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For recovering alcoholics, the festive season brings one temptation after another. But if there's one thing that helps to keep Tania Glyde on the wagon, it's remembering all the humiliating drink-fuelled excesses of years gone by...

Don't drink, be merry: Tania Glyde raises a non-alcoholic glass at The Torriano pub in Kentish Town, north London

For much of the population, Christmas has become a source of stress akin to the prospect of being taken to court, or undergoing major surgery. It looms like an awful, high-maintenance hydra, from which your only means of escape is booze.

But what if you're a recovering alcoholic?

When I was growing up, the only way to get through Christmas was to keep drinking slowly, throughout the day

I gave up drinking, after a huge crisis, in September 2002.

I was lucky that for me, after giving up drinking, there was no way but up. Many people relapse because their friends put pressure on them,

If you're serious about staying sober, you need to put yourself first

Cleaning Up, How I Gave Up Drinking And Lived' by Tania Glyde