Sally Love has always enjoyed a drink – but, like many, it was during the Covid pandemic that her alcohol intake began to spiral.
At the beginning of 2020, the 45-year-old had just launched a business with her husband Richard: A mobile bar, housed in a vintage horse box, that catered to weddings.
But when lockdown hit, Sally found that, with little to fill the time, she was turning to booze.
‘Every day, whenever Boris Johnson would appear on the TV to give an update on the pandemic at those press conferences, I’d make a gin and tonic,’ says the mother-of-two, who also has two stepchildren.
‘Before, I would never have drunk at home during the day, but it didn’t seem to count during the pandemic.’
And when restrictions finally eased and Sally returned to work, her drinking didn’t stop – if anything, it worsened.
Surrounded by alcohol at the weddings where she worked, she would unwind by finishing off open bottles left behind at the bar.
She believes she was never addicted, but the volume she drank left her feeling physically unwell and emotionally low.
She also began to pile on the pounds. At one point, Sally, who is 5ft 6in, weighed nearly 15st (95kg), meaning she was, according to the NHS, obese.
‘I was in constant pain from a back injury I’d sustained a few years before, my mood was incredibly low, and I was overweight,’ says Sally.
‘The drinking just made all of this worse. In the day, I’d do my best to eat well, but the moment I had a glass of wine in the evening, I was instantly snacking on cheese, chocolate and crisps. And then the next day I’d feel terrible about myself.’
It was on a holiday in Majorca, Spain, last year, when Sally realised she needed to make a change.
‘I remember going to bed, having had a few drinks and big meal, and feeling absolutely dreadful about what I was doing to my body,’ she says.
‘I was scrolling through social media on my phone in bed when I came across a TikTok video about Mounjaro – I found an online pharmacy selling it, ordered it that night and began taking it the next week.’
Mounjaro, also called tirzepatide, is a revolutionary weekly weight-loss injection that can help obese patients lose as much as a fifth of their body weight.
The jab, which is known as a GLP-1 drug, works by tricking the body into thinking it is full. More than 1.5 million patients in the UK are now paying for private Mounjaro prescriptions, as well as a similar drug called Wegovy.
And, increasingly, many are experiencing a surprising effect of GLP-1 drugs: They no longer want to drink alcohol.
Sally says this is exactly what happened to her. Not only did the medicine slash the amount of food she ate, its effect on her drinking was immediate.
‘Within one week of beginning the drug, I realised I’d lost any desire to drink or snack,’ she says. ‘It was such a strange feeling, and it’s still quite hard to describe. But it’s as though that nagging voice in my head that was previously there telling me to have a glass of wine or gin just disappeared. It’s been ten months since I started Mounjaro, and I haven’t had a drop to drink. When I go out for dinner, all I’ll drink is water, coffee or lime and sodas. And I haven’t had any alcohol cravings at all.’
The drug has helped Sally slim down – she currently weighs a healthy ten stone. She works out in the gym three times a week, has created a TikTok account (@sally_iv_got_this) to document her progress, and says she has never been happier.
‘I feel like I’ve got my life back,’ she says. ‘My daughters have noticed how much more confident I am. My pain has even gone down massively. I had no idea that Mounjaro would have this effect on my drinking.’ At present, the NHS cannot prescribe GLP-1 drugs to treat addiction. Even when purchased privately, the jabs can only be given to those patients who are classed as severely overweight.
However, experts say that could soon change – with some now calling for GLP-1 drugs to be offered to slim patients struggling with alcohol addiction.
