Outwardly, she was a successful professional who celebrated job success with champagne. At home, Gunn-Helen Øye was an exhausted mother who secretly drank Martini from coffee cups. She went from managing work and toddlers with a glass of wine on Monday and two glasses of wine at a work party on Tuesday to losing control of her “cool lifestyle”. Everything started to revolve around the drinking. “Why didn't you tell me?” Øye asks now. “After all, you were the people closest to me; my partner, parents, siblings, friends and colleagues.”

Now, thirty years since Øye stopped drinking alcohol, she still celebrates her sobriety anniversary, the decisive moment when she checked into rehab. In this book, she shares her powerful story and, as a trend researcher, examines the role that alcohol plays in today’s social culture and the explosive power of unconscious habits.