Decades long drinking culture forced these Adelaide women to finally put their bottles down

Two SA women have set up an online space helping women overcome one of Australia’s most prevalent ‘toxic’ practices.

The Christmas season, laden with dinners and parties, was once a stressful period for Caroline Mosha, 45, and Alison M, 51.

Both have been sober for close to a decade and have since started their own online space for recovery, because these Adelaide women know only too well the pressures of social drinking.

Caroline began drinking as early as 15, describing it as a “crutch” she leaned on to manage her anxiety.

“I just felt overwhelmed, as most teenagers do with the world around me,” she said.

“As soon as I tasted alcohol, I was like, alcohol could temporarily quiet those feelings.”

Downing a wine bottle every night slowly became a routine she couldn’t quit.

Caroline permanently put the bottle down eight years ago when she started a family.

Caroline Mosha and Alison M, battled alcohol addiction from their early teens and after becoming sober, have set up their own online safe space for women suffering from alcoholism. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“Now being a mother of two beautiful girls, there’s just no way I could ever go back,” she said.

“I’m just so grateful that my children don’t know me to drink at all. It’s not a normal thing in their life.”

Alison's struggle fell along the same lines, having her first taste of alcohol at the age of 13.

“There’s a saying that most people go to the party to drink and I used to have to drink to get to the party.”

Her pick of the poison usually fell between bottles of wine and vodka, taking a toll on her mental health.

“I might have one drink, be completely sloppy and just not know I’m being a dribbling idiot. Or I could have the whole bottle of vodka, be totally fine and wonder when I would be drunk enough to be tired for bed.”

Much like Caroline, Alison staged her own intervention, after a hungover morning left her feeling dysfunctional.

“I sat in a cafe outside of my work staring at this green wall and it just came to me that nothing is ever getting better, so I needed to do something,” she said.

She approached her doctor that very afternoon who prescribed medication that led her down the path to sobriety.

“For some reason quitting drinking had not even occurred to me that day whereas it occurred to me every day for the previous 18 years,”

Caroline and Alison found solace in each other through the SHE RECOVERS Foundation, where they both received coaching qualifications while in recovery.

Together, they set up their own online space on Facebook called Sober Sanctuary to break the stigma around women in sobriety.

While alcohol-filled Christmas dinners may be tenuous for those in recovery, Alison said to bring your own drinks to not be “stuck between water or champagne options”.