Woman who drank 12 whiskies a day for 25 years explains how she rewired her brain to stop drinking
A mum who spent a quarter of a century knocking back copious amounts of alcohol has revealed how she managed to turn her life around.
Melissa Bourke used to drink at least a dozen glasses of whisky every single day - but now sees the stuff as 'poison' and wants to encourage others to stop allowing it to dictate their lives.
The 44-year-old, from Melbourne, Australia, has now opened up about how she went from keeping a bottle of Jim Beam Bourbon in close proximity at all times to completely stopping drinking.
Melissa first began implementing alcohol into her daily routine when she was just 17-years-old, as she'd reward herself with up to six glasses of whisky after finishing her shifts at a hardware store.
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"I thought it was pretty normal, my dad drank every day, and all my friends would binge drink on weekends," she said.
She would knock a few back while relaxing at home with her parents, before she then branched out to boozing in bars and pubs when she eventually turned 18.
The following year, Melissa was prescribed medication to help her cope with anxiety and depression - and at the time, she was completely unaware that alcohol was actually the source of these problems.
So, she continued to use alcohol as a crutch, believing that it was helping rather than hindering her mental health.
At the age of 25, her anxiety reached new heights and she became plagued by panic attacks. Melissa began therapy, while continuing to consume 12 glasses of bourbon a day.
"I was stuck in a cycle, because drink was making me anxious, but then I had to drink to get rid of the anxiety," she continued.
The mum said she would get into a state where she was 'definitely tipsy' but still able to keep her composure - and this went on until she became pregnant with her first child.
Melissa said she found it 'easy' to give up alcohol when she was with child, as she was aware she had 'something more important than herself to look after'.
'I was never fully present'
But six weeks after welcoming her son into the world, she picked up a bottle of bourbon again, as her anxiety and depression crept back in.
Her reliance on alcohol then continued to grow after she suffered a miscarriage at the age of 28, but she got back on the wagon four years later when she was blessed with another little boy.
"I managed to give up drinking easily during both my pregnancies, so I didn’t think it was too much of an issue, as I’d never had physical withdrawals from it," Melissa said.
"I was always a good mum, and my kids always came first, but I don't remember most of my kid's childhood, because I was never fully present."
Melissa reintroduced her drinking routine when her second child was around four weeks old - and soon after, she split with her husband of 17 years and began sipping 15 glasses of whisky a day.
She finally realised the grip that booze had on her when she tried to take a break from drinking and found herself unable to get past the 48-hour mark.
The mum also began hanging around with 'heavy drinkers' - and subsequently met her second husband Daniel Bourke, 44, who managed to outdo her in the boozing department.
Out of concern for the slippery slope they were both heading down, she began looking into alcohol addiction and realised that drinking was actually the root of all her mental health problems.
After 25 years, Melissa decided enough was enough and she began implementing small changes to help her cope with her anxiety and 'rewire her brain' in 2020.
"I learned how to regulate my nervous system, started practicing gratefulness, and built up my self-confidence, then I was able to stop drinking," she explained.
"I put all my focus into learning and practicing nervous system regulation from meditation, mindfulness to hypnosis recordings, breath work, yoga, tapping, mental rehearsal and actually learning that I could change my thoughts.
"I dealt with the underlying issues, and I now see alcohol as poison. I have no interest in it whatsoever. My mission is to spread awareness about alcohol addiction and help as many people as I can."
Due to the success both her and her husband Daniel found while doing this, Melissa decided to launch her own online recovery programme, Rewired Recovery.
"It's based on subconscious reprogramming and rewiring the neural pathways, which is where the addiction lives," Melissa said.
So far, her tips and tricks have helped a whopping 300 people - and she couldn't be prouder of how far she has come.
The recovery coach cut alcohol out of her life completely in 2024 after previously allowing herself to drink on special occasions.
Sharing a message to those who might be in the same boat she was, Melissa added: "Stop trying to stop drinking, and get to the root of why you’re drinking and start to reprogramme your beliefs. Everyone drinks for a reason.
"I put it in the same category drugs and in fact it destroys more families and kills more people than all the other illegal and prescription drugs combined. No one talks about it. But I will."
Topics: Alcohol, Health, Lifestyle, Mental Health
Olivia Burke