Where I was – a miserable closet-drinker:
My name is Tabbin Almond, and for years I believed my struggle with alcohol was because there was something inherently wrong with me. Perhaps I just had no willpower or maybe it was because a major character flaw. I certainly saw it as a me-problem.
That belief fed an exhausting and miserable cycle. I became a secret drinker. From the outside, everything looked fine, but inside, it was a different story. I was constantly negotiating with myself; when I’d drink, how much, whether I’d “be good” tomorrow. When I inevitably broke my own rules, the shame kicked in. I’d promise myself that I’d do better, try harder, be stronger. And then I’d fail again. My self-loathing was growing by the day.
The book that changed everything:
My last drink was on 12th May 2018. I just looked back at my Amazon orders, and found that I ordered the book on 13th November 2017. Within just six months of reading it, I had overcome a problem that I’d been battling for decades.
I just loved the central message of the book: there was nothing inherently wrong with me. I wasn’t the problem, alcohol was. This challenged everything I had believed up until that point. The book reframes alcohol for what it is – an addictive substance, heavily normalised in our culture, marketed as the solution to stress, celebration, boredom, and everything in between. I learned that my “failure” wasn’t a personal defect but the predictable result of repeated exposure to an addictive substance.
That shift from self-blame to understanding changed everything.
For the first time, I stopped beating myself up. The book goes into the science of what alcohol does in the body which I found really interesting. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?” I started asking, “What’s actually going on here?” That subtle change replaced shame with curiosity. And curiosity, it turns out, is a far more useful place to make decisions from.
The internal battle started to quieten and I found I no longer wanted to drink.
How my life changed after I’d read the book:
Once I stopped being burdened with shame, so much changed. I was no longer drinking, so I felt better in every way. And I started to question my work and my purpose. I’d spent years in a well-paid career in advertising, but I gradually realised that this was not aligned with my values and who I really am. The more distance I put between me and alcohol, the more I realised I wanted to do something meaningful with what I’d learned.
So I retrained as a coach, with the intention of dabbling at coaching in the evenings and at weekends. But once I started working with clients, I found I absolutely loved it and appeared to be good at it too. For the first time in my working life, I felt I was doing the work I’d been put on the earth to do. A bit woo-woo, maybe, but true.
It wasn’t long before I left my corporate career behind to coach full-time. And that was honestly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Today, I help others who are stuck where I once was, caught in that loop of overthinking, overdrinking, and self-loathing. And I encourage them to see that they don’t need more discipline. They need a different perspective and more self-compassion.
The changes in my life haven’t stopped at work.
Physically, I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been. I train regularly and compete in Hyrox events, which is something I would never have imagined during my drinking days. Back then, exercise was something I used to work off the ill-effects of drinking. Now, it’s something I genuinely enjoy and take pride in.
Socially, my world has expanded rather than shrunk. One of my biggest fears was that changing my relationship with alcohol would isolate me. The opposite has happened. I’ve built a wider, more genuine circle of friends.
What’s next?
Soon, I’ll be setting off to walk 170 miles of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. This will be a solo trip, giving me time to reflect and properly appreciate the life I’ve built. I have gone from feeling very ashamed and frustrated to living a life that feels open, purposeful, and genuinely fulfilling.
All from one shift in thinking.
This Naked Mind didn’t just change how I drank. It changed how I understood myself. And once that changed, everything else followed. If you feel that your own relationship with alcohol is getting in the way of you living your best life, why not order a copy of the book and see what could change for you?
By Tabbin Almond
About the author
Tabbin Almond – Alcohol Freedom Coach, Author and Podcaster
Tabbin Almond’s drinking career started early and really took off when she worked in advertising. Her drinking was mostly in secret, and the shame (and hangovers) made her miserable, and affected every area of her life. She tried hypnotherapy, which worked for several years and she stayed sober through the break-up of her marriage, major financial problems and a breast cancer diagnosis. But learning that the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes was terrifying, and she returned to drinking. It took another four years for her to find a way of putting alcohol firmly behind her. She is now a certified alcohol freedom coach, working with individuals and businesses to help prevent alcohol harm. She is host of The Alcohol Debate podcast and author of Bottling Up Trouble – how alcohol is harming your business and what to do about it, which was an Amazon best-seller and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year.
The book that changed her life so profoundly is This Naked Mind by Annie Grace.
