Trick or treat: Is Halloween and the run-up to Christmas your sobriety nightmare?

Upper Bottom

When Ollie was drinking, "October 31 sounded the starting pistol to a one-person race for which there were no winners – apart from the venues where I would jollily buy outrageous Yuletide rounds," he writes in his latest Low No Drinker Magazine column.

"I can now detect, while scrolling back through my phone to revisit nightmares of past Hallowe’en parties, the grinning glee of the two months of booze-heavy chaos about to ensue," he continues. "In my head, it permitted me to go on the sesh three – or more – times a week until the end of the year."

Do you feel the same? If so, we have got you.

The so-called Golden Quarter can seem especially scary for newly sober people, but Cess and Ollie arm listeners with the tools necessary to battle and win this busy party season.

Just don't expect Cess to join you on your axe-throwing night out ...

Booze News items:

Financial Times: Competitive socialising pulls Britons from the pub (https://www.ft.com/content/d4bbda55-c203-44be-bc32-3b4c481b2eba)

ITV News: Grolsch drops alcohol content amid sales slump and tax rules on weaker brews (https://www.itv.com/news/2024-10-21/grolsch-drops-alcohol-content-amid-sales-slump-and-tax-rules-on-weaker-brews)

Evening Standard: What is drinkflation? (https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/what-is-drinkflation-b1189176.html)

Insider (via MSN): I went to my favorite Halloween theme park events sober. They were even scarier — and more fun. (https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/i-went-to-my-favorite-halloween-theme-park-events-sober-they-were-even-scarier-and-more-fun/ar-AA1sAePF)

Daily Mail: White Britons are dying faster than other ethnic groups because of their drinking and smoking habits, latest figures show (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13981531/White-Britons-dying-faster-ethnic-groups-drinking.html)