At one point, Michael started to microdose with magic mushrooms to fill some of what alcohol was doing for him. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. Still, the hangover was almost avoided, or at least tempered – until I passed my local pub on the way home and a saw friend of mine standing outside.

She went back to working in broadcasting, and presents her own show on BBC Radio Lancashire, as well as hosting a podcast, Over the Influence, about life alcohol-free. Hartley, now 49, had tried dry January, and sober October – the month-long campaigns that encourage people to cut out alcohol – but would be looking forward to the following month, when she could “drink my body weight in rosé”, she says. Read more about the condition Very Good: A book that has been read and does not look new, but is in excellent condition. After that, many people will have children and drink at home, where they will often drink more or more regularly, and perhaps start earlier in the day. We also know far more about the harm alcohol causes, he points out – younger people may recognise this, but so do increasing numbers of older people.Last summer, I went to a wedding and ended up drunkenly haranguing my best friend of 24 years, detailing every resentment I had with her and every way in which she had ever pissed me off. Over time, that did lessen because I realised how much I’d gained by not drinking, and the possibility that I would lose everything if I started again. Now that I am drinking occasionally, I don’t use it much – it is aimed at people who want to stop drinking entirely – although I peek at it sometimes to reassure myself that it is still there.

The main thing it’s made me realise is it’s so endemic in British culture – people drink all the time and you see, when you stop doing it, how ridiculous it is.I never thought a group of strangers on the internet could help me change bad habits built up over more than two decades, but they did. I felt so much more able to look after my family and run my business, and that helped drive me forward with not drinking.

There were several very bad things about it, from the roiling nausea that made getting out of bed or even drinking water impossible to my questionable decision to take my mind off it by watching the anxiety-inducing film Get Out (not a great choice if you are feeling anxious). Carr uses personal experiences and experience gleaned since the 1980s to bring readers methods of losing weight or stopping smoking.Now she can drive to the other side of the city, rather than having to plan how to get back after a drink or – more likely – just remaining near home. Counselling helped in terms of the issues that had led to the drinking and drug-taking; his wife was a big support, he got a dog, met new people.