can help even one person to see that there is hope on the other side of addiction, then the nerves I feel putting myself out there are worth it.