A young woman who became an alcoholic as a teenager has revealed how her secret drinking habit spiralled into a full-blown addiction – with a bottle of vodka a day leaving her close to death.
Lacey Davis, from Wolverhampton, says alcohol quickly became her way of coping with crippling social anxiety.
By her late teens, she was hiding bottles of gin in her handbag, drinking before job interviews, and even sipping spirits from water bottles while working.
The 22-year-old would start drinking at 7am and keep going while doing errands or going to the shops, telling herself it made her feel “normal”.
Her drinking soon spiralled out of control, with a 70cl bottle of vodka or gin becoming a daily routine.
By the time she was 20, almost her entire wage packet went on alcohol – with her spending up to £750 a month on booze.
“The first time I drank at 15, I fell in love with it – straight away it had a hold on me,” Lacey told Need To Know.
“I needed alcohol to feel normal, to be confident, to even talk to people.
“I never thought a few drinks as a teenager would lead to years of addiction.
“From the outside, people thought I was fine, but inside I was falling apart.
“What started as something fun with friends soon turned into something I couldn’t control.
“Looking back now, the signs were there from the very beginning.”
Lacey’s alcohol use significantly worsened when she took an admin job, where her social anxiety hit its peak.
She began drinking more to cope, and after quitting the role for a remote social media position, she threw herself into partying.
Her panic attacks grew so severe that she relied on alcohol just to give her the courage to go to the shops.
But things truly came to a head when she started working full-time once more in a job that triggered her anxiety all over again.
She said: “I remember going to that job interview, I had a bottle of wine beforehand.
“When I started that job, I didn’t want these people to not like me.
“For the first week, I would drink at work just to have the confidence to get to know everyone and feel comfortable.
“And it just absolutely spiralled.
“I then didn’t know how to be without it.”
No one realised Lacey was drinking while at work – even though she was sneaking vodka in her water bottle.
By then, she knew she had a problem.
Despite begging doctors for help since she was 18, she claims her concerns were brushed aside because of her age.
She said: “I was working and drinking a bottle of vodka, hiding it any way I could – water bottles were the main ones.
“Once I’d got to that point – a bottle a day – it just got worse and worse and worse.
“I’d accepted that I was going to die from alcoholism.
“I left that job after four months in the summer of 2023 and got a credit card and went completely crazy.
“I don’t remember a lot of it, to be honest.
“I didn’t feel like there was any solution.
“By then, I was drinking more than a bottle of vodka a day.
“I wasn’t eating, I was constantly being sick, and the only way I could keep it down was by chasing vodka with water.”
The peak of Lacey’s addiction saw her living out of hotels and vanishing for days at a time, and often being found passed out on park benches.
By late 2023, the daily drinking had pushed her body to breaking point.
Lacey’s liver began to fail, and she was rushed to the hospital just before Christmas with alcohol-induced psychosis.
She stopped cold turkey for a month but relapsed in May 2024, drinking even more heavily and suffering terrifying hallucinations.
At her lowest point, she was consuming a 70cl bottle and a half of vodka a day, hallucinating sparks of electricity coming from plug sockets and convinced people were trying to kill her.
She said: “I completely lost control – of myself and my drinking.
“I was in and out of the hospital, but all I wanted was to get home and drink again.
“I dropped to a size 4, drinking up to a bottle and a half of vodka a day. At first it was wine – one bottle, then two, then three – until even that wasn’t enough.
“I spent weeks locked inside, lying in bed all day, barely going out, just ordering alcohol to my door.”
Her mum eventually refused to speak to her unless she got sober – a decision that Lacey says finally forced her to turn her life around.
She said: “When my mum cut me off, it was for my own good.
“I was vile to her during that time.
“But I had no one left.
“She told me she wouldn’t speak to me unless I got sober.
“I was hiding bottles all over the house and sometimes couldn’t even remember where I’d put them.
“It brought me to my knees.
“I poured it away and went through the most awful withdrawals – sweating, shaking, unable to walk properly.
“The anxiety was unbearable, and I spent a week just stuck in bed.”
After more than a year and a half of daily drinking, Lacey has now been sober for just over a year.
She has rebuilt her life through faith and community – being baptised, working part-time at her church, volunteering with young people and training in beauty therapy.
She has also repaired her fractured relationship with her mum, and she finally has healthy friendships and trust back in her family.
Although she admits she is still scared to check the long-term damage to her liver, Lacey’s sobriety has given her everything she thought she had lost.
She now wants to help other young people battling hidden addictions – proving that alcoholism can happen to anyone, regardless of their age.
She added: “I used to isolate myself, like so many alcoholics do. But you can’t do it alone – you need support.
“I genuinely thought I was helpless and had accepted that alcohol would kill me.
“Now my life is completely different. Help is out there, so please seek it.”
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