Mostly sober wife says alcohol once strained her marriage to rarely drinking husband

Annabel Fenwick Elliott says her much lower-drinking husband, Julius, helped her recognise how heavily she had come to rely on alcohol to manage social anxiety. Their different habits sometimes caused friction, but she has been mostly sober since their first child was born and says they now argue less.

Elliott describes drinking up to a bottle of wine a night during the pandemic and hiding her dependence because she rarely appeared visibly drunk. After pregnancy temporarily stopped her drinking, her consumption rose again following her son’s birth; she later sought help through the Sinclair Method UK and was prescribed naltrexone. The article presents their experience as an example of a “drinking gap” relationship.