Sign up for the Hot Topics newsletter for hot style and sex tips
We have more newsletters
Spider-Man actor Tom Holland is now six months sober after admitting that he had a problem with booze.
The Hollywood star, 27, says he is now the happiest he has ever felt since ditching alcohol.
Tom, who was born in London, realised he was “enslaved” to it when he started Dry January last year after a heavy Christmas.
READ MORE: Tom Holland shares his sweet move at Zendaya's house which sparked their romance
He told the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast: “I felt like I couldn’t be social. I felt like I couldn’t go to the pub and have a lime soda. I couldn’t go out for dinner. I was really, really struggling.
“I said to myself, ‘Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?’”
But the actor said the benefits of being sober, like better sleep and his ability to handle obstacles, have been life-changing.
He added: “Things that would go wrong on set, that would normally set me off, I could take in my stride. I had such better mental clarity. I felt healthier and I felt fitter.
“I’m happy to say it – I was definitely addicted to alcohol. I’m not shying away from that at all.”
With that in mind, we looked at other people who became hooked on booze from a young age before transforming their lives for the better.
Caroline Cruze
While Tom craved alcohol on a daily basis for much his 20s, Caroline Cruze started relying on it from the age of 13.
She drank herself into oblivion for the next five years as her face became swollen and puffy.
“Every time I drank it was a binge drink,” she told Daily Star.
"I drank to the blackout every time whether I wanted to or not, there was no limit. I would drink anything I could get my hands on.”
Caroline, who is from Northern Virginia, is now 21 and it was three years ago that a doctor warned that she was destined for liver failure.
She was treated for alcoholism months later after suffering hallucinations from alcohol withdrawals.
But mentally and physically she is now a different person and is hoping to graduate with an English degree in 2025.
“Like I feel so much better,” she said. "My hair was literally falling out. It was dry, it was brittle, no matter what hair mask shampoo, whatever I used – it didn't work, every time I brushed my hair I had to pull clumps out of the hairbrush.
"But as I got sober, my hair slowly slowly slowly got healthier.
"And that's the other thing, I feel physically so much better and motivated enough to get good grades in school."
Jenna de la Cruz
Similar to Caroline, Jenna de la Cruz was also given a grave warning by a doctor who said she could end up dead.
She had her first drink young at the age of 14 and she later could not fall asleep without it.
Jenna, from Salt Lake City, described herself as a “broken girl with yellow eyes” that changed colour because of acute liver failure.
The 32-year-old told us: “The doctors told me that if I didn’t stop drinking I would die and I became so weak in that period.”
But the mum is now unrecognisable sober after slimming down and repairing fractured relationships.
She said: “My life is 1000% better without it. I wake up every day before the sun and feel grateful that I woke up.
“For so long I could never have pictured myself without alcohol, let alone loving and living life to the fullest.
“I can’t go back and change my past but I can change my future. I am also very proud of being brave and vulnerable enough to share a part of me and my story.
“It is really painful but I know it has the potential to save someone else from going as far down that path as I did.”
Ashley Carter Cash
Another alcoholic who began consuming booze as a teenager was Ashley Carter Cash, who knew every drug on the market by the time she was 13.
Her mum and dad both had addiction struggles and she attended her first AA meeting as a nine-year-old girl.
Her own substance abuse crippled much of her life and even as a mum she used to hide in closets to neck spirits.
The New York based writer has relapsed many times but she believes things are finally under control.
And asked what sobriety looks like compared to her darker days, she told Daily Star: “The mornings, oh my gosh, the mornings have never felt better.
"The ability to make a conscious decision based on my inner values rather than based on a clouded mindset is genuinely priceless.
“Money can’t buy the element of knowing you are in control of your destiny and instead of relying on a substance to do it for you.”
Paul Holley
Paul Holley waited until he was 18 for his first beer but it soon turned him into an “agent of chaos”.
He was slapped with a driving under the influence charge five years later before his fourth charge came at 39.
This landed him in jail but when on the outside he felt like an “untouchable 6ft7 giant” after downing bottle after bottle of Miller Lite until he blacked out.
His parents eventually lost faith in him after he drunkenly broke a piano at his mum’s 50th.
Paul, who lives in Virginia and works in technology sales, also used to order two drinks at a time while at the bar to be more time efficient.
But he has not touched a drop in six years and his transformation has been remarkable.
Explaining it in his own words, he told us: “They talk about miracles happening. I never had kids because I was partying and I told myself I was never going to get married.
“I thought if I can make it to 30 then I have led a full life. But I ended up getting married to an amazing woman who has two kids and I consider them mine.
“You get all these things start to happen. Don’t get me wrong I still have problems like bills and stuff but life is unbelievably easier and better when you are not that agent of chaos just stirring up the hornet's nest every other time.
“If I had kept drinking I wouldn’t be talking to you and I would be in prison because the next phase of my court would have been five years or it would have been longer for killing a family.”
Justine Whitechurch
Justine Whitechurch used to slug three bottles of wine every day while also knocking back vodka shots.
The Aussie mum also used to hide her poison in shampoo bottles to get her fix in the shower.
But she is now nine years sober and it all started after a psychologist simply recommended that she start exercising.
The Gold Cost stunner is now a personal trainer and looks and feels better in her 40s than she did in her 20s.
Opening up about her sobriety, she told Daily Star: “We have this false sense of security that it’s alcohol that is keeping us afloat yet it is probably single-handedly the one thing dragging us under.
“When it comes to recovery, there is not one way to skin a cat. We didn’t all drink the same way so why should we expect to recover the same way?
“I got and kept sober through fitness, health and creating a strong network of people who were just as driven as me to manage their lives alcohol-free.
“But where there is life there is hope. You are never too old and it’s never too late to remove alcohol as an embedded part of your life.”
- Spider-Man
- Transformation
- Exclusives
Source: Read Full Article