Latest news with #sober
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Ulrika Jonsson shows off her toned figure in a white bikini amid the UK heatwave - as she admits sex is 'harder to get into' since going sober 13 months ago
showed off her toned figure in a skimpy white bikini as she posed for sizzling Instagram snaps while enjoying the heatwave - as she opened up about her recent sex life in a candid new interview. The actress, 57, looked incredible in the halterneck top and matching low-rise bottoms as she posed for a mirror selfie before soaking up the sun in her garden. Ulrika looked relaxed as she worked on her tan but her pet pooch Hank decided to sit between her legs on the sun lounger. She joked: 'Sit where you like Hank, you make yourself comfortable, boy'. The sexy snaps come as Ulrika opened up about how sex has become 'interesting' since she stopped drinking alcohol 13 months ago - because it's harder to get into but more enjoyable having it while sober. The recovering alcoholic also said she's convinced she'll never touch a drop of alcohol again in her life, as she's finally finding nothing attractive about the thought of drinking booze. Former Gladiators star Ulrika, who is determined to keep up her average three AA meetings a week, also said that whereas previously she thought she was a failure with a miserable life, she's now at peace with herself and sends a daily gratitude list to a friend. When it comes to sex, Ulrika - who is single - said she wants a lot more, but she admitted she finds men less attractive when sober, and it's harder to end up in bed with someone - but she said when she does it is a better experience. Asked by Spencer Matthews on his Untapped podcast if she thought being sober was going to have a negative effect on her sex life, she said: 'Yeah - although I kind of knew that sex sober would be better. 'But of course all your inhibitions go when you've had a drink, so sex becomes easier to sort of facilitate or bring about, or participate in, but the enjoyment side of things is very different when you're sober. 'So that's been quite interesting too. 'I would never have had a date without having one drink. That's the lubricant. That's the social lubricant you just need to ease yourself into a date.' She continued 'not having a drink and going on a date, it's hard - it's really hard because people are not as attractive,' before adding about herself after drink 'you just become a little bit more available I guess - it is easier.' The blonde beauty said that after struggling on the first anniversary of her sobriety last month, she's now confident it will continue for good. She said: 'I really struggled around the anniversary of my sobriety, because everyone was like 'Well done'. This is like the rest of my life. 'I believe that I will never drink again.' Ulrika thinks she might possibly be able to have just one drink now and not return to her bad ways, but she does not intend taking the risk of that not being the case. She said: 'I do not want to take the risk. 'There's every chance that I could have a glass of wine today but then when the shit hits the fan again is that going to be my default setting that I go back to that. 'At the moment, the way I feel now just over a year on, is the very thought of drinking rum or something because something has gone bad makes me feel sick. I don't want to. 'But at the beginning when I'd go out for a Sunday lunch, a roast of whatever, and people are sitting there with their glasses of red, I'd be 'that would be so nice'. 'So my belief is that this is forever. 'I couldn't think like that at the beginning. 'At the beginning you're going 24 hours, 48 hours, I've done a week, I've done a month. 'That's why I think coming up to a year was a bit disappointing - because it was like 'this goes on and bloody on, this sobriety'.' And Ulrika says as well as not being drunk her whole opinion of herself and her life has now changed. She said: 'What a massive change it's made for me as a person, as a being. My mindset, my approach has completely changed. 'I thought I wasn't very good at life, I wasn't cut out for it, and I was just a pretty average to rubbish person. 'I'm tapping maybe into the person that was there, that I didn't think existed. 'I thought I was shit. My opinion of myself was never very high. More in a self-deprecating way. 'I always felt below, and I don't feel that any more. 'I didn't think I'd get to this age. My dad died very suddenly when he was 53. Pensions and all that I was 'don't worry about that, I'll be dead before then'. I always say that to the kids and they'd say 'Mum, stop saying that', 'I definitely won't be here'. 'And now suddenly finding a new desire to live and finding out new things about myself and what I'm capable of and my strengths. 'I still want to have a lot of sex, and I want to have a lot of fun. The kids can wipe their own arses now so I can be free to do my own thing. 'And now wanting to catch up on the years of negative thinking that I lost, of sort of having a negative view of myself. 'I was also really f***ing angry when I was drinking. I was angry about everything. I was angry about what was happening to me, what someone was trying to do in terms of my life, that I was trying to find a solution to 'You look at other people's lives and think 'f**k you with your perfect life', and 'f**k my life'. 'Now I start the morning with a gratitude list and it changes the whole face of everything. 'I actually send it to a person who I know. 'You always find something and having done that you're just like 'You know what...' - whereas before I might have started the day 'Oh my God, look at the bloody brush dropped on the floor'.' Ulrika, who said she has had therapy on and off for 30 years, said she might have been able to stop drinking temporarily in the past, but it would not have lasted - because she had to reach a stage first where she was also more content with herself and understood her behaviour. She said: 'I could definitely stop drinking, but would I be able to keep off that without learning about myself, like cleansing myself emotionally - learning about why I'm doing things When it comes to sex, Ulrika - who is single - said she wants a lot more, but she admitted she finds men less attractive when sober, and it's harder to end up in bed with someone 'I think that that, in tandem with giving up the drink, has been crucial for me. 'My behaviour has changed so much, but I've found this inner peace.' Ulrika said regularly meeting with others in her situation had helped her achieve that. She said: 'I rely on a support group and I probably do about three meetings a week. 'Sometimes I go to one and do a couple online. 'I've been quite religious about attending them. Christmas Day I attended a meeting, Easter Sunday, just to get away from people who were drunk.' The mum of four children, Cameron, 30, Bo 25, Martha, 20, and Malcolm, 17, added: 'For me now sobriety is my priority, even though I used to say 'Oh my children are my priority'. 'Without my sobriety I can't be there for my children, or something awful might happen, or whatever else.'
CBC
10-07-2025
- Health
- CBC
A volatile supply: how organizations are responding to constantly evolving street drugs
Social Sharing Danielle Lake has been sober for about six months. After spending five years addicted to opioids and a year on the streets, she made the decision to stop. "One day something clicked in my brain saying, like, I can't do this anymore," Lake told CBC News. "I wasn't doing it for the high, I was doing it so that I wasn't sick." Lake said she was lucky. She never overdosed. "I've seen a lot of people pass away from this stuff and it's like they say, a pandemic, and it's crazy how many people just are dying." In 2024 in Canada, 7146 people died from apparent opioid toxicity, and the unregulated drug supply is continually evolving. "Often these samples have multiple fentanyl analogs, multiple non-medical benzodiazepines and sometimes veterinary tranquilizers all mixed together," Richelle Booker, a forensic pharmacologist with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) said. "In the past we would see just a single analyte or a single substance in a drug sample. Now there can be up to 10 or 12 pharmacologically active substances in a sample." Booker is a recent addition to ALERT. Brought on in the spring of 2024 to help investigators looking at drug related offences, she also notifies groups involved with harm reduction of concerning discoveries. She says the mixtures make it very difficult for people using substances to know how to safely dose. It also makes it hard for people who are responding to overdoses to know how to respond because naloxone won't always work. And it complicates the treatment and recovery side if responders and health care teams don't know what people are taking. 'All over the map' In downtown Edmonton, the City Centre Medical Clinic treats people with addictions. Staff there have seen the unpredictability of the drugs that are on the streets right now. The most recent statistics released by the province of Alberta show 87 people died of opioid overdoses in Edmonton in March. That is the highest monthly number of deaths that the city has seen since the province began tracking the opioid crisis in 2016. Angie Adams works at the clinic as an outreach worker. "Unfortunately, the contents of the unregulated drug supply are all over the map," Adams told CBC News. She adds they have even been finding ketamine — a fast-acting anesthetic — in recent drug samples. "I've been hearing that even nasal naloxone, which is a lot stronger than just the injectable naloxone, that people are having to use multiple doses of that," said Adams. "And that's concerning in and of itself." Pharmacists Gaurav Sharma and Sidharth Arora run City Centre Medical Clinic. The facility has been helping people living with addictions and homelessness for about five years. They offer addiction treatment, mental health support and connect people to social workers to find stable housing and financial help. "The illicit drug on the street is becoming very volatile," said Sharma. "It's a little challenging these days." He adds that they are seeing many new analogs — which are drugs designed to be similar to prescription drugs, but differ chemically — in clients' toxicology tests. Analogs like xylazine can have similar side-effects to opioids, like respiratory depression, but don't respond to naloxone. "We have seen other molecules like norfentanyl or other benzodiazepines which [we] have never seen, which is not approved by Health Canada," Arora told CBC News. Then there is the mixing of uppers and downers, where the side-effects of one differ from the other. "There's two different holistic approaches for downers like fentanyl, opioid disorders," said Sharma. "We go with the OAT (Opioid agonist therapy) treatment, but for the uppers there's not an approved holistic approach yet." Pierre Chue works with the clinic and is a psychiatrist who has been treating patients in Edmonton for about 30 years. "I think that's also why it's so complex," said Chue. "What we're dealing with today is not what we saw two years ago or five years ago or 10 years ago. So I don't know whether we're always able to keep abreast of what's changing." For Angie Adams, her focus is keeping people alive. "Regardless of what's in the supply, they are unfortunately forced to continue using what's available on the street without the necessary knowledge of what they're putting in their bodies. And the best thing we can do at this point is just get that information out there to them to help keep them safer." Danielle Lake is now building a future. She's moved into an apartment and is planning to return to school to help others dealing with addictions. "I'm able to see my kids because of me being sober, and that's a blessing all in itself," said Lake. "I can't even imagine going back to that. It scares me actually."
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Tracey Emin shares powerful topless snap showing her stoma bag as she marks her 62nd birthday after extensive bladder cancer surgery
Tracey Emin shared a powerful topless snap showing her stoma bag as she marked her 62nd birthday over the weekend after extensive bladder cancer surgery. The artist marked the milestone by sharing the empowering picture as she cleaned a pool and said she wanted to celebrate 'being alive'. Tracey found she had a tumour in her bladder in June 2020 and was suffering with very aggressive squamous cell cancer, which surgeons feared would kill her in months if it spread to her lymph nodes. Tracey then announced in 2021 that she was cancer free. She penned alongside her birthday post: 'It's been five years since my life changing surgery to beat a very bad nasty uncontrollable cancer. 'Against all the odds, I beat it. I fought it with all my heart and soul because I wanted to live. I would have hated to die then. So much more I want and need to do.' Emin continued: 'My love for art and my home town of Margate has in the last few years had a chance to shine through. 'I love everything I'm doing here and how the town is such a brilliant, creative, pumping art house. I love that I've been sober for five years. I never want to be drunk again. 'I love being a Dame. I love my cats, Teacup and Pancake, and I love my friends. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by such good people. Really, I've never had it so good.' She concluded: 'Thank you everyone for all your love and support, especially over the last five years when I truly needed to feel loved and wanted.' She underwent a series of major operations in 2020 after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer during lockdown. Medics removed her bladder, urethra, lymph nodes and parts of her intestine and vagina to prevent the tumour from spreading. She was fitted with a stoma pouch, an opening on the abdomen, to allow urine to be diverted out of the body and disposed of via a urostomy bag. Tracey has been frank about adapting to life post-surgery and often shares candid updates about her health on social media. In an old Instagram post, she wrote: 'This is my stoma. Most people have never seen one. It's something I'm supposed to hide forever.' She added: 'It's part of my intestine attached to the outside of my body. Without it being there and functioning correctly, I will die.' '[It's] live flesh. Fragile and delicate. Surrounded by scar tissue and swollen puffy fatty flesh. 'I have almost total muscle wastage in my core abdomen, stomach. My body will never be the same. 'To be honest I find wearing the bag quite depressing. Nothing cool about carrying a bag of p*** around with you. 'But it's life.. my life now. Many disabilities can not be seen. But I thought I'd show you mine.'
BBC News
08-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Stoke-on-Trent woman sets up social group for sober people
A woman from Stoke-on-Trent who found life got more lonely after she gave up drinking alcohol has set up a social group for others who have chosen to go Mitchell from Trentham said giving up drinking was the "best decision" she ever made, but that sometimes people thought she might not want to be invited to social events where the would be group, Sober Stokies, launched in May and now has 150 members and is due to have its first curry night later this Mitchell said although it was not a support group it had helped offer a sense of camaraderie. She said she made the decision to quit drinking because she was struggling with her mental drank to cope, which made her mental health worse - causing panic attacks and making her afraid to go outside to socialise with her May 2024, she decided to cut out booze for 30 days to prove to herself that she could do then extended this for a further 30 days of sobriety, but she has now been sober for more than a year."I realised how good I felt, and I fell in love with that feeling of feeling good." She said some people trying to stay sober might shy away from environments where there was alcohol, but that she still wanted to maintain her social life."I've tried everything, and I didn't realise just what an impact alcohol was having on my mental, emotional and physical health," she said."We are surrounded everywhere by alcohol, so going alcohol-free you are the minority."People look at you and think there's something wrong because you're not drinking."Her group includes things like coffee mornings and walks, as well as the forthcoming curry said the restaurant would still serve alcohol to other tables, but their table would be an alcohol-free Mitchell added it did not matter why people were alcohol-free, anyone would be welcome in the group as long as an alcohol-free life was their goal. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Telegraph
07-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
‘I was sober but secretly scoffing slices of apple pie every night'
David Wilson, 60, is single and lives in Stamford. He's father to an adult son, George. Quitting booze six years ago was the making of me. I was 54 and it didn't just save my life, it got me a new job: helping other people make the break too. But while I was busy being a supposed role model to others, behind the scenes all was not as well. As is often the case with former addicts, I'd simply swapped one craving for another kind. Before January 2019, I was drinking a litre of vodka a night, my cholesterol levels were through the roof at over nine, and my blood pressure (184 over 126) was officially called a 'hypertensive crisis'. I'm lucky I didn't drop dead. (And yes, like everyone else, when the doctor asked 'how much are you drinking?' I'd shrug 'I like the odd drink.') Thankfully, after over 40 years of heavy drinking, I successfully gave booze the boot. But what no one really talks about is the fact that life doesn't miraculously become perfect when you're sober. The reason most of us end up abusing alcohol (or drugs) is to blot out some kind of pain. But even when you remove the toxin, its still there, lurking in the background. My career soared The freshly sober will evangelically promote the message 'life is rosy now'. They're not lying, because initially that is true. In sober circles they call it the 'pink cloud' – the high you feel when, post-withdrawal stage, life seems brilliant. A few weeks after being dry I was buzzing. Up at 6am, sweating it out on a turbo trainer in my mate's garage. I did the London to Brighton bike ride, then London to Paris. I lost over 3st (down from 21st) and I felt unstoppable. What's more, I'd relatively quickly gone from being 'Dave the Carpet' on a makeover TV show, to straight-talking 'Sober Dave' on Instagram. People related to the fact I wasn't some smug influencer running a daily 10k; I was just a big tattooed bloke telling it like it was. The year after I launched my podcast One For The Road, which also did surprisingly well, then came the book and it snowballed. I had a new purpose. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧 (@soberdave) Yet my personal life was in tatters But while all that was taking off, behind closed doors my personal life was slowly falling apart. Admittedly, there were already cracks in my six-year-old marriage when I was drinking. Midlife marriages can be complicated; I had four step-children and my ex-wife had undergone cancer – more than once. I can't have been easy to live with, and fundamentally we were cut from different cloth. Stopping drinking wasn't a miraculous cure-all. My issues (a complicated childhood, a turbulent relationship which led to me constantly getting absolutely plastered, sleeping rough for four nights on the beach and culminated in the pain of my mum's death in 2018) were all still there. Once sober I started seeing life in full 4K, realising what I did and didn't want. So by 2022 my marriage was over and we'd separated. I packed my bags and left our London house, we both knew it was for the best. But it was unsettling, especially without alcohol as my trusty crutch any more, and with all the financial stress divorce brings. After moving around in-between rentals and hotels for the next year or so, I eventually bought my own place in the East Midlands. But I didn't have many friends there, so apart from work (I now coach people online as well as give talks in schools, companies and for the Blue Light professions) life could sometimes feel fragile. I'd take Rosie, my dog, out for long, lonely walks thinking about life. But here's the truth – while I'd remained sober throughout an emotional roller-coaster, I'd secretly swapped the booze addiction for a sugar one. No one admits that swapping one addiction for another is incredibly common. Whether it's food (like me) or shopping, work, exercise, social media – we all reach for something, people I meet in recovery circles all say the same thing. We're all a bunch of hypocrites because we're all human! I swapped my beer gut for a food belly Portion control was a problem, I thought I was being healthy having a weighty bowl of granola and Greek yoghurt in the morning, but I'd ladle on so much honey that breakfast alone was probably 700 calories. The bowl would weigh a tonne. Or I'd eat cinnamon buns, or wholemeal toast but slathered with peanut butter. Lunch might be four chicken thighs with jacket potato and salad (and I'd polish my halo), then I'd tuck into a huge steak and chips for dinner – enough to feed an entire rugby team. I wasn't a bad cook, it wasn't like I'd left all that to my wife during marriage, but I was naive about portion sizes and nutrition. In the evenings, I'd come home from a long day talking to people about alcohol addiction and scoff a family-sized apple crumble with vast amounts of ice cream, nipping back for more until – ah, f--k it – I'd finish the lot. 'I'm allowed treats, I've stopped boozing,' I'd tell myself. But just like my drinking had stopped being something sociable by the end, so too had my eating. It was something I'd privately binge for a dopamine hit, along with a huge dollop of shame. I ballooned back up to 19st 8lb through comfort eating, yet all the while I was out there giving talks, helping people get sober. I felt like a greedy fraud. I didn't think it was very 'manly' to diet, as us men generally don't talk about it, but I tried that Zoe patch thing, tracking my blood sugar, logging everything in the app. After three months I got bored and thought 'sod it – I'll be a happy fat, sober influencer' and own it in my big elasticated trackie bottoms pulling them up to my man boobs! But I wasn't happy, I'd found my divorce quite traumatic, and even though I'd had a relationship after that, I hit a wall last spring, feeling a 59 year-old fat b-----d. Plus I was a mess physically, I was out of breath climbing the stairs and my gut was by then hanging over my trousers. Finding the right diet So I was properly fed up and looking for ways to lose weight when I came across a lovely lady on Instagram, who explained how when we quit drinking – and sugar cravings start to take over – it's very common for people like me to gain weight gain. And with that comes a higher risk of diabetes along with other health problems. Sugar, you see, isn't just 'empty calories' but in fact a substance that drives cravings, addiction and long-term health issues in itself. More than just the waistline, too much sugar destroys our liver, heart, brain, and pancreas, too. I started focusing on stabilising blood sugar and getting insulin under control – which I realised was exactly what I needed. Signing up to what's known as The Human Being diet was brutal at the start. I kicked off with two days only eating vegetables and drinking Epsom salts, so let's just say the floodgates opened – I felt like I'd shed 5st on the loo. No one talks about that part! The good thing about it is the rules are clear: three meals a day (always combining a protein with vegetables) and a five-hour fast between meals to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. This means more stable energy, diminished cravings and better moods (because we all know being hungry makes us grumpy). They seemed like the tiniest portions known to man. No oil, no sugar (including fake sugar and sweeteners) and no grains. You're not allowed alcohol either initially, but that wasn't a hardship for me. In fact, once you've gone through the extreme discipline of quitting booze, you've got the mental strength it takes for this kind of diet discipline. I followed the rules to the latter, with 'no negotiating, no excuses' the same mantra I'd had for quitting booze. And it was effective quickly, I dropped over a stone in 16 days. Within a few months, I'd lost more than 4st and was down to 14st 10lb. I could see my jawline again. I bought proper suits, stopped hiding behind baggy black jumpers. I started to feel proud when I walked into a room. By late autumn in 2024, I was at 14st 10lb, which for my 6ft height I'm happy with, even if I go up and down a pound or two. Looking ahead Now, I follow the plan but I'm not a robot. During the week I eat clean: salad and boiled eggs for breakfast, tuna and avocado on rye for lunch. No processed rubbish, no refined sugar. But I'm human. At the weekend I'll have a cinnamon bun. It's about balance. I'm not punishing myself, just not taking the mick either. Sobriety taught me this: I needed to stop running away. From booze, from food, from myself. Now, I do what people call 'sitting with my feelings'. I love my work coaching people through addiction and hosting a weekly sober group. I'm up at 5am, in bed by 10pm. As I'm single now I've no idea how it will be if I re-enter the dating scene. I'm certainly never drinking again but if I go out for dinner I can treat myself to some nice peppercorn sauce with my steak at least. Otherwise can you imagine me on a date? 'I'll have a lime soda and your finest salad please and absolutely no pudding' – that won't quite cut it. Right now I live a clean, quiet, grounded life. When people come and tell me they'd still be drinking if it wasn't for me it genuinely makes me so happy. I'm alive, I've got purpose and I'm trim. I love it. I turn 61 this month. Life is full of ups and downs, but I'm in the right place to manage them these days. As told to Susanna Galton Dave Wilson (aka Sober Dave) is a sobriety coach, author and host of the podcast One for the Road, a bestselling book of the same name. Follow him on Instagram @SoberDave What Dave ate before Breakfast: Huge portion of granola, with fruit, honey and yoghurt Lunch: Chicken thighs, jacket potato and salad (again enough for four people) Dinner: 8 sausages and mash with peas and gravy, followed by apple pie and ice cream Snacks: Toast slathered with peanut butter mid morning, the in the afternoon biscuits or cake Drinks: Coke, milky coffees and teas all day What Dave eats now Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs and salad Lunch: Tuna, red onion on rye bread Dinner: Small portion chicken breast and mixed veg, with no pudding apart from on my treat meal on a Saturday, which could be fruit and Greek yoghurt Snacks: None, just 3 meals a day Drinks: Black coffee with meals water in between How to quit a sugar addiction Blood sugar highs and lows disrupt brain function, which can make cravings, mood swings and fatigue feel unbearable, according to Petronella Ravenshear, creator of the Human Being Diet (HBD). 'Restoring healthy blood sugar balance is key to weight loss and to breaking sugar (and alcohol) addiction,' she says. Here's how to do it: Start the day with hydration Drink ½ a litre of water first thing on waking and another 1.5l before lunch, adding unsweetened and unflavoured electrolyte drops for energy if needed (e.g. Viridian Sports). This will help clear out toxins from the fat cells that have broken down overnight. Eat breakfast within an hour of waking up Waiting too long between meals can allow blood sugar to drop too low, making sugar cravings more likely. Stick to three meals a day In every meal, including breakfast, always combine one protein food, (e.g. fish, eggs, chicken or tofu) with a mixture of vegetables. Meals like eggs and salmon with avocado and tomato work well. No Snacking – try a pinch of salt instead Eating in between meals is not allowed, as there needs to be a five-hour fast, with water only, between meals. This helps maintain blood sugar levels which will diminish cravings and improve mood and energy levels. If you're feeling weak or light-headed during the fasting windows, put a pinch of sea salt on your tongue. Food to strictly avoid Grains, sugar, honey, sweeteners, alcohol and fruit juice, eliminate all fruit other than an apple, to be eaten with with one meal a day. The drinks allowed In between meals stick with only water, or black unsweetened coffee or tea with meals. When drinking with meals, adding apple cider vinegar helps with our blood sugar balance. Avoid intense exercise Don't attempt any cardio (for at least the first 16 days) to minimise cortisol (the stress hormone) which raises blood sugar Bathe in Epsom salts Before bed, add a pound of Epsom salts to a hot bath, then soak for at least 10 minutes, dry off and hop straight into bed. There's a theory these can draw out toxins – while that's unproven, they do aid falling asleep because of the magnesium. Prioritise sleep Get as much rest as you possibly can – it's when we're asleep that we're fat-burning and detoxing. And sleep deprivation makes us more like to crave sugar and carbs.
