Denise Welch is 14 years sober - here are her 4 tips for giving up alcohol for good

Actress and Loose Women star Denise Welch is celebrating 14 years since she last had an alcoholic drink, and says there's "nothing at all" she misses about her drinking days. The 67-year-old has seen her TV and stage career go from strength to strength in the last few years, and is happily married to artist husband Lincoln Townley.

The pair met in a nightclub when they were both struggling with alcoholism. Denise says they soon realised that their relationship would be doomed if they didn’t both give up drinking alcohol. Speaking to Lorraine Kelly in 2018, she explained that Lincoln was first to go sober, but she knew that she’d “lose him” if she didn’t follow.

“Nothing is worth it [coming off the wagon] because what we have is so incredible. My marriage is the bedrock of my life. If my marriage is good, everything else works for me. Giving up alcohol didn’t cure my depression, but it stopped compounding it," she said.

On The Wright Stuff, she said that "giving up alcohol has changed my life in so many ways. Not only for me, but the ripple effect for my family”, as she admitted that relying on using alcohol to manage her mental health issues meant family life was chaotic and stressful as her sons were growing up.

Being sober "is the best thing I ever did for me and the people who love me," she said.

In an Instagram post to mark the anniversary, Denise says: “We miss absolutely nothing about our old drinking days, but we are now at a place where we can reminisce and find humour in some of our stories rather than just shame. Believe me, guilt is something we all live with, shame is something else and takes a lot of work, family support and forgiveness to come to terms with.

“At nearly 68, I'm having somewhat of a renaissance and loving every minute. I have several acting projects coming out this year, which I'm very proud of.”

The Institute of Alcohol Studies states that around one in seven women in England drink more than the weekly recommended guideline of 14 units a week, and government data shows that it's women aged between 45 and 64 who are most likely to exceed the recommendation.

“As a nation, we are drinking too much,” she says. Speaking to Elizabeth Day on her How To Fail podcast, Denise gave a few tips for people looking to cut back on drinking or quit altogether.

Have an anchor

“What you need to maintain sobriety is an anchor,” says Denise. While AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) is very popular for many people, Denise says she and Lincoln chose each other to keep them on the road to recovery.

“We were lucky that we could be each other’s anchor and go on this difficult journey together,” she writes on Instagram.

If you have someone, or an organisation, to keep you accountable and to support you, you’re more likely to be able to keep going. In the UK, Drinkline is the national helpline (0300 123 1110 (weekdays 9 am to 8 pm, weekends 11 am to 4 pm)), and you can find further support on the NHS.

Speak to your GP to get advice on alcohol dependency, as giving up immediately can be dangerous for some people.

Remember negative drinking experiences

The star says that seeing photos of herself drunk on the front pages of newspapers was a real impetus to quit drinking. She wanted her children to live "free of the worry and embarrassment that our continued lifestyle would have brought".

Last year, celebrating 13 years, Denise shared the moment she realised she had to stop drinking. "I had woken up, as often happened, with no memory of the night before.
I was in the middle of a huge theatre tour and was faced with the thought of a long car journey to Richmond and 2 shows!! Then I looked around and realised that my husband, then boyfriend, was watching me and he threw a newspaper on the bed. It was me. Papped. Leaning over the bonnet of a car shouting at someone and pointing. No recollection. The bathroom door of his flat had been pulled off its hinges and a lamp lay on the floor."

From here, she says she knew she needed to make a change. “No higher power stopped me drinking, willpower stopped me drinking,” she says.

Get to the root cause of the problem

Denise first suffered from depression after the birth of her first son, Matthew, 35 years ago. Since then, she's been open about her ongoing mental health issues and has revealed that alcohol was an unhealthy coping mechanism for her.

"With alcohol and drug addiction comes a lot of shame, because, the person I am now, I cannot believe some of the things that I did and some of the decisions I made," Denise told the BBC.

"Or did I make those decisions, or were they just the result of what was happening to me at the time?

"But I've learned to forgive myself. I was medicating a terrible, terrible illness [depression], in a way, for a short-term solution, which unfortunately then got a hold of me."

Look at your social life

Denise used to love going to nightclubs, and Lincoln used to work in one, which is why their lives were so intertwined with alcohol. Now she says their social lives are completely different. “I used to have FOMO (fear of missing out),” she tells Lorraine, “and now Lincoln and I have JOMO, which is the joy of missing out. You don’t have to have a drink to have a good time.”

Equally, she says that when the two do go to events, they have a set time to leave - and that's when "someone's told you the same story 14 times".

She told The Guardian earlier this year: “I have no desire to join in at any event on the drinking front. We can’t be around drunk people because they are the most boring people in the entire universe, and I want to smash their faces in. And I was one of them. And when you become sober, you realise how little other people have to drink before that ‘I’m going to punch you’ phase starts. And these are people that you love.”