Anna, 27, from London, started drinking in her late teens, and used to go on heavy drinking sessions with her friends. After an all-too regular pattern of near-misses and scrapes, and once the drinking became compulsive and secretive, she knew she had a problem – so she has cut back severely on her drinking.
"A typical example of a night out was once when I was in a pub with a group of friends, and I slipped out unnoticed – my mates found me unconscious later on, in a shop doorway covered in my own sick.
On other occasions, my drinking sessions made me really promiscuous, and I slept with a series of strangers on one-night stands, and then contracted a number of sexually-transmitted diseases. One particular occasion, I went to the pub I worked in on my own, and left 10 minutes later with a completely random bloke nobody knew. I took him home where we drank, did drugs and had sex. A couple of hours later I walked him back to the pub and said goodbye. I was so wrecked I can't remember if we used protection, so the obvious dangers I placed myself in by taking him home speak for themselves."
My mates found me unconscious, in a shop doorway covered in my own sick.