Woman who has been sober for three years shares the most surprising benefit she didn't expect

Now over two weeks into the year, we’ve hit that mark when people’s resolutions start to flake away and they stray from the big changes they’d committed to on 1 January.

And so that means we’re at the point where it doesn’t take much for your mate to convince you to just ‘have one’ because you’ve made it so far into Dry January.

But for some, the benefits of ditching drink might be proving so worthy you’ve realised how much good it’s done you. Perhaps you’re even considering carrying on without alcohol for a longer period.

There really are so many benefits to sobriety, often individual to everyone, and one woman who has been sober for three years has shared the most surprising thing she experienced.

Lucy has been sober for three years (Instagram/@iamlucymoon)

Lucy Moon is a content creator who shared a Q&A video after hitting the three-year mark in November 2024.

Explaining she’d experienced ‘so many changes’ since ditching alcohol, a follower asked her: “What was the best thing you didn’t expect to come out of being sober?”

And for Moon, it was something less about herself, but more about her connection with others.

“I think being able to help people who are also trying to get sober,” she said. “I do some work with helping young people get sober in my personal life and that is really, really rewarding.”

As well as this surprising benefit in the joy she feels in helping others get sober, Moon explained that the changes to her ‘physical health and mental wellbeing’ since is ‘like night and day’.

She says she's experienced a long list of changes (Instagram/@iamlucymoon)

She explained that her lips stopped being as chapped, she lost weight, her skin got ‘so much clearer’, she has less inflammation, and her sleep is ‘much more regular’.

Moon said that going sober helped her to be able to eat gluten again which she found ‘mind-blowing’ because she was convinced that she was celiac.

However, she reckons she just ‘had loads and loads of inflammation’ that she was simply ‘fuelling’ with so much wine.

“My sleep is better quality which makes my whole life better quality,” she added.

Moon went on to say she is ‘much more stable’ mentally nowadays and cries ‘a lot less’.

“I’m much more self-aware and at the same time I’m much more forgiving,” she continued, “and able to manage the heightened self-awareness a little bit more.”

Dry January is a campaign developed by Alcohol Change UK, you can find support and resources for taking part here.

Please drink responsibly. If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support.